Desktone announced that the Desktone Virtual-D Platform will support System Center, including System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (SCVMM), and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. The company also announced that it has joined the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program, an invitation-only initiative.

The Virtual-D Platform enables service providers to offer hosted, subscription-based virtual desktops. A solution that integrates all desktop virtualization layers through a single, automated self-service platform, it helps enterprises realize the full benefits of centralized virtual desktops without having to build and deploy the infrastructure internally. It reduces desktop TCO, transforming computing costs from fixed CAPEX to variable OPEX. And because the Virtual-D Platform is designed along two tiers (enterprise and service provider), it lets enterprises maintain ownership and control over their Windows OS images, applications and all relating licensing while outsourcing just the physical data center infrastructure powering their virtual desktops.

Virtualization Meets DaaS - Desktop-as-a-Service
Harry Ruda, the guy who sold Softricity, the application virtualization start-up, to Microsoft two years ago, is now flogging the virtualized desktop-as-a-service, DaaS so-called, a logical extension to Softricity when you stop and think about it.

His new venture, Desktone, is ambitious. It means to have carriers like Verizon, whose traditional communications services are increasingly in jeopardy, and tier one computer companies like IBM use their infrastructure to deliver the outsourced service as service providers to large desktop populations.

Desktone will have a revenue-sharing arrangement with the service providers.

Naturally it’s supposed to eliminate the complexity of VDI and eradicate the barriers to adoption. The enterprise doesn’t have to build or deploy anything; it just has to sign up. And the service provider gets to turn a profit on its data center.

When exactly any of this will go live depends on ironing out some existing bugs. Maybe by the end of the year. And we’ll have to see what the latency is like.

Desktone calls its scalable hosted subscription-based platform Virtual-D and expects the service to run $60-$80 a month per desktop, a savings of anywhere from $300-$800 a year, Ruda calculates, depending on a company’s TCO, and cheaper than if you did it yourself.

It’s got Merrill Lynch using it sans service provider and Merrill says Desktone’s open architecture will let it swap the best-in-class virtualization technologies as they become available.

It could be Xen, XenSource, VMware ESX or Microsoft’s Hyper-V.