Midmarket Leading Shift In End-User Computing, New Report Reveals

The midmarket is seeking hybrid infrastructure, including virtualization, but there are some challenges.

End-user computing is undergoing a vast change that is being led by the midmarket business sector, according to a new report from virtualization company Parallels.

In its research report, “The State Of Cloud Computing In 2025 And Beyond,” Parallels surveyed more than 600 IT leaders in the fourth quarter of 2024 about their end-user computing and cloud strategies.

The survey revealed that 63 percent of midmarket company IT leaders surveyed had plans to seek new virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or Desktop as a Service (Daas).

VDI and DaaS can offset hardware costs and create a centralized way to manage end-user devices.

In addition, many organizations said they are “looking for ways to integrate both Software as a Service and hosted applications into a unified solution using VDI or DaaS,” according to the report.

“Midmarket companies are facing growing IT demands without enterprise-level budgets,” said Prashant Ketkar, chief technology and product officer at Parallels, in a news release. “They’re under pressure to streamline operations from application delivery and cloud management to VDI support—while also strengthening cybersecurity and enabling remote work. This is forcing organizations to re-evaluate their application delivery infrastructure strategies in favor of more cost-effective, secure and flexible solutions.”

VDI Challenges

Parallels asked midmarket leaders what their most pressing challenges were with their current VDI.

Respondents said that their biggest challenges were that the technology required too many IT resources and suffered from a lack of centralized control, expense and performance problems.

However, IT leaders said they had several reasons for shifting to a VDI and DaaS strategy: managing costs, alleviating concerns over future support, and addressing a lack of integration were among the reasons.

The report concluded that most midsize organizations are more likely to adopt a hybrid infrastructure strategy, involving cloud, virtualization and on-premises.

“Vendors push for organizations to embrace 100 percent cloud deployment, but most MSEs [midsize enterprises] continue to find benefits in a hybrid approach that balances both on-premises and cloud advantages. MSE CIOs or the most senior IT leaders report that, on average, 40 percent of their applications and infrastructure remain on-premises,” according to research firm Gartner.