<p>Desktop virtualization(sometimes called client virtualization), as a concept, separates a personal computer desktop environment from a physical machine using the client–server model of computing.
Virtual desktop infrastructure, sometimes referred to as virtual desktop interface (VDI) is the server computing model enabling desktop virtualization, encompassing the hardware and software systems required to support the virtualized environment.
Many enterprise-level implementations of this technology store the resulting "virtualized" desktop on a remote central server, instead of on the local storage of a remote client; thus, when users work from their local machine, all of the programs, applications, processes, and data used are kept on the server and run centrally. This allows users to run an operating system and execute applications from a smartphone or thin client which exceed the user hardware's ability to run.
Some virtualization platforms allow the user to simultaneously run multiple virtual machines on local hardware, such as a laptop, using hypervisor technology. Virtual machine images are created and maintained on a central server, and changes to the desktop VMs are propagated</p>