Nemertes Impact Analysis:

Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) is rolling out a healthcare IT solution that uses desktop virtualization to deliver medical content to a range of devices (desktops, laptops, handheld devices and thin clients) without releasing protected health information (PHI) from the data center. Fifty percent of enterprises expect to have some virtual desktops in production by the end of 2010 with improving security a principal driver.

To illustrate the risk of not centralizing PHI, privately held Cloud Engines is releasing an update to its PogoPlug appliance to connect external hard drives to the Internet for access, sharing and streaming of multi-media content. A user saving digital X-rays to local external drives could inadvertently lead to a PHI breach.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Desktop virtualization isolates sensitive data to the data center. Beware of users streaming media directly from hard drives.
Vendors: Desktop virtualization vendors should focus on solutions that keep PHI in the data center.

Investors: Thin clients from HP (NYSE:HPQ), Sun (NASDAQ:ORCL) and privately held 10ZiG, Panologic and Wyse Technology stand to gain.

Ted Ritter, Senior Research Analyst

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