1. A method for modifying a virtual disk within a virtualization environment, the method comprising: creating, by a virtual desktop infrastructure executing on a computing machine, a virtual machine template comprising at least one virtual disk; modifying, by the virtual desktop infrastructure, the at least one virtual disk to comprise metadata describing a disk type of the at least one virtual disk, the at least one virtual disk specifying a storage location for the metadata, the metadata including a field for recording the disk type, the disk type being a characterization of the functions performed by the virtual disk; selecting, by the virtual desktop infrastructure, the virtual machine template for a user using at least one of user performance metrics, virtual machine metrics, and a user request; allocating, by the virtual desktop infrastructure, the virtual machine template to the user; receiving, by a storage subsystem executing on the computing machine, the metadata for the at least one virtual disk from the storage location; and selecting, by the storage subsystem, a storage optimization for the at least one virtual disk using the disk type.