If you’re an IT executive in a mid-sized business, planning your 2026-2027 budget, you’re seeing continued pressure to dedicate more budget to AI related investments. Businesses now must add AI spending to weighing the ROI against budget allocations for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), digital transformation, and SaaS applications.

With more limited budgets, mid-sized businesses are in constant struggle to correctly prioritize spending. In the case of VDI, budgeting has gotten more interesting as the market has undergone a major upheaval with new brands, acquisitions and some vendors trying to hold on to market share they gained pre-upheaval. As a result, mid-market businesses, somewhat unwillingly, have had to reassess their VDI related investments and relationships, including their investment in the hardware and software needed to support their hybrid workforce.

VDI market changes have prompted mid-sized businesses to explore new options for their endpoint VDI deployments. They’re looking for improved economies, more ability to customize and to avoid legacy-style locked-in agreements.

Moving Past the Chaos

VDI remains a dominant force in enabling digital transformation and hybrid workforce productivity. The global VDI market is estimated to reach $78 billion by 2032, a CAGR growth rate of 22.1% from 2024. While vendors and providers serving the VDI market may change, the reality is, the need to deploy VDI will only increase as security concerns, remote work and cloud computing continue to make virtual desktops a desired choice.

The VDI industry can look a bit chaotic, but course correction was inevitable as long-term players face a different market in which businesses are looking for more flexibility and the ability to change relationships as their business and operational strategy evolves. It has opened the door to entities like Omnissa which offers a menu of subscription term lengths starting at one year. The legacy, multi-year agreements are giving way to these more flexible options.

To move past VDI market changes, it’s best to focus first on what a business needs in endpoint investments over the next several years. Key considerations include:

  • New technology investments to improve workspace productivity and employee engagement.
  • Clarifying AI business strategy to determine what is needed in endpoint device support.
  • Updating anticipated hybrid workforce headcount to avoid purchasing shortfalls.
  • Evaluating needed endpoint security and compliance improvements.

Once this evaluation is done a business can look at the landscape of VDI choices and fine tune purchasing.

Where Endpoint Hardware Fits

Businesses’ changing approach to VDI and endpoint investment has spurred new interest in evaluating hardware options, notably thin clients and zero clients. Thin clients, in one form or another, have been in use for decades. However, the adoption of VDI and acceleration of remote work has made modern thin clients an essential element in endpoint computing. They offer time and money savings compared to legacy ‘fat’ PCs, with a smaller form factor. Thin clients display remote desktop sessions, while virtual machines (VMs) host the centralized compute operations. Since data is not stored locally, thin clients offer improved security when a hybrid workforce is accessing files and applications at different locations around the globe.

For mid-sized businesses, with few IT professionals already managing many tasks, a modern thin client offers centralized management of on-premises and off-premises endpoints, saving IT considerable time.

Zero clients connect solely and instantly to a remote desktop and reduce cyber threats even further, since they are a leaned down version of a thin client, often connecting to a singular platform only. They are based around zero trust principles and restrict users from saving data locally. When evaluating thin client and zero client choices, some key questions to ask are:

  • Are you supplying thin clients for primarily task workers, power users, or a combination of both? A task worker may only need an Intel Atom x5-E8000 Quad Core Processor, two display ports and four USB ports with an RJ45 connector. A knowledge worker or power user will likely need an Intel N100 Quad Core Processor, two HDMI connectors, 60Hz screen support, six USB ports and an RJ45 connector.
  • Will a thin client need to integrate with a number of VDI and application providers? A flexible thin client will be able to connect to (AVD) Azure Virtual Desktop, Citrix, Omnissa and Windows 365 Cloud PC, among others, to satisfy the needs of different workers and use cases.
  • Does your business involve protecting highly sensitive data subject to stringent compliance regulations? Thin and zero clients that are feature-rich to comply with strict data protection protocols will be a necessary requirement.
  • Do you have separate licensing agreements for endpoint management software and hardware? In many cases integration of licensing agreements can help save budgets and streamline management.
  • Are you looking to move to different subscription and payment models? Mid-sized businesses will find more competitive options in the market that offer flexible term agreements. Businesses also want to avoid being locked into pricier agreements due to vendor mergers, and to avoid ‘tag-on’ fees that can multiply when a vendor adds technology features. They will be critically evaluating options to avoid any unnecessary budget increases.
  • What level of technical support will your IT staff require, from initial installations to firmware updates? Providers vary in pricing for ongoing tech support and what’s covered in the purchasing agreement.

Creating the 2026 Strategy

Going into 2026, it is more of a buyer’s market as companies want to customize their VDI and related investments to better support overall business and endpoint computing goals. Flexible, finely curated agreements will win in the marketplace. To be the most effective, a business will benefit from first examining 2026’s larger goals in workspace improvements, security and compliance and technology investments. This analysis will help more precisely evaluate thin clients and zero purchasing. The VDI market is still recovering from its chaotic period, but mid-sized businesses can avoid the chaos with well thought-out strategies and informed decision making.

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About the Author

Kevin Greenway joined 10ZiG in 2012 and became CTO in 2015. He leads the company’s overall technology and product strategy, collaborating with global teams to ensure continuous innovation in a fast-paced, disruptive market. Under his leadership, 10ZiG delivers modern, managed, and secure endpoints through a unified hardware and software approach.

A computer science graduate with numerous IT certifications, Kevin has more than 25 years of experience in the IT sector, including remote connectivity, terminal emulation, VoIP, unified communications, and VDI remoting protocols. Since joining 10ZiG, he has focused exclusively on VDI and End User Computing (EUC) and oversees strategic technology alliances with leading partners such as Citrix, Microsoft, and Omnissa.

Outside of work, Kevin is a devoted family man who enjoys spending time with his wife, two children, and their dog. He enjoys running, cycling and watching sports such as Motorsport & Football/Soccer, especially his son’s team and Leicester City FC.