IBM is launching a new product that will help customers manage virtual desktop deployments by reducing storage requirements by up to 80 per cent.

The product, called Virtual Storage Optimiser, is based on an algorithm development by IBM research.

"We are helping customers take advantage of virtual desktops at a lower cost, " said IBM's Scott Johnson, explaining IBM had found the main difficulty customers have when entering the cloud is the cost and complexity of managing storage.

The softare will also the reduce the time it takes for customers to deploy new virtual machines by cutting the time it takes to create new desktop images by around 30 minutes.

The announcement was made at VMworld in Las Vegas where VMware unveiled its new " universal client" initiative aimed at allowing customers access to desktop resources from any location and any device.

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