Deploying desktops on virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server provides all the storage efficiencies that were previously available only for virtualized servers. Using instant clones or Composer linked clones as desktop machines increases the storage savings because all virtual machines in a pool share a virtual disk with a base image.
Managing Storage with vSphere vSphere lets you virtualize disk volumes and file systems so that you can manage and configure storage without having to consider where the data is physically stored. Using VMware vSAN for High-Performance Storage and Policy-Based Management VMware vSAN is a software-defined storage tier, available with vSphere 5.5 Update 2 or a later release, that virtualizes the local physical storage disks available on a cluster of vSphere hosts. You specify only one datastore when creating an automated desktop pool or an automated farm, and the various components, such as virtual machine files, replicas, user data, and operating system files, are placed on the appropriate solid-state drive (SSD) disks or direct-attached hard disks (HDDs). Using Virtual Volumes for Virtual-Machine-Centric Storage and Policy-Based Management vSphere 6.0 or a later release, an individual virtual machine, not the datastore, becomes a unit of storage management. The storage hardware gains control over virtual disk content, layout, and management. Reducing Storage Requirements with Composer Reducing Storage Requirements with Instant Clones
