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

First Client Virtualization Adaption in Indian Government Segment..

From the beginning we have been trying to work out a solution to meet the Government Departments requirement.. The first major break came from Tamil Nadu State government.. In 2001 Tamil Nadu government was looking at adapting IT in a big way for District administration and wanted to set up a model District with the latest IT Hardware and solution..

Thiruvaroor was selected for this purpose and Mr. Uma Shankar then the District Collector was given in charge of adapting the latest technology for the solution.. (Later he was the ELCOT chairman for some time during 2006-2008).. Mr Uma shankar who was looking for solution which can be deployed much easier and can help manage from a central location and found the Thinclient concept very attractive. Every Taluk had 10 Thinclients connecting to one server and then the Data was transferred to the central server every day on dial up. Mr. Krishnamurthy (Sales) and Mr. Baradharajan (Technical) were the key members who designed the total solution..

This 100 nos deployment was a major mile stone and helped to understand the concept and the concerns related to Thinclient deployment in live environments.. This was also used as a key reference for Thinclient deployment in the Government vertical.. After this around 2002 Karnataka High Court adpated Thinclients for its operations.. (The solution was supported and driven by Justice. Baruka - Later after 8 years he played a key role in Thinclients adaption in All India District High Court Computerization project)..

Except these there was not much adaption and support for Thinclients in the Government business.. This has also to do with INTEL Launching their low cost Celeron Based PC's around this time..

After 2003- after LIC and PNB Thinclient adaption and momentum started in the BFSI segment..

Then around 2005-2006 an innovation happened locally which opened up the altogether a new market in India.. (IT & ITES..).. More details on the next post..

Client Virtualization Stage 1 - Leap

In the initial stages of the Thin client market, the basic challenge which we faced were the cost of the total solution. The base Thinclients itself was costing little higher than that of a desktop..then we need to add the cost of the servers and the OS licenses etc. The Thinclients came with an entry level processor (National Geode) and little amount of Flash memory and memory to support.. This was a factor which was limiting the Thinclient growth..

At this point of time VXL along with VIA was quietly working on a big opportunity with an innovative solution.. The opportunity was really big and the solution was very innovative.. The solution designed by VXL for LIC to address their branch computerization requirements using Embedded Linux Thinclients..

The solution reduced the need for a Terminal server at every location and the using VIA processor instead of National Geode helped increase the local performance and reduce the cost.. Suddenly there we have one customer adapting 10k Thinclients in one go..

The Thinclient locally had a full fledged browser and local printer drivers embedded locally.. using this the users can access their forms and access the core insurance application and if any printing can be given locally..

The first year of 10k units orders went to VXL. The second year the order went to HCL.. this started the new era for Thinclients in the Indian market..This was not adapted further because of some practical challenges on the field.. so after that the Linux Embedded based solutions were not taken up much.. (Until another innovative solution came after 3 years..)..

In the same year HCL designed a solution based on Windows Embedded XP for the Punjab National Bank's core banking branches.. this solution can be termed as "Application specific Terminals".. and in the year 2003-04 PNB formally came out with an RFP for Thinclients..this is again a major mile stone on the Thinclients business..and after this Windows Embedded Thinclients became a mainstream..

The innovative solution helped to reduce the over all initial cost of the solution and also helped the customer to save on Electricity and management cost as well..

I am personally happy as i was part of the team which designed the solution at HCL (from R&D Mr. Ramaiah / Mr. Subbiah / Mr. R. Muthu Kumar) and leading from the field along with the Sales team (Mr. Avinash / Mr. Sarabjit Bhatia) and happy that the same solution has become a benchmark in the BFSI and being adapted by many other Banks like BOI, BOB, OBC, SBI etc.. now it is 8th year anniversary.. :-) :-)

Starting from the year 2003 - many banks have started adapting the Thinclient solution for their core banking branches.. The banks were using core banking solution from Infosys (Finacle), TCS and few other solutions were there..The volumes started growing as the banks were more and more migrating their branches to core banking and the Thinclient solution was more stable in the banking environment..

The next phase was more challenging as the volumes started butPublish Post become stagnant as it was limited only to BFSI and the requirements of the Federal Government projects and that of ITES (two segments which were buying more computers) could not be addressed because of the over cost of the solution.. then came the innovative solution and we can say that is the start of the third phase..will post this in my next post..