Virtual Workstations change this by combining the cost of the many individual systems into a more powerful server which is partitioned into as many identical virtual computers as you need. Load balancing in the server makes sure that system which are used less are not wasting resources by reallocating them to busy systems. Insuring the physical hardware you purchased is always being used to the fullest.

Each client requires nothing more than the most basic system with a keyboard, mouse and screen. Since the actual work is being done on the server these basic systems do not need to be replaced unless they physically fail adding many years to the life of your hardware.

As most servers are designed to be upgraded during the course of their lives speeding up everyone’s systems can be as easy as adding memory, hard drive space or another CPU to the server. This new hardware would be allocated to the existing virtual workstations seamlessly without needing to interfere with each user.

Virtual Workstations also reduce the cost of computer maintenance. As each Workstation image is identical, a software package which needs to be deployed to everyone requires only the master image to be updated. The same goes for recovery from a virus. It is no longer required to remove the virus from the workstation. Simply shut it down and reload the workstation from the master image. This takes as little as 5 minutes to complete.

Yet unlike systems like Terminal Services, each workstation is partitioned off from both the server and other workstations, so a problem impacting on user can not impact others.