Why do I say "relatively small engineering effort"? Well, because it's based on the existing "linked clone" technology that you probably already use today in VMware Workstation (6 and onwards).

Why do I say "could have a severe impact on VDI implementations"? Well, because as of today, one of the drawbacks of implementation VDI still is the storage requirement. Sure, there are lots of companies out there that are jumping in to fill this void (streaming, other cloning technologies) but the fact that these are other companies also implies additional costs.

Anyway, the technology is not available today but this is very interesting stuff to watch. VMware describes the Scalable Virtual Image as a technology that: "technology delivers lower operational costs through simple and scalable desktop image management and reduces storage requirements up to 90 percent for virtual desktop infrastructure environments. Quickly deploy, update, and publish desktop images to thousands of virtual machines.".

Press release.