The idea that you can run a bunch of user desktop sessions on servers isn’t new. The benefits promised by desktop virtualization are pretty profound, including large reductions in enterprise tech costs, better support for users, improved security, and even increased user happiness.

That last promise, the increased user happiness, has been difficult to keep – particularly when you’re dealing with “power users” who use a wide range of demanding applications. Data centers also run into trouble when trying to scale virtual desktop infrastructure efficiently and economically.

However, times change, and new technology has come along to make it possible, and much easier, to deliver solid quality desktop service to any users – regardless of their demands.

At the GPU Technology Conference last spring in San Jose, I spent some time on the show floor with Geoff Murase (VMware group product manager) talking about how VMware approaches VDI.

In the video, we talk about its new “desktop in a cloud” DaaS service and how VMware’s rolling it out to public clouds. It now has a new mechanism that supports NVIDIA GPUs to provide full 3D graphics to users, whether they’re in public or private cloud environments.

It’s only a quick video chat, but if you want to dive into the guts of VMware’s VDI solutions, – or other VDI-oriented content from GTC14 – you can check out the GTC’14 sessions.