Desktop Virtualisation (Citrix, VMWare, Hyper-V)

[Inix]

Thanks for sharing. Yap, I'm do aware the difference between Xenapp and Xendesktop. In layman terms, Xenapp = Managed Portable Apps whereby XenDesktop = Virtual PC.

On IT system point of view, we do gain tonnes of benefits in VDI deployment but in management business point of view, there's no benefit to the company. My upper management take IT security very lightly and doesn't enforce any policy on PC refresh. The PC I'm using now is 10yrs old, P4-2.8GHz 533fsb 478 socket, not even have HyperThreading. Futhermore with SSD, the bomb just got bigger. Apart from I/O, we also needs to take care on RAM sizing, which is another bomb.

I was cracking a joke with my colleague yesterday, IF we put $2.1mil into Fixed Deposit, with minimum 0.5% interest P.A., across 6 years, I got abt $63k interest. Wow.. Much more ROI then we implement VDI, which savings on VDI only abt $30k after 6 years....

Ok, jokes aside, I'm definitely hope that I can sell this VDI to upper management bcos I'm taking this as an experience gaining which I can include it into my personal portfolio...

Some notes as I was a former IT Manager.

1: Each company is different. My former company is blessed with management who understands that IT is not an expense, but an asset. Yet, the former IT Managers didn't know how to use the money in the right manner.

2: Justification is the key. Knowing your boss, the CIO, CFO or even CEO is the most important thing. Justify in the manner that they not only can understand, but more important, translate it to value, which will affect the company's bottom line. In a nutshell, when they are spending money, they are saving / making money

3: Know your accounting. ROI is out these days. Some people like to play ROE. And why is people going for SAAS? The market claims its because its convenience. I say its simply accounts. Companies can't continue to pay for asset. It will affect their ROE which directly / indirectly affects the Management's performance. Turning your CAPEX into OPEX might sometimes be interesting.

4: Be creative. You might not need to buy outright. You could consider signing a blanket contract which is pay as you use. Something like per 50 employees, you will pay XXX per month. It suddenly becomes more acceptable to the management, but you still pay the same money

 

[180699]

Ok, after months of research, went thru demo session and seminars, VDI indeed VERY interesting and can be VERY complicated.

Now, I in the midst of choosing the right solution.

Citrix - Strength is streamed technology

VMware - Strength is resource management

IBM Verde - Cheap but no application virtualization

Common issues
1) Printing, how efficient is the "compression" technology? (without wan accelerators)
2) Offline mode users, synchronize data integrity and time taken during synchronizing
3) Single point of failure, to outcome this, huge investment is unavoidable.

Does anyone here have experience to share?

 

[anime_toys08]

Ok, after months of research, went thru demo session and seminars, VDI indeed VERY interesting and can be VERY complicated.

Now, I in the midst of choosing the right solution.

Citrix - Strength is streamed technology

VMware - Strength is resource management

IBM Verde - Cheap but no application virtualization

Common issues
1) Printing, how efficient is the "compression" technology? (without wan accelerators)
2) Offline mode users, synchronize data integrity and time taken during synchronizing
3) Single point of failure, to outcome this, huge investment is unavoidable.

Does anyone here have experience to share?

Citrix can be hosted or streamed - very wide spectrum of end devices support; quite an end to end solution - from software secure gateway right to the WAN accelerator ; netscaler. Bad thing is PvS is still a pain in the arse and slightly complex to manage.

Still have peeves with vSphere somehow - safer to go with XenServer with this.

VMware - besides resource mgmt, think for IT operation - ease of manage and ease of deployment. Furthermore, if you are already a VMWare vSphere shop, cost savings can be achieved... However PCoIP still needs improvement overall.

Virtual Bridge
Try evaluating Kaviza too... is under Citrix now.

For Applications virtualization, XenApp requires RDS CALs by the way. ThinApp requires licensing....

Now to your problems

1) Printing over WAN is still a major problem - as long it goes out - data is never compressed. Imagine a PDF print or VIsio print x 1000 users.
There is basic compression but for the full suite, thinprint is the only choice.

2) Offline mode or Local mode by VMware requires to download the image for the first time; then delta changes. Time wise really depends on the BW now.

3) In Single Point of failure, i can name you so much but its better for your SI to help you in this. Just press them for a suitable high lvl design .

You should also evaluate your internal apps and see whether are they good candidates for app virtualization etc or so on. .

Frankly speaking, press your SIs for a POC?

 

[ipaq4444]

book mark for reading later

 

[zuoom]

After so many years. What's the thing to do?