In 2008, we saw endpoint virtualization come into its own, with an economic need to drive adoption due to the technology's ability to help organizations save real dollars. We witnessed supporting technologies, such as network reliability and bandwidth, reach the levels necessary to enable efficient application and OS streaming. We also saw IT recognize the ability of application virtualization to create more 'secureable' data.

All of this has pushed 'endpoint virtualization' to the inevitable outcome all successful technologies reach -- the mainstream. The year 2008 also brought with it a flurry of new companies dipping their toes into the endpoint virtualization pool. As a result, the cost of technology has reduced, and as the cost continues to decrease, the door to even greater advancements this year, is opening.

A standards-based approach
The first major innovation to endpoint virtualization we will see in 2009 is the establishment of a standards-based approach. When a new technology is developed, such as endpoint virtualization, it typically falls outside the arena of established standards -- that is, after all, part of what makes it new. However, as the technology becomes more mainstream it also becomes a major complexity issue. Often, vendors pit their own standards against those of other vendors, leaving IT administrators to sort out a confusing incongruous mess of technologies.

However, the major endpoint virtualization vendors are beginning to realize the need for a standards-based approach to accomplish the tasks such as the formatting for application packaging and deployment. It is important that as the industry moves toward a standardized approach -- where everything possible is done to comply with existing standards, as opposed to creating new ones. This may mean the road to standardization will be a bit more arduous, but in the end it will prevent more complexity. A real movement toward standardization is also what will drive convergence in local computing and cloud-based services, allowing IT and end users to gain from a best-of-both-worlds model, instead of being forced down one approach by a single vendor technology silo.

A unified set of management tools
The second major advance we will see in 2009 is the development of a common set of management tools. One of the overall goals of endpoint virtualization is to simplify IT management. The problem is that most management solutions that came to market before and during 2008 are only capable of managing traditional or virtual environments, but not both. In order to effectively manage infrastructures, IT administrators who have implemented endpoint virtualization have to use an assortment of tools to keep all the environments -- infrastructure, traditional, virtual, and hybrid -- in check.  
A good solution to this issue would be to have multiple tools using multiple methods to manage all possible environments, but all from the same vendor. A better solution, however, would be one tool that uses multiple management methods all from one vendor; and the ideal solution would be one solution from one vendor that uses one method to manage all environments.

At this point, the industry cannot even claim to provide a good solution, let alone the best. However, in 2009 we will see great advancements in this area. Already, many companies are signing on to support non-traditional approaches from vendors, such as packaging solutions that create virtualized applications. Many vendors are including application virtualization, streaming, and light weight local virtual machine support into their larger management frameworks -- mostly by way of OEM agreements -- while they determine their own long term strategies.

Perhaps, above all else, this year will see endpoint virtualization continue to deliver on its promise -- to enable greater protection of information resources that businesses depend on so much, to be easier to manage and controlled automatically, provide greater visibility, increase cost savings and instil more confidence.