Client Virtualization Stage 2 - Early Steps

Towards the end of Client Virtualization Stage 1, a lot of things happened.. and these were calling in for an innovations.. the are listed below..

- Many Government Departments were seriously looking at Alternate Computing platforms..

- Most of the Government Departments were looking at going ahead with Opensource

- ITES / BPO market in India was picking up in India and new companies were seriously entering the business..

- Government Funded Education Programs where being more streamlined (SSA / ICT)..

Around this time, i was having a challenge on convincing the R&D team (HCL) and coming out with an innovative Linux Image and solutions.. This was happening between years 2005 and 2006. In this period there were no major break for the client virtualization solutions..

I joined HP around 2006. This was a total new environment there.. R&D is not located in India.. and no customization can be done.. The device was basically designed for SBC solutions.. that was time HP started focusing on the Client virtualization business..

Every challenge opens up a new opportunity.. For an Linux client i had the below basic frame work in Mind and was looking at the opportunity to make this a live..

Basic Frame work for Linux Thinclient:

- Full Fledged Browser

- Open office

- Adobe Reader

- Photo File viewer

- Basic Movie Player

The idea is, if we have these basic things then we can eliminate the requirement for a central server and the total solution will become cost effective..The biggest challenge is to accommodate all this with in a 256 MB Flash memory.. (This whole size should be less than 100 MB)..

At that point of time, Red Hat India Development center was looking at focusing on the Embedded development and Mr. Satish was leading the team there.. we had a meeting with the team and one Mr. Ashok was the project engineer dedicated for this project. He was very innovative and was willing to accept the challenge..

Around that Mr. Suresh Kumar (Then Sales Manager - Education Vertical - Bangalore) has come out with a requirement from a college. The college wanted to set up a browsing center for their students. They wanted to have 100 nodes for this purpose. All the other vendors were there with Regular SBC solution.. The customer was reluctant because of two reasons..

- The cost of SBC solution was high

- Redundancy option - If one server is down then 50 users will not be able to work..

Along with Suresh we had a detailed discussion with the customer, then we suggested the customer that we will give the basic requirements on the Embedded OS only (Open office, browser, Zip file viewer, Adobe reader, Flash player etc.). Customer liked the concept as this eliminated the requirement of the server at the location.. But wanted to have the demo immediately..

We worked with Red Hat Bangalore team and got the demo set up ready in Flat two days time.. This was the worlds first embedded Linux OS with all built in.. slowly this has became a main stream in the market..

This also opened up a all new market.. where we can target the customers who earlier were not looking at Client virtualization because of the over all costing..(Servers / storage etc.) and the redundancy part..

This small step and an innovation has opened up a Stage 2 in a big way..

More to come..

Virtual Story - 5

Today’s virtual story is not about a particular customer but about a small partner who was successful by concentrating on solutions. In a way success of this partner also helped us to realize the true potential of the solution.. J J The solution is HP Multiseat solution. The latest of the Desktop Virtualization solution HP Came out with last year. This solution very innovative and has been worked out on making enterprise class solution to Education customers at an affordable cost.

Virtual Story 5:

I met this partner around May’2010. That was the time we just launched HP Multiseat solution for the Education customers, and we have been doing Road shows and partner training programs across the country. This partner attended one of our Channel partner sales Training. After the sales training he had many doubts about the solution and was asking clarifications on each and every single point. Once the partner was convinced on the solution then he was discussing on what he wanted to do for his region.

After a week’s time the partner came out on his own with an EDM, highlighting the Multiseat solution, and started sending this out to all the focused customers in his market. The partner was a small partner and was just started his business. He then started doing around and showing the demonstration of the product to his focused customers. The partner selected his customers very well, that he focused on the Polytechnic Colleges, Schools and the Engineering colleges in his region.

The below are the Key points highlighted on Multiseat Solution:

- Double the no seats on the same budget..

- HP Multiseat solution Reduce Electricity Costs by close to 90%..

- HP Multiseat solution helps ease of Manageability

- Manageability becomes easier with HP Multiseat Solution

- Enables the customer to go with a complete Legal Solution

With his focused campaign the partner could do close 350 + nodes among 8 Institutions in his region in a span of 4 months. This is really a good achievement for the partner as he not only could able break in to key accounts but he could also manage to secure his accounts with the solution selling approach.

After Launching Multiseat Solution is last year, within one year we have 150 + Institutions across the country are using the solution now and are benefited with the solution in a big way. HP Multiseat solution is very simple to install and manage and this proven as 90% of the installations are in non metro locations. We now have Multiseat customers in locations like Jammu, Varanasi to Sangli to Erode to Shillong.

Client Virtualization Stage 1 - Key milestones

In this post just wanted to highlight on the key milestones on the Desktop Virtualization in the Stage 1. These helped to ramp up the business and set the stage for the second phase of Client Virtualization in India..

- The fist major milestone for Thinclients on E-Governance came from Tamil Nadu State Government. The Thinclients were based on Windows CE and connected to servers with Windows Terminal Servers. This gave the much needed confidence boosting in the early days that Thinclient solution can be implemented sucessfully at multiple locations with out much issues.

- The seond mile stone was of the Thinclient Adaption by Karnataka High court. Karnataka High Court 2000 + Devices and that was one of biggest Thinclient orders WW at that point of time. The Thinclients were based Embedded Linux and connecting to Windows Terminal Servers. This also gave the much needed confidence of using Embedded Linux for the SBC deployments and also set the stage for a revolution on the Embedded OS. (Even now Embedded Linux are ruling the entry level client market).

- The Third milestone was of Thinclient adaption by NTPC and SAIL. They are the major PSU's and understood the value of Desktop Virtualization in the early stages. Of this NTPC has gone ahead and made is as mandate of going ahead with Thinclients for selected set of users. They were using Linux Embedded Thinclients connected to the Windows Terminal Server. This was critical as major PSU's adapting Thinclients helped convince other customer in the market and many other SMB customers and Manufacturing companies started adapting Thinclients slowly.

- The Fourth Milestone was of LIC adapting Thinclients in a big way. This deployment was with Embedded Linux with a local browser and connecting to the local Linux servers. This also made the entry point for VIA processors in the Embedded Thinclient Market and till now VIA is ruling the market. This also highlighted the fact that if the solution is not designed and executed properly it will fail in the market. (LIC did not bought Thinclients after initial two lots).

- The Fifth and the key milestone was of Punjab National Bank adapting Thincilents. This opened up a all new market for Embedded Thinclients in Indian Market. They were using Thinclients based on Windows Embedded XP and was used in their Core Banking Environment. The solution designing and execution of the solution was done flalwlessly and the implementation was very much sucessfull at PNB. Almost 8+ Years now and PNB is buying Thinclients even now.. (I am happy on this point as i designed the solution and also lead the key project team which lead the implementation across the country.. :-) :-)).

After this around 2004-2006 there was not much developments on the solution and there are much breaks with major accounts.. This lead to stagnation in the market as there were few customers especially in the Banking vertical(PNB / OBC, SBI etc.) were buying in bulk and the other major market (Federal Business) was yet to adapt in a big way..

Around this time lot of thought process was going on with the new solutions.. i had few points in my mind at that time and really felt that these will certainly the change the perception on Thinclients and can help change the market.. The below were the key points i was discussing with my R&D collegues in HCL..

- Having an Embedded Linux Thinclients with inbuilt open office and full fledged browser and Mail client

- Local printer support (Cups and other drivers)

- LDAP Support for Active Directory Interaction

- Multi Lingual support (MLT / GIST) with in the Embedded Linux

These were key thought process which were going on and i was finding it difficult to convince our R&D team then to look at in to this.. The main reason was that there was no fixed business or volume commitment which you can give to put on that much of efforts.. (The market was created later.. :-)) and devoting on this means moving out of the regular development which were happening at that point of time..

At this point of time.. the slowly the Client Virtualization Stage 2 started.. Next post will see the client virtualization stage 2.. :-) :-)

Virtual Story - 4

Today’s story is not about Desktop Virtualization but wanted to share a real story which gives details on the happening in the “Retail Industry”. This came to my mind when I was doing my regular shopping last week in a Retail outlet just opposite my house. Many of us might have seen that small Mom and Pop stores across our street are going in for a tremendous change in the recent past. I also had the same thoughts and I was discussing the same with the owner of the Retail outlet. Luckily he had time to share his views and his own story.

This story is more about the happenings there in the market place and end of the story we can see how HP Can help these entrepreneurs on achieve their goals..

Now to the story.. J J

Virtual Story 4:

About 10 years back there were not many residential Flats there in the area. Only few Individual houses with couple of Factories covering the entire stretch. Only two local growsery shops were there serving to the customers there. These were typical Mom and Pop stores managed by the owners and were totally dependent on the local residents in the areas. There were very little to do. Out of the two shops Shop A was little bigger and served to most of the customers (Mainly the bulk orders) and Shop B was a small one and served to all the retail purchase for the customers. The owner of Shop B was looking for the ways to improve his business but there were very little he could do to improve their share of market as the customers were fixed.

Then came the change. Two new real estate projects came on the area. Shop A was not interested on the new projects happening as there was no business coming as such from them as they were still under construction and would take 2-3 years to come up. The owner of the Shop B looked at this as an opportunity and he started working on identifying the details of how many houses will be coming up and what would be the profile of the people coming in etc. This helped him to come out with a plan to address the expected market. It was around that time Big Bazar and other LFR’s were making news in a big way.

The shop owner decided that if he really wanted to grow his business he need to make the investments properly to address his future customers requirements. Considering this he came out with a plan and slowly converted his small shop in to big Retail outlet over the three years’ time. When the Flats were occupied by the residents they found his shop more attractive than the Shop A and most of the people moved here and now in the area only one shop is there. The shop now has got 300 + Regular customer who buys on monthly basis (Between 1-5 of every month) and there are another 200+ customer who buys between 5^th to 15^th of every month. This is over and above the regular retail customers.J J

On discussing with the Owner other than the story he highlighted the key points he considered right from the beginning (Normally most of the people miss these points).

- He invested on the Technology right from the beginning

- Technology Included Billing machines Barcode scanners / printers etc.

- A Retail software to be used along with the Billing machine

How does the Investment in Technology Helps him in his Business:

- The software helps him to manage the inventory status and reduce any excess inventory there in the store

- It helps him to identify the buying patterns of his customers (Seasonal Buying) and plan his inventory accordingly

- It helps him to manage his regular customers and offer them loyalty points and communicate with the regularly (Do up sell when ever needed)

- Doing all this he is able to maintain a positive cash flow throughout the year (Which is very important in any business)

This story happened about 3 years back then the Retail solutions were at nascent stage. Now in every town there will be a similar story – may be a local Jeweller wanted to make difference on his business or a local small format Fashion shop wanted to make a difference.. (Not only attracting new customers but retaining the existing customers).

Client Virtualization Stage 1 - Evangelists

Any new solution will be successful only with the people selling the solution are passionate about the solution. They go to the extra mile.. and work closely with the customers and address their concerns in the early stage.. (How ever small it is..) They also need to come out with innovative solutions to address some issues..

With out them the solution / product will fail in the Market... In this post i am trying to mention the names of the early "Evangelists" of the Desktop Virtualization solution.. They are the people who believed in the Technology and solution and put on efforts... Thinclient Market in India would not have been there with out them..

Early Evangelists: (Only between Years 2000-2005)

- Mr. Raman (Former COO HCL Technologies)

- Mr. S. Pattabiraman (Former EVP - HCL)

- Mr. P. Murugan (Head R&D - HCL)

- Mr. Ramaiah (Manager R&D - HCL - Embedded Development) - He was instrumental in driving the sales and the R& team on coming out with innovative solutions

- Mr. L. Subbiah (R&D Manager - Linux Embedded)

- Mr. R. Muthu Kumar (R&D Manager - Windows Embedded)

- Mr. M. Baradharajan (Product Manager)

- Mr. Krishna Murthy (Sales Manager - Got the early WINS in TN)

- Mr. Murali Krishnan (Sales Manager - Got early break through with many of the co-Operative banks in Karnataka)

- Mr. Gopal (Solution Architect)

- Mr. Diwakar (Solution Architect)

- Mr. Rajib Chakravorthy (Got the early WINs in Mumbai and west)

- Mr. Saravanan (Solution Architect)

- Mr. Pradeef (Solution Architect)

- Mr. Suresh Kumar (Solution Architect - Got early WINs in Mumbai and West)

- Mr. Surya Prakash (VXL - Got early WIN's for VXL in Karnataka)

- Mr. Manjunath (VXL / HCL / Neoware / HP)

- Medley Marketing (Was instrumental in creating awarness and business for VXL in north)

- Pleasance technologies (Was instrumental in creating awarness and business for HCL in north)

And of course I am there in this team...will explain about the Client Virtualization Phase 2 in the next post..

Virtual Story - 3

The customer is one the leading Manufacturing company in India with annual business of over 400 M$ . They used to buy close to 300+ Desktops every year. The purchase happens on a monthly or quarterly basis and during every purchase cycle we always get in to an issue with the pricing / configuration set up etc. The customer also had a challenge on managing the different brand and configuration of desktops across the campus and also on their warehouses on remote location.

During one of the meetings, our partner has positioned HP Desktop Virtualization story to the customer and then after that our Account Manager did a detailed presentation of the solution. The CIO and their team liked the solution very much and appreciated the presentation. This was followed by a detailed POC. The customer really liked the solution and then we have been asked to work on a 100 user pilot VDI set up (VMWARE). This involved designing the server configuration to storage for 100 users to VMWARE VDI Suite software and suggesting a suitable Thinclient at the client side.

After doing a complete preparation, our team went in for a detailed solution presentation and after looking at the presentations from different vendors the customer was impressed with the solution from HP and they wanted to go ahead with HP. The only challenge was that the IT budget remained the same and the customer wanted to go in for the solution @ same cost of a Desktop, and they also did not wanted to compromise on the server / Thinclient or Storage configurations suggested.

This posed us a serious challenge in the beginning. Initially we were surprised on how a we can execute the solution, then we started thinking what if we do and then we started thinking on how this can be done. After that we had series of meetings with the IT team with the customer, and after two months of detailed discussions with the customer we have come out with a solution which was coming close to their expectation and the solution was implemented at the customer location.

The Solution BOM:

- HP C3000 Blade Enclosure

- Three Dual processor Servers – (Each with 48 GB Memory)

- HP NAS – 4TB

- T5145 Thinclient

The below are the key points which helped us to WIN this deal.

- Working closely with the customer IT team. Discussing and involving them on every stage of BOM Finalization (They know the requirements and current challenges better than us)

- Desktop Virtualization is totally different from Server Virtualization – Suggesting the solution considering this

- The IT teams expectation on Desktop Virtualization is totally different from Server Virtualization – Suggest a solution considering this

- Suggest the right model and BOM of what is needed for the customer

This also highlighted the fact that most of the CIO’s wanted to go with Virtualization solution but are not able to take this for a practical implementation as the solution offered to them are not meeting their requirement (Technically / Financially). Suggesting a right solution by working closely with them certainly will help us to WIN the customer.

The above WIN also helped us to understand the clear business requirements from the Manufacturing companies and how Desktop Virtualization can help them. We have good reference in the Manufacturing vertical and can work out a detailed solution to meet their requirements.

The below are the few of the areas where EBU solutions are being implemented (Thinclients / Digital Signage)

- Production Line – Accessing the application from the central server (Few customers also has got 42” / 47”Digital Signage for displaying the production information)

- Back office purpose – Finance / Materials Department / Supply Chain etc.

- Ware House – Thinclients for accessing the ERP applications

- Weigh bridge – In the Entry / Exit of the Factories

- Show rooms / Service offices (Digital Signage)

- Designing Environment

We have many leading Manufacturing Companies (Automobile / Battery / Heavy Industries etc.) already effectively using HP Desktop Virtualization solution, and we can work with you on designing a detailed End to End solution for your customer as well.

Client Virtualization Stage 1 - Early Adaptos

Any new technology / solution will be successful by the help of the Early adaptors. For those who are familiar with the Technology Curve this term "Early Adaptors" could be much familiar. In India during the Client virtualization stage 1 - we had early adaptors too..

They are the ones who understood the Technology, the Limitations of the Technology and are willing to adapt the Technology for the benefits it offered them. The relationship with these customers were very good.. and most of the time we were treated just part of their team..

I am listing few of the early adaptors here in this post.. (This is basis on my experience only.. i might miss out some one.. and would be glad if some one adds the same..)

- The Hindu (Thinclients with Citrix)

- La Chatline School (Streaming OS with Thinclients)

- Britannia (Thinclients with Citrix)

- Karnataka High Court (SBC with Thinclients)

- NTPC (Thinclients with SBC)

- Department of Post - Karnataka Region (Thinclients with SBC)

- LIC (Complete Linux Solutions)

- Punjab National Bank (Windows XP Embedded Based Solution)

- Tumkur Co-Operative Bank (Thinclients with SBC)

- Thiruvaroour District Collectroate (First E-Governance Project - Thinclients with SBC)

- Punjab Excise Department

There are the few major customer who adapted.. i would be happy if other update the list..

Virtual Story - 2

This customer is based in Chennai and having their offices across the country. They have been buying high end Desktops from different vendors including HP to meet their requirements. They wanted to explore Thinclients and tried with different solutions from different vendors – right from SBC to VDI but they were not able to finalize on the right solution. When we went with the Desktop virtualization concept the IT head of the organization explained the challenges they faced and they were more in a denial mode as they did not wanted to go in for a testing mode again. After some convincing the customer agreed to work with HP and gave us about one week time, mean time they were also finalizing on the Desktop configuration and pricing to meet their requirement – The IT Head was saying “Any how nothing is going to come out so better prepared with the Desktop pricing and config details so that the same can be ordered.. J J)

Before finalizing a solution, we looked at the solutions the customer tested earlier and the reasons why they failed or rejected by the users. This helped us to understand the customer expectation very clearly. On the analysis we found the below are the key points which need to be addressed if the solution to be accepted by the customer.

For the IT Team

- Security was a major challenge – Physical security and the Data Security

- The deployment should be done without intervention of a IT staff at the remote locations

- Down time should be very minimal or NIL

- Solution should be accepted by their internal users

For End users:

- Performance is very important – They are in to stock broking they cannot afford to have any lag in the operation

- The required key applications should be available for use

- Down time should be very less or NIL

Considering the above we could able to find out why all the earlier POC’s by different vendors failed here. Till then all the vendors they worked with, offered them a regular solutions which was not meeting their overall requirements. Then after a 2-3 days of working closely with the users we could able to suggest a solution based Application Specific Terminal Concept and the POC went on well. Now all their agents desktops has been replaced with HP Thinclients.

Key highlights of the solution offered:

- High processing power needed at the local Thinclient – We suggested a different Thinclient model (This was over looked earlier)

- The required minimal applications are installed locally – Open office, Client tools, Browser, Network printers etc.

- Physical Security is of a major issue in the remote locations – HP Quick Release Kit helped in mounting the Thinclients behind the Monitor

- HP Thin state enabled IT Admins to configure all the Thinclients from a single Thinclient

- Thin State also enabled the users to create a main image on pen drive and in case of any issue the user has to boot the Thinclient with the pen drive and the image will be ref lashed again. (No need to have an IT admin) – This was required much in the remote locations.

Virtual Story - 1

About six month back I was chatting up with my Friend who is running his own company. He is running his own small KPO unit. He started the business somewhere around 2008 in Delhi and after some time relocated the office to his home which around 500Kms from Chennai in TN. They create the GIS map basis on the inputs they get from their clients in US. Average business is around 4kUS$ a month. Around 15 Engineers are working with him on different projects. Most of the systems has to be ON 24/7 as the they have to work on different time zones depending on their customer requirements.

Sometime during the Chat he was mentioning the main challenges he was facing in his business…

- Power Outage – There is a Scheduled and un-scheduled power cut for 4-8 hours a day and even if the power is not there his operations has to go on..

- Cost of Operation – He has to use the Genset to keep the machines up and running and this increased the operational cost highly (Due to high Diesel / Kerosene)

- Use of Air conditioner – All 15 Engineers has to work from a small room so has to use AC as the PC’s also generate lot of noise and Heat and this adds additional costing (Need to use 3 nos of 1.5ton AC’s)

- Security – Being a small company he need to ensure that all his clients details are kept confidential and cannot afford to down the machine for even one day – this will affect the revenue generated per machine

These were affecting his profitability very high and he was barely making break even. When we were chatting up he was asking for some solution which can help him to overcome these issues. After thinking for some time, I suggested him a Desktop Virtualization solution basis on Server Based computing (SBC). Suggested him to replace all the PC’s with Thinclients connecting to a server and from where his employees can work on the application. He was hesitant for some time and then agreed and revamped the entire set up with Thinclients. (Though it took some time for him to convince himself on doing the investment.. J J)

Now after six months he is very much happy with the solution and more happy as he has started making profits.. J J

Let’s look at the points which helped him to address his pain points:

- Suggested Thinclients were using only 15 Watts as against the 180 t0 200 watts the PC’s were using

- This has helped to bring down the power requirement by 85% which in turn helped save the cost of operation (Usage of Genset and actual power consumption)

- Security part is taken care as the users can not use their pen drive locally and if any data need to be copied that has to be done only from the central location from the server)

- Air conditioner usage has come down too.. as now AC need to be used for Engineers need only

What’s the solution BOM:

- 15 nos of t5545 Thinclients

- One ML150 Server with 6 GB Memory

- Windows Server 2008 with RDS License

- Application usage – MS Office, Outlook, Auto CAD 2007 (Basic 2D) Multiuser version, Internet Explorer

We can see many such customers there in every town who actually want to have a solution to address their pain points, and now we confidently suggest the Desktop Virtualization Solution from HP based SBC solution to meet their requirement and make them a Happy customer. The below are the most commonly used applications in SMB environment.

- MS Office

- Outlook

- Tally (Multiuser)

- SAP client

- Internet Explorer

- Network or Local printing