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Desktop Virtualization Solution

Business Objectives

Many organizations are looking for ways to protect their data, one approach to this is to keep the data in the Data Centre and deploy thin client solutions but this is not always compatible with bespoke business applications or complex because of the number and variety of applications in use.
PC refresh budgets need to stretched further, user requirements, applications and Operating Systems are increasingly more demanding and the powers that be not only want flexibility at the desktop but also want it to be “Greener” as well?

Nice to haves….

Processing power is overtaking the desktop requirement, much of the peformance that is invested in by large organisations when purchasing PC’s and Laptops is destined to lay unused for much of the time. Driving up utilisation and therefore drivign down the long term cost of owning the hardware is fast becoming a common objective.

There is an increasing need for “work anywhere” technology that allows users to access all their applications and data from wherever they are, be that at home, on the train or at a client site. What’s more is that they want to do it from dissimilar hardware as is available.

Solution

Virtual PC’s have been used in test and development environments for a long time, this has seen decreased admnistration time when rolling out new applications or testing code against multiple operating systems and browsers.

The biggest driver for most Virtual Desktop Infrastrucutre (VDI) deployments is to harness this flexibility and use it to consolidate the desktop environemnt onto a Data Centre based platform. Seperating the user from the operating system fromt he desktop and possibly replacing the desktop with a lower cost “greener” Terminal instead.

This enables Desktop Admins to trouble shoot and recreate user desktop images much faster than a normal physical environment and the overall resource required by the user base is dynamic, so a user that requires more memory for a limited time can be given access to it immediatly without his/her hardware having to be touched and it can be released back just as easily afterwards. You can also choose to provide end users with their own desktop that they can customize to suit their needs and access from anywhere, or provision desktops that are more restricted and revert to a known consistent state upon log-off.

An added benefit is that all the data is held in the DataCentre, even if a user saves to his/her desktop this is still on an image in the DataCentre so no information is likely to be lost and more importantly no information is going to turn up somewhere it shouldn’t.

The best infrastructure we have found to run VM ware on is HP’s C Class blade servers, VM ware supports all main hardware vendors of course but LETN have found HP’s integration between their “System Insight Management” tools and VM ware’s “Virtual Centre” to be an invaluable combination when managing a virtualized environment. HP’s pre-failure hardware agents alert the Virtual management console which automatically migrates virtual servers off of the failing server, this delivers improved up-time especially for applications that need to run 24×7 but perhaps don’t warrant 24×7 human attention.

Creating a highly avaiable VDI environment requires centralised storage and because the desktop images are all pretty much identical we have found that NetApp FAS storage appliances with their inherient Deduplication technology are the best fit /lowest cost for the job, NetApps SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure is also an incredibly fast / low overhead way to protect your virtual environment by taking snapshots at regular intervals .

You can choose to replace your desktops with terminals in a blanket refresh or simply use your existing desktops as terminals until they fail and then replace them which is a great way to stretch your budget .

Key Business Benefits

Reduce administration costs by managing your desktops centrally.
Reduce upgrade time and complexity by rolling patches out centrally.
Drive up utilization by using pools of pervasive desktops and consolidating the processing power.
Secure all your data and information
Increase desktop availability and decrease user complaints and frustration from slow desktop experiances.
Lower the cost of desktop refreshes by using terminals in place of Desktops
Increase productivity by allowing more users to access their desktop from wherever they are.