* Benchmarking Applications: There are no industry standard benchmarks for alternative compute models.  Under the current state of the art it is not meaningful to carry out performance comparisons across computation models. IT managers should evaluate performance claims carefully to understand applicability to their situations.

* Streaming and Application Virtualization: Streaming and application virtualization are not synonyms, even though they are often used interchangeably.  Streaming refers to the delivery method of sending the software over the network for execution on the client.  Streamed software can be installed in the client operating system locally, or in most cases, it can be virtualized.  With application virtualization, streamed software runs on an abstraction layer and does not install in the operating system registry or system files.  An advantage of application virtualization is that it can limit the continuous accumulation of randomness in the operating system registry and system folders (affectionately known as “bit rot”) that lead to system instability over time.

* Application versus Image Delivery: A helpful way to think of the models and how they fit with customer requirements is whether the problem needs to be solved at the application level or image level.  In this case, an image is the complete package of the operating system and required applications.  Some computation models solve application problems, some solve image problems.  It is important to understand the customer’s need in this area.  

* Public versus Private Images: When centrally distributing a complete desktop image with either virtual hosted desktop or operating system streaming, it is important to comprehend the difference between a common public image and a customized private image.  

Public images are standardized operating system and application stacks managed, patched and updated from a single location and distributed to all authorized users.  Files and data created by the applications are stored separately. Customization of the image is minimal, but since all users access a single copy of the OS and application, storage requirements are relatively small.