When most companies begin the process of considering an implementation of a virtual desktop infrastructure, they automatically come in with expectations of a pooled VDI scenario.  They desire the benefits of VDI which include centralized management, improved security, and greater total cost savings over a traditional desktop deployment.  What surprises many businesses is that these benefits could be met, and normally exceeded by a Citrix Hosted Shared Desktop deployment.  There are many reasons for this, but I will touch on a few important ones here.

Citrix Hosted Shared Desktops, once known in the Microsoft community as Terminal Services, offer greater density than a traditional Hosted VDI.  In fact, Citrix Hosted Shared Desktops can support of to 500 users per server.  A traditional Hosted VDI solution can typically only support around 150 users per server.  Obviously, this leads to a much higher return on investment, and lower total cost of ownership.

Another important reason to consider Hosted Shared Desktops is the ease of which the desktops can be managed.  The server on which the desktops run can be patched and maintained along with every other server in the data center.  The more desktops deployed in an implementation, the more important this point becomes.  Even a pooled VDI deployment has desktop images or variations that have to be updated on a regular basis.

There are many other reasons why Citrix Hosted Shared Desktops may be more advantageous than a traditional VDI deployment, but these two are top of the list.  That's not to say that traditional VDI does not have its place in the virtual desktop realm of solutions, but for many companies who are looking to take advantage of all the benefits that a virtual desktop deployment has to offer, Citrix Hosted Shared Desktops will meet or exceed expectations.