For the past 15 years, EUC experts have loudly proclaimed that the current year would be the year of VDI! Playing on this trope, I reached out to leaders in the EUC field and asked them a simple question: What will 2025 be the year of?

The rules were simple, I asked them what 2025 will be the year of? I asked them not to include their company name or product but use generic terms instead, such as “thin clients,” “DaaS,” “SaaS,” “Enterprise web browser,” etc. I included my “2025 will be the year of” as an example.

I was delighted with the quality of the responses I got from these leaders in EUC. Below are their responses, along with my thoughts. Seeing how AI is the big buzz word in the industry I asked the question to a few Gen AI sites and then asked them to analyze the results.

So, without further ado, here are the responses in the order that I received them.

2025 will be the year of experimentation with AI agents in the enterprise, the most productive of which will use Windows desktops.

2025 is the year Digital Workspaces become ubiquitous.

IT teams will realize that crafting a more vendor-independent digital workspace solution allows them to future-proof their infrastructure against unanticipated technology disruptions.

2025 will be the year to rethink ZTNA, VPN, CASB, VDI, and DLP with a unified Enterprise Browser.

2025 will be the year of simplified, SaaS-driven endpoint management.

2025 Will be the Year of Creative Tech Architecture.

We’re going to see a massive increase in data center construction, and all the work that virtualization had basically delayed/prevented from 2004-2019 will be erased due to AI demands as well as a pullback from Cloud back to the private cloud. Add to that a strong return to office (RTO) initiative by many companies; we’ll see more traditional EUC in place rather than VDI. I suspect it’ll delay the “Year of VDI” for at least 3-5 years when companies will look to finally find cost savings in the EUC world.

2025 will be the year that power users abandon VDI in favour of a bare metal architecture.

Users who demand high performance and reliability will move away from their complex and expensive VDI platforms, and over to emerging platforms that deliver bare metal hardware in a datacenter optimized form factor.

2025 will be the year when companies get serious on their Zero Tickets initiative.

That’s not to say that we are witnessing the death of the service desk imminently, but it is the start of a metamorphosis that will transform it into a leaner and more modern DEXOps center in the next 2-3 years.

2025 will be the year of end-user experience.

Companies and public administrations recognize that end-user satisfaction is the relevant success factor. As a result, the flexible provision of a good and secure user experience in a modern digital workplace has a higher priority than maintaining historically grown IT structures. IT administrator-centered is becoming user-centered – in rapid change cycles and with increasing granularity of user requirements.

2025 will be the Year of Unified Browser Security

With the continued expansion of SaaS applications, the browser is becoming the most critical business tool inside organizations, but also your most vulnerable attack surface.

Ironically, 2025 probably will likely be the year of VDI based on quantitative measures.

With the large public cloud providers focused on this segment, VDI has truly become mainstream and is rapidly increasing in adoption. The key going forward is going to be to provide an excellent user experience and solid manageability. This is where the traditional experts and providers in the EUC ecosystem are going to thrive.

2025 will be the year of DEX 2.0 to include desktop management.

In 2025, DEX platforms will evolve from being an add-on, (historically focused on solely measuring employee experience) to becoming an all-encompassing workspace management platform. Organizations will consolidate disparate tools into unified DEX solutions that combine endpoint management, security, and user experience monitoring. This shift will save up to 50% in licensing costs and streamline IT operations, delivering a seamless, “Swiss Army knife” approach to how the modern workspace is measured and managed. Less agents deployed will reduce IT infrastructure and remove agent bloat from the endpoint.

2025 will be the Year of the Enterprise Browser

These will emerge and chip away at VDI – a new way of unifying SaaS security, isolating legacy apps, and becoming IT’s control plane for the digital workspace.

2025 will be the year of Generative AI on the Desktop.

Gen AI tools across desktop platforms are quickly being developed to help users automate not only repetitive tasks but also to help them in their creative workflow. Look for AI agents to launch applications and perform complex tasks within them based on your simple prompts.

2025 will be the year of Cloud-delivered applications.

Many enterprises will use Win 10 EOL’ing, as a reason to move away from troublesome physical desktops and go to SaaS, streaming, or cloud-based PCs to deliver applications to their users.

2025 will be the year of the Desktop Refresh.

As countless Win10 PCs grow out of support, customers will refresh, not just replace. Instead of simply buying new PCs many will look to switch to browser-based and/or cloud-delivered applications, bypassing legacy VDI. A secure and robust enterprise-grade Linux-based endpoint operating system will become a next-gen enabler for a new era of end user computing.

Finally, Rory Monaghan’s response is a bit longer than I requested. Still, given that application delivery is a technology that most haven’t spent much time investigating, and Rory is one of the nicest guys in an industry filled with nice guys, I include his entire response.

2025 Is the Year of Intelligent Application Delivery

Enterprises are transforming how they manage Windows applications, shifting them from a longstanding blocker to a key enabler of innovation. 2025 marks a pivotal turning point where organizations recognize modernizing application delivery is essential for achieving greater business and technical agility.

Traditionally, the processes of packaging and deploying applications has been slow, cumbersome, and error-ridden, creating friction during platform transitions. This became glaringly evident in 2020, when enterprises had to support remote work at scale. These challenges are rearing their heads again with the migration efforts to Windows 11 and between VDI/DaaS platforms, where application compatibility and methods of deployment slowed adoption.

Enterprises with virtual desktop environments, where applications have been installed into desktop images, face major hurdles when shifting to other modern desktop platforms.

However, advancements in AI in 2025 will enable Numecent customers to accelerate this transformation by automating much of the complex and time-consuming work involved in application packaging. Rather than packaging Consumer Off the Shelf applications that are updated frequently each time – which is not sustainable – organizations can now automate the packaging whilst still maintaining control and visibility of the application updates which is frankly order of the day after the infamous CrowdStrike update gone wrong of last year.

This will allow businesses to modernize their application estates faster, reduce reliance on installing into images, and streamline cross-platform transitions. With these changes, companies can finally remove the bottlenecks applications have historically created, becoming more adaptable to evolving technologies and focusing on delivering real value. Organizations that embrace this shift will be the ones best positioned to thrive in an increasingly dynamic, multi-platform world.

What AI Thought

Seeing how soon AI will be our overlords and masters, I thought that I better check various AI sites to get their thoughts on what the year 2025 will be.

After rephrasing the question slightly, I submitted my question to different Gen AI sites, and this is what they came up with.

Gemini -2025 will be the year of zero trust security.
ChatGPT – That sounds like a fun and insightful article concept! For 2025, I would say: “2025 will be the year of hybrid workspaces.”

As companies continue to adapt to the post-pandemic world, hybrid work models will become the norm, driving innovation in virtual desktop infrastructure, collaboration tools, and cloud-based solutions to support seamless transitions between remote and in-office work.

Copilot – Website
I love the idea of your article! For 2025, I’d say: “2025 will be the year of Edge computing. Increased demand for faster data processing will drive edge technology forward.”

I hope this fits into your vision! Anything else I can help with for your article?

Copilot – Desktop

In 2025, end user computing will be defined by intelligent technologies including AI integration for personalized experiences, enhanced security and privacy measures, ubiquitous connectivity with 5G and edge computing, innovative user interfaces through AR, VR, and MR, advanced collaboration and productivity tools, and a strong emphasis on sustainability and green computing.

My Comments

AI is only able to summarize the knowledge that it has amassed and as such none of them could offer any particularly interesting insights into what 2025 will bring to the EUC community.

I did find it interesting that Copilot desktop plugged itself by saying “end user computing will be defined by intelligent technologies including AI…”

How Stratosphere Fits in

Brian, Linus, Joe and Rory all mentioned AI in their answers, and with good reason as it the hottest topic in IT right now. Stratodesk currently uses AI to improve the user experience including using Krisp’s AI technology to improve audio clarity in NoTouch OS. It is also actively investigating how AI can assist with troubleshooting and problem-solving issues in EUC to ensure their customers and their customers users have the best user experience possible.

On delivering the best end user experience possible, Steve from Thin Client Computing, said, “The key going forward is going to be to provide an excellent user experience and solid manageability.” I couldn’t agree more. We are far past the days when desktop users will accept substandard experience. Stratodesk’s award winning thin client and management software delivers an exceptional digital experience but VDI, DaaS and streaming applications have many moving parts that must be monitored.

Nexthink, HP, ControlUp, all noted that this and they believe that 2025 will be the year of monitoring and management in EUC. I found Samuele’s statement about companies getting serious on their Zero Tickets initiative which is the holy grail for the service desk as it aims to reduce or eliminate the number of helpdesk tickets by using automation to handle routine tasks. This frees up IT staff to focus on more strategic work. Stratodesk works closely with major players in end user monitoring to provide its users with the best possible experience.

Quantifying the perceived experience of employees is an important and difficult metric to obtain. To assist with this Dr. Benny Tritsch created the EUC Score benchmarking toolset to do just that. It provides user-centric quality criteria, scientific benchmarking methods, and telemetry data analytics to digital workplace vendors and consumers so they can reliably determine it.

Enterprise browsers are gaining traction in the EUC space and David, Rich and Jason believe that this is the year companies realize that enterprise browsers can be used to securely and reliably deliver applications to end users. All major enterprise browsers can run natively on No Touch OS, which makes them even more reliable and secure.

Tom Cole has an interesting take for users who demand high performance and reliability computing as he believes they will move over to platforms that deliver bare metal hardware in a datacenter optimized form factor. Stratodesk software allows users to securely and confidently connect to remote computers no matter where they are located.

Karen and Emanuel take a more nuanced view of what will happen in 2025 and feel that remote delivered EUC has matured to a point where it even become even more widespread and integrated into the workspace. Emanuel takes it further and believes that many of the PC that currently run Windows 10 PC’s can be converted to run Stratodesk NoTouch OS and “will become a next-gen enabler for a new era of end user computing”.

Concluding Thoughts

First, I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to all the EUC experts who took the time to respond to my question. I reached out to a diverse group, from CEOs to hands-on practitioners, all of whom share a deep passion for, and decades of experience in EUC. I intentionally sought perspectives from various facets of the industry, as each has a unique vantage point on what’s happening in EUC. Their insights reflect the different trends and developments they’re witnessing.

Despite my efforts, I couldn’t distill their responses into a single technology or theme. I even turned to several AI engines for assistance, but they too struggled to summarize them all. The common thread, however, was the excitement about the changes and challenges facing the industry this year and how we’ll adapt to them. While it would be great to point to one response that perfectly encapsulates what 2025 will hold, doing so would be impossible.

The year ahead is too dynamic for a single narrative. So, I proclaim that 2025 Will be a Year of Excitement and Transformation for the EUC World!