A Mobile, Cost-Effective Endpoint Strategy for VDI

One of the key reasons organizations of all sizes are embracing desktop virtualization is to allow greater mobility and flexibility for both users and their organizations. In fact Forester Research has found that over half of employees currently work from multiple locations. By freeing people from relying on a specific PC to do their work, you can enable them to work on more types of devices, in more places, for optimal productivity.

Posted by Krishna Subramanian on 06/29/20125 comments

How To Assess the Cost of Implementing VDI

Unfortunately, a proof-of-concept rarely reflects the true cost of taking a new solution into production. Given the many moving parts that a VDI implementation can involve, there is strong potential for unexpectedly high infrastructure costs and complexity.

In this post, I will outline how to scope and assess VDI projects, so that initial costs are included, as well as what will be needed to help users scale, provide high availability, and manage the system.

Posted by Krishna Subramanian on 02/22/20120 comments

4 Pain-Free Ways You can Develop, Execute HA for Virtual Desktops

While the advantages of VDI are clear--from greater user mobility to more agile and efficient user management--many organizations, especially small and midsize businesses, are wary of the significant upfront infrastructure investment and the complexity of traditional enterprise-oriented VDI.

In this post, I will discuss a common question related to virtual desktops: Does reducing the cost of virtual desktops have to mean giving up key features like high availability? The answer, in a nutshell, is no. Below, I've outlined several key steps that will help SMBs set up effective, painless high availability for a virtual desktop infrastructure.

Posted by Krishna Subramanian on 01/09/20122 comments

How To Do VDI POC Like a Top Chef

When it comes to desktop virtualization, we would like to do something similar: Build a proof-of-concept that we can test in real-life scenarios but deploy the POC quickly and affordably. Say you want to set up a VDI POC for a handful of your end users, and you have a spare afternoon in which to do this.

Here, I'll walk you through the steps to deploy a live POC within an afternoon using Kaviza VDI-in-a-box..

Step 1: Identify the scenarios and use cases for the POC
As with any project, it is best to identify up front the goals and usage scenarios you are trying to model with the POC. Perhaps you want to start with more of the task workers, or you may want to test access via an iPad for your mobile users, etc.

Step 2: Size and procure your server. You need servers to host and run your virtual desktops
With Kaviza, these same servers also run the VDI-in-a-box virtual appliance, so once you size your virtual desktop host servers, you are ready to begin. A complete sizing guide is available on the support Web site, but a dual-core sever with 8GB RAM is sufficient to run 10 Windows XP desktops (use 12 to 18 GB for Windows 7). As you run out of capacity on a server, you can add more servers and Kaviza will create a grid across them and automatically load-balance the workload.

Step 3: Deploy the VDI-in-a-box appliance
To run VDI-in-a-box, simply install the free Citrix XenServer or the VMware ESX/ESXi hypervisor on the server, and import VDI-in-a-box as a virtual machine. You can download a free trial of the software from the Kaviza site.

Step 4: Configure the VDI-in-a-box grid
Log into the VDI-in-a-box appliance using a browser (see Fig. 1), and answer three questions: the hypervisor access privileges that are needed to create and manage the virtual desktops, read-access to your Active Directory, and the name of your grid.

Figure 1. Setup, configuration of servers. (Click image to view larger version.)

Once you enter these three pieces of information, your VDI environment setup is complete and now we can start provisioning desktops.

Step 5: Set up desktop pools
Kaviza has an image management wizard that steps you through the process of creating master desktop images and pools. You can set up a master image for each class of users that have unique desktop requirements (e.g. a master image for accounting, one for administrators, etc). To set up a master image, you import a Windows XP or Windows 7 image and prepare it to run within Kaviza. The image management wizard walks through the preparation process.

Figure 2. Set up desktop pools. (Click image to view larger version.)

Step 6: Create desktops and assign to users
From your master images, you can now provision virtual desktops in Kaviza and assign them to users by simply specifying the number of virtual desktops you would like to generate from the master image. Kaviza automatically provisions and manages the virtual desktops based on policies you set.

Figure 3. Create desktops and users. (Click image to view larger version.)

Now that your virtual desktops are ready, you simply assign desktops to any user or group from your Active Directory by simply associating them.

Figure 4. Assign Desktop Templates. (Click image to view larger version.)

End Users Are Now Connected, Virtually
Kaviza delivers virtual desktops using the Citrix HDX protocol – so you can access the desktops from any endpoint that is HDX enabled. This includes iPads, thin-clients, smart phones, Android devices and traditional PCs or Macs. End users can connect to the desktops using either the Kaviza Desktop client or through the native Citrix Receiver. Depending on the use cases you identified, you can have end users test the virtual desktops from a variety of endpoints and locations.

In these few simple steps using spare servers you may already have, you can easily set up a live proof-of-concept with virtual desktops and test out the idea with your end-users and become a VDI top-chef!

Posted by Krishna Subramanian on 06/06/20110 comments

Top 5 Reasons Why Windows on iPads Is Not a Passing Fad

iPads and other tablets are increasing in popularity, and there is growing interest in using tablets for work.  Is this a passing fad or is this trend here to stay?  Here are top five reasons why I think this trend is here to stay, and the top five ways in which IT can address this demand cost-effectively.

For mobile users such as executives, field agents, and sales representatives, tablets provide the ideal hybrid between a bulky laptop and a cell phone.  While you could access your Windows desktop on an iPhone, the small screen makes it difficult to use, but with the larger screens of iPads and other tablets, you can comfortably use the iPad to view documents, reply to email, and access corporate applications.

Posted by Krishna Subramanian on 05/09/20112 comments

Top 5 Ways IT Can Deliver Ubiquitous Access Cost-Effectively

#5:  Bring-your-own-device
By enabling employees to use their own devices to work, IT can get out of the business of provisioning, tracking, and managing employee access devices.  This saves significant time, and money,  especially because 80 percentof companies are looking at Windows 7 migration this year. For certain use cases, rather than buying new Windows 7 PCs, companies may be able to offer partial reimbursement for employee-owned devices.

Posted by Krishna Subramanian on 05/06/20112 comments