VDI.. Virtual Challenges...

We have been discussing on the Client virtualization and how the market is changing.. Globally and locally in India. But if we look at the actual statics the no of actual VDI set up happening in India is much lesser. Yes certainly there are more customers showing lot of interest and there are many people talking about it.. but looking at the nos and the ratio of conversion is very limited compared. There is lot of buzz and action happening still why the adaption is not as expected..

If we look at this Historically Indian market is like this from the beginning for the client virtualization solutions.. when the era began in later 90’s worldwide Citrix was leading and was doing really good. Microsoft Terminal Services based deployments were much better and doing much higher nos. In India the nos were comparatively very less for both deployments. All the major deployments happened in India for client virtualization has happened in the below scenarios only..

- Very Limited Enterprise / SMB customers adapted SBC solutions

- The BFSI customers looked at adapted Thinclients as a standalone terminals only

- All the E-Governance deployments on client virtualization happened as a standalone deployments only.. (Except for few).

The main reason for such kind of adaption was that people were looking at solution which can help benefit immediately. The story around ROI over a period of two to three years was good but then that alone cannot justify the upfront increase in the CAPEX in an organization. The other issue was that of user acceptance and restriction of usage.. This is also another reason why the “Thinclients” was adapted in the IT service segment.

So there are different vendors like Microsoft, Citrix and VMWARE trying out different options and what would be the ideal solution which can help customers to adapt much faster.. From the past we certainly can learn much..

In the coming posts I will share my thoughts on the challenges and probable options and solutions available which might and can help to increase the adaption..

End of PC and beginning of new Era??!!?

Last week there have been lot of posts there in the blogs which were talking about the Post PC Era or End of PC... Those people who were talking about end of PC or Post PC era just forget that even to design a next generation of Tablet or to write the next generation of Tablet OS we need to have a Strong PC out there.. (At least for now - you can not do the designing or coding using the tablet)..

Also when we talk about “Cloud Computing” it is the term being used by every one in the Industry..but if we look at the back end solutions it is more are less remains same.

There are very few companies who have established a good Enterprise business model for “SaaS” and in “DaaS” I would say there is no company there around. This is mainly because there is no common definition / parameters for a Cloud computing platform just like what we have for PC’s / Thinclients or Tablets.. Every software / Hardware vendor would like to have their say on Cloud.. (VMWARE / Citrix / Red Hat / Ubuntu etc.)

The smaller players there out in the market are basically “Technology Boutique's” (If they use their own tools for some functions) or ("VAR's) who primarily users VMWARE / Citrix as a basic tool (Most of them use VMWARE) or few other software and Hardware products and work out and design the platform for the customers. Bigger players are basically trying to build a solution basis on their current Hardware solution stacks.. (Blades / SAN / Switches etc.) which can work with VMWARE / Citrix or Red Hat or other platforms. The back end DB would be the same which is there already..

Considering this the actual innovation on Cloud is happening in the Consumer space with the right business model.. (Sky drive / Appstores / Ubuntu one / Cloud Drive / different Musical stores etc..). Here is where customers are paying for different apps and using it as and when needed.. (with proper billing / support mechanism in place)..

For me the actual cloud set up could be the scenario like this.. – Using any OS from any device once you log in and u will get u r set of applications and data with your preferred settings anywhere.. in way it should free of you from depending on any OS / Device.. Google was going on to this but somewhere on the way they have changed and are going more of having their own set up.. (OS / Hardware etc.)..(Imagine a set up where an user can use any Mobile / Laptop / PC running any of the OS from any vendor.. Log in and access all his data / applications and do his work without any challenge.. that would be the ideal and best cloud environment.)

This would be possible by not centralizing everything but working out a Hybrid innovative solutions..which can help bridge the GAP between an Enterprise / Consumer set ups..

Any solution which comes on these lines would be a bigger hit.. iPhone or iPad would not have been successful if it does not provide the enterprise mail connectivity for the users along with the Host of other applications..

Lets wait and see who is coming up with a solution to bridge this GAP.. Till then the Hype will be there and every one will say their product is cloud enabled.. :-) :-)

And the answer for the End of PC Question would be - The Access devices will certainly be there.. may be in a different form with different specifications..

Desktop Virtualization - Options..

2. Shared Computing

Shared computing is another form of Server Based Computing and this solution can be used when there are very limited no of users in a department / organization and all can be connected to the Host PC with in certain distance.

In shared computing solution one PC will be loaded with the required set of applications and the same will be shared for a max. of 10 users. This either uses USB Hub or PCI card based devices for communication. The distance from the server to the client machines are restricted based on the technology being used.

Currently HP is offering Shared computing solution based on USB and N Computing is offering the solution based PCI Card. Microsoft supports shared computing solution using Windows Multipoint Server 2011 operating system.

3. Cloud Computing:

In Cloud computing all the applications / data base / mails everything is hosted in a central location with only the access device at the client desk. The user would need an Internet connectivity to connect to the hosted applications and work on. The up time and back up will be maintained by the hosting company. The users might have to pay an monthly / early fee to the hosting company for maintaining their data and applications.

In this solution the users will not have a dedicated servers / storage. All the applications and storage space will be shared and will be hosted in a central location.

Many of the private companies are now going in for private clouds now a days. The classic example are the outsourcing (BPO / KPO) jobs happening across the world. Where the database and application (Mostly web enabled) is hosted at the central location at the client location and the workers accessing the applications and completing their job from the vendor location.

Google and Amazon have come out with Public cloud. In this any individual / SMB customer can have an account with them and get their application service from them. Google has tied up with Salesforce.com for providing CRM and Sales force automation tools on the cloud computing.

Recently Los Angels city council has moved their operations to Cloud computing with Google and this may be the beginning of cloud adaption in big time by the Federal and Corporate in the coming days.

Desktop Virtualization - Options..

1. Desktop Consolidation Solution:

There are different solutions in this area and each fits in to different set of users.

Requirement	VDI	Blade Workstations (BWS)	SBC
3D Rendering applications
Applications that require graphic cards
Need the most powerful CPUs		ü
Need only basic Office Applications	ü	ü
Need controlled access to sensitive data	ü	ü
Shift workers who share PCs	ü	ü
Large BUs with common image requirements	ü	ü
Require the use of < 3 applications	ü		ü
Limited function, task-based workers	ü		ü
Application delivery for newly acquired organizations	ü		ü
Need to run different type of dialer / security applications	ü	ü

Blade Workstation from HP are ideal for users who need very high processing power (Dedicated Processor / Memory / Graphics / Storage) with highest security required for the Applications and Data.

VDI is ideal for users who would need to have their own application and data environment. The users need not be power users and they can run their application in the shared environment. (Processor / Memory). Vendors like VMWARE / Citrix are offering VDI solutions of their own. The key to success of VDI implementation relies on designing the server and storage.

SBC is for the users who can work on a completely shared environment. In this solution the applications will be loaded on to a Terminal Server and multiple users can log in to users and work independently on the applications. The users can connect to the server using LAN / WAN. There is no distance limitation on this solution.

The solution has to be suggested considering the user requirement – both immediate and long term.

Desktop Virtualization - Options..

The different alternative computing Solutions available are:

1. Desktop Consolidation Solution

- Server Based Computing Solution (SBC) – MS Terminal Services / Citrix / Ericom

- Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) – Citrix / VMWARE / Red Hat

- Blade Workstation Solution - HP

2. Shared Computing

- HP

- N Computing

3. Cloud Computing

- Google Apps

- Salesforce.com

- Amazon.com

- Microsoft Azure

- Few other players are entering the market

4. Application Specific Terminals

- Thinclients based on Intel Atom / AMD Sempron and VIA Processors

- Thinclients with Windows Embedded and Embedded Linux OS

We will go through each of the solutions in the coming pages;

Desktop Virtualization - Options..

Publish Post

The above picture gives the details of different solutions available. The solution for each organization is totally decided by the requirement of the users. Now with Web 3.0 the user needs or how they access the applications have changed completely.

The users can be classified under the following categories:

- Power Users

- Knowledge Users

- Task Users

- Mobile Users

Desktop Virtualization - Options..

From the time desktop PCs began to appear within the corporate / Federal environment in significant numbers, IT departments have been struggling to get their arms around distributed desktop and application management. The work of managing and deploying software updates to the various desktop operating systems and associated application software has required a huge amount of IT time and budget. In the early 1980s, the first electronic software distribution (ESD) solutions were introduced to help ease this challenge. For the past 20 years, the industry has continued to struggle with the issue of how to better deploy, maintain, and manage distributed desktop resources. The desktop management story has continued to unfold with both successes and failures ever since.

One early alternative that IT organizations implemented to varying degrees and with varying success has been thin client computing. More recently, with the advent of server, desktop, and application virtualization technologies, new solutions have emerged as alternatives to traditional desktop and application deployment methods. In fact, these new solutions are alternatives to traditional desktops and applications themselves. With these emerging technologies has come a great deal of confusion about the different technologies and approaches, how the various approaches work, the available vendor solutions for each, and how to select the right solutions for the mix of use cases within a specific organization. There is also

confusion about what these solutions really include and what it takes to implement them, as well as confusion around variations in language used to describe the solutions and features.

For example, even the basic term desktop virtualization is used to mean a variety of different things. Is desktop virtualization done on the desktop or on the server? Does desktop virtualization include applications? Is server virtualization required for desktop virtualization? How does desktop virtualization relate to application virtualization? What’s the difference between application virtualization and application streaming? And do I really need to go for a desktop virtualization?

The following posts on this topic will try to give more inputs on the different technologies available and will also try to recommend the technology / solution suitable for certain set users or departments.

The following factors are considered when preparing this;

• The critical business and technical challenges faced by today’s IT departments and user communities
• The various types of use cases for desktop and application delivery
• The technical architectures and solutions that are available and emerging to address deploying
• desktops and applications
• Key considerations when selecting and implementing solutions
• A high-level overview of the key vendor solutions, along with matrices on currently available
• products and key technical features