On the other hand, many anecdotes about client virtualization paint a very positive picture about the benefits of the technology—certainly well beyond $159 per machine per year. So how to explain this inconsistent assessment?

Intrigued, I decided to track this down. The whitepaper referenced a company called Datamonitor. Its webpage cited a study by a research firm called Butler Group that was described as stating the findings about client virtualization. So, even further research was called for. I went to the Butler Group's website (btw, Datamonitor is a information company and is the parent company of Butler Group). I poked around its website and found a summary of its study. While I was unfamiliar with the Butler Group, I believed it to be similar to Gartner or Forrester, an analyst firm that tracks trends, does studies, etc. Therefore, I wasn't surprised that the entire study wasn't available on its website.

However, I did find enough information to see that the Butler Group's study did not conclude that the total payoff for virtualizing 1,000 client machines is $159,000. Its study indicated that power savings alone from virtualizing 1,000 client machines would total $159,000. That's a completely different kettle of fish, as the saying goes. Given that power savings is only one component of client virtualization (indeed, it's seldom cited as a client virtualization benefit, so would typically not even be addressed in the anecdotes I mentioned earlier), the financial benefits of client virtualization would undoubtedly be significantly higher. Probably high enough to make examining the option worthwhile.

The point of this post is not to criticize the Butler Group or Datamonitor or the whitepaper writer. A mistake crept in somewhere along the line—but that kind of thing happens. The point is, when making virtualization decisions, it's critical to really examine one's assumptions and the information used to make decisions. Accepting information from trusted sources without understanding its accuracy can skew a decision in the wrong direction—to your misfortune. Rather than blindly swallowing assertions made by an analyst firm—or anyone else, for that matter—you should evaluate the potential payback for client virtualization in your own environment.

In my book, Virtualization for Dummies, I strongly recommend performing a pilot assessment as a mechanism for exercising a potential virtualization solution. One of the aspects of a pilot program is to evaluate the operational characteristics of the solution, assessing the labor required to manage the solution, the ease of migrating existing systems, and so on. That information can be used to perform a financial assessment of the potential payoff of a virtualization solution (I also include spreadsheet templates in the book to ease the evaluation). From that assessment, you can draw a picture of the potential financial benefits of virtualization in your environment, which is surely the only important one, no?