08 Oct 2007
With all the current hype over virtualisation, IT departments must be careful when planning future desktop strategy, according to thin client vendor Igel Technology. In particular, businesses should look carefully at which architecture is best suited to their user needs instead of pushing blindly ahead with virtual desktops.
Moving some or all users to virtual PCs hosted on a server may seem like a neat way of centralising the infrastructure, but for many applications this approach is akin to taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut, according to Igel marketing director Stephen Yeo.
“Virtualisation is great for certain things - if you want to migrate PC users to the datacentre very quickly, for example - but it requires a lot more hardware on the server side compared with running Terminal Services,” Yeo said.
Yeo added that most users operating a stable set of applications, such as Microsoft Office, can be served perfectly well by a Citrix or Terminal Server session. “There’s been no intelligent debate about which model is best for what type of application and user,” he said.
Igel recently joined VMware’s virtual desktop infrastructure (VDi) alliance programme and has the broadest range of terminals with support for virtual PCs, according to Yeo. But the firm sees remote desktop access as just one of a suite of “digital services” that it can offer through thin clients, with others including Java, voice over IP, and a browser for direct access to many enterprise applications.
“If you have a guy in a warehouse who needs access to SAP, it’s better to go straight to it via a browser rather than through a virtual desktop. Otherwise you’re introducing a middleman in your IT infrastructure that doesn’t need to be there,” Yeo said.
Moving to virtual desktops also has potential pitfalls, and Yeo warned that
IT departments must think carefully about how these will realistically be
managed.
“I can see lots of IT guys pulling their PCs into the datacentre, then wondering
how they are going to manage them and finding they are no easier to reach than
ordinary Windows desktops unless you have the right tools. Only in the past few
months have management tool vendors started to look at handling both virtual and
physical PCs,” Yeo said.
In the future, Igel sees the virtual desktop market dominated by connection brokers from three firms - Citrix, VMware and Leostream - and has integrated support for them into its terminals.
Yeo said current developments spelled the end for the desktop PC as the chief business client. “The days of the big box on your desk are numbered,” he predicted. “Some users will still have laptops because they work on the move, but most other workers will move to virtual desktops or thin clients.”
These are all great comments and suggestions - certainly hope that they come with the experience behind their mind-set about virtualization technology within the enterprise. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about virtualization in general however.
There is no argument that virtualization is here to stay, and while it is not the solution for every situation, technology conscious companies or those responsible for its IT focus, should be fully engaged in the investigation of what virtualization can really do for their enterprise. The problem however, is not that it doesn't or can't work today, but probably more so about what it can do to increase network performance, simplify secure remote sessions to the desktop, and yes, reduce overall IT cost and the need of personnel to support it. Unfortunately, for business managers, this message is not getting to them.
If IT Pros would spend more time investigating successful implementations of virtualization projects, rather than trying to always fit the old square peg into the new round hole, they might just be quite surprised how they're pessimism about virtualization may change, even today. In my opinion, if you are an IT Pro, executive, or business manager that has influence over your IT environment and infrastructure and you don't know what virtualization can and is really doing for those who are making it work, you're simply doing your profession and company a disservice, and even worst, getting left behind, like technology often does to so many.
T. Haluea, Director of Business Development
ASIERUS, Inc., proponents of and experts in virtualization technologies
Posted by: T. Haluea 06 Dec 2007
Great story and certainly timely, given the (irrational?) exuberance over VMware just now....while it's certainly very exciting to see what VDi can do over a LAN, what about remote users? You're still faced with finding a way to securely serve up those virtual desktops over the Internet, otherwise you run the risk of exposing those VDi sessions to the Web.
Full disclosure: I work for an SSL VPN manufacturer but we see a natural connection between the benefits of VDi and the need to enforce remote access policy over the Web, which is what SSL VPNs are designed to do. We think that if a company decides to move towards VDi - and we're seeing more organizations doing so as a standard practice - then doesn't securing those sessions for remote users become critical?
Food for thought...
Eric
www.aepnetworks.com
Posted by: Eric 10 Oct 2007
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