While virtual desktop infrastructure offers a lot of potential in terms of lowering IT costs, one of the more troubling aspects about it is the simple fact that it introduces more fragmentation on the desktop.

Instead of having a corporate desktop environment dominated for better or worse by one vendor, we're on a path where any number of vendors, including VMware, Citrix and Microsoft, has the potential to own the corporate desktop.

That scenario raises the prospect of interoperability issues because each of these vendors is creating on some level proprietary technology within their virtual desktop infrastructure environment. And in so doing, they threaten to undo the benefits of having a de facto set of standards on the desktop.

Whether you think Microsoft is a force for good or evil, the fact that fragmentation of the desktop seems inevitable creates a potential for some real integration headaches. One company that is stepping into the middle of this developing fracas is called Neocleus.

Neocleus has desktop virtualization technology that can be slipstreamed on to existing systems. It runs at the hardware level, known as Type 1 virtualization, rather than being dependent on the reliability of the operating system, which is something that Type 2 virtualization offerings are dependent on.

Why that is significant is that Neocleus supports a distributed client framework that can be leveraged to create some level of interoperability between operating system running on top of its virtual client. That means that a client operating system residing on top of Neocleus could exchange information with another operating system environment. More importantly, IT managers could then use the systems management tools they are familiar with to manage any operating system environment running on top of the Neocleus virtual client.

It's way too early to say who will win the virtual desktop infrastructure wars. But IT manager should be watching developments in this space carefully. Without some general movement towards interoperability standards, all the potential savings of a virtual desktop infrastructure could easily be outweighed by higher systems management costs.

This may mean that the best thing an IT organization can do today is take a step back to assess how they how going to survive and thrive in a new world of virtual desktops where operating systems are disposable and the standards are less than stable.