When we talk about VDI, we are typically describing a solution whereby a desktop PC's operating system is hosted as a virtual machine that is running on a hypervisor, with the hypervisor hosted on a server that is part of the data center infrastructure, either on-premises or cloud-based.
This VDI model is also sometimes referred to as a hosted virtual desktop (HVD), given that the virtual desktop is hosted as a virtual machine, with an end user that has access to their own instance of a full desktop. This is not to be confused with server-based computing, which only delivers a desktop session to the end user. We will discuss this in the VDI versus server-based computing (SBC) – what are the differences? section later in this chapter.
