Server virtualization has been a cash cow for OEMs, VM vendors, ISVs, and partners. Until now, the desktop virtualization market has been far less competitive. VMware sees an immense, almost untapped, and very profitable open ground, and they’re driving in their stake in a big way. From the beginning of the first keynote address to the analyst/ press briefings to the workshops, client products are a huge buzz in Las Vegas this week.

CEO Paul Maritz reminded attendees that focusing on client virtualization is a return to VMware’s roots; their first product was Workstation.  While VMware never stopped investing in that area, we will now see a strong re-focusing of energy in that space. Through its vClient Initiative, VMware aims to address what Maritz called the “Desktop Dilemma” that customers face: Thick or thin client? Mobile appliances or not? Windows or Mac?

VMware’s response to this dilemma is to put its desktop products (VDI, ThinApp, ACE 2, Workstation, Fusion) under one big umbrella called “VMware View”. View is a new branding for this whole array of products, with which VMware aims to create seamless coverage of every desktop need. And whatever your need is, the company is betting that you need it on the go: mobile client capability is part of pretty much every desktop conversation here. In fact, ACE 2 will no longer be a separate product line within the “View” array; ultimately, every virtual model will have a mobile application. Your desktop will follow you when you “check out” a VM instance to your laptop, your PDA – whatever suits you – and store your work in the cloud. That’s the resounding theme: people working where they want to, how they want to, with total data security. All we can add to that is – giddyup.