Virtual desktops will help EMC sell more storage hardware

A recent article from the WSJ talked about how businesses, in a bid to squeeze out cost from their technology budgets, are increasingly choosing to purchase virtual desktops in place of buying desktop PCs.  We expect that a shift towards virtual desktops will help data storage providers like EMC sell more storage hardware which will be used to centralize the data delivered to virtual desktops.

As described in the article, a virtual desktop is “essentially a set-up consisting of a screen, keyboard and small connector box that ties into a powerful server in the computer room that has all the software, storage and processing capabilities that each desktop user needs.”

The cost to businesses of purchasing virtual desktops, including supporting software and additional remote server and storage hardware, is comparable to the cost of purchasing desktop PCs.  Despite comparable up front costs, companies are expecting to realize savings using virtual desktops through reduced IT maintenance costs.  By eliminating the need for on-site software installations and by preventing users from installing unapproved software programs, businesses can reduce IT expenses while enhancing network security.

We estimate that Storage Market (in Gigabytes) has gone from 2 billion GB in 2005 to about 11 billion GB today and this will increase to over 80 billion GB by the end of the Trefis forecast period.  Within EMC’s content on our platform, you can see how the company’s stock would be impacted if the Storage Market were to grow faster than expected due to the shift to virtual desktops.