Recast, an organization that empowers IT teams to manage and secure modern enterprises, released a new survey on virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) in partnership with Nerdio and VMblog.
Report shows nearly half of IT teams are reconsidering their VDI environments
The “2026 State of VDI Survey, VDI Isn’t Done, It’s Being Reworked,” is a new report detailing that while VDI remains part of the workspace, many IT teams are changing how they operate, secure, and support these environments.
The report was compiled based on responses from IT professionals who are aware of VDI, Cloud PCs, and published applications.
The report found that the discarding of VDI isn’t occurring so much as it’s being retooled. Just two percent of survey respondents said they plan to exit an existing deployment entirely in the next 12-to-18 months.
Meanwhile, 49 percent of current users reported “significant change” to their VDI, Cloud PC, or published application environment over the last two years.
These plans involve keeping, expanding, replacing, reducing, evaluating, or starting deployments, pointing to active modernization rather than broadly shifting from VDI.
VDI teams lack patch confidence
The report found that administrators lack confidence in their ability to patch VDI environments in a timely manner, increasing risk.
The survey highlights that among current users, only 34 percent were very or extremely confident that required operating system and third-party application updates were being applied on time.
Further, 47 percent said that audit logging and traceability are security concerns that extend beyond access, followed by 41 percent citing data leakage controls and 31 percent citing patch or vulnerability exposure windows.
“Teams are not just asking whether VDI works. They are asking whether it can be easier to run,” said David Marshall, Founder and Executive Editor, VMblog. “The next phase is about reducing the manual work, improving visibility, and giving IT teams more confidence that their environments are patched, secure, and ready for users.”
Operational pain points and lifecycle issues
The report identified performance variability as the top operational pain point at 41 percent.
Current users (53 percent) also cited at least one lifecycle-related issue, including image management and update effort, application delivery or updates, or user profiles and personalization.
Additionally, 32 percent of current users cited high ongoing cost, with 61 percent of those identifying budget constraints as a barrier.
The cost and friction in VDI come from the everyday work of keeping environments current, usable, and supportable.
“VDI has been declared dead more times than most technologies, but that isn’t what this survey shows,” said Will Teevan, CEO, Recast. “The more useful story is that teams are still relying on virtual desktops, Cloud PCs, and published applications while also trying to modernize the way they manage them.”
The survey notes that staff capacity, skills, security or compliance approvals, licensing, user experience risk, and competing priorities are also barriers to change.
Interest in practical AI
It wouldn’t be a survey if there weren’t a question on what challenges or opportunities AI presents.
Respondents to the AI interest question (70 percent) reported being at least somewhat interested in AI-enabled capabilities.
Among these respondents, proactive issue detection and remediation, automated performance optimization, and cost optimization or right-sizing were identified as AI outcomes that matter.
Next steps for IT teams
The report puts together five cohesive steps to make workspace delivery easier to operate, secure, and prove.
The steps include:
- Measure the experience users actually feel: Since performance and latency were the top recurring issues, and support tickets are a lagging signal, teams should track logon time, session stability, and app launch success as routine operating metrics to see where the experience starts to degrade.
- Treat lifecycle works as a connected pattern: With image management, application delivery, and user profiles appearing at moderate levels, combined with 53 percent of current users selecting at least one, teams should not treat these as separate problems with separate fixes.
- Build visibility into patch and update workflows: 34 percent of current users are very or extremely confident that required updates are applied on time, identifying an operating signal. Teams should define what “applied on time” means for their environment, then build reporting around it.
- Extend security thinking past the access layer: Top security concerns include audit logging and traceability, data leakage controls, and identity consistency across delivery models. IT teams that can answer who accessed what, when, and under what controls are in the best position for compliance conversations and internal reviews.
- Scope change around outcomes, not platforms: IT teams should define a specific operating outcome before evaluating platforms to make the business case easier to build and easier to defend.