Transcript Leostream Overview

VDI as Evolution, Not Revolution
Eric Hanselman
CTO
Virtual Desktops are Hot!
 Major vendor announcements
– Just about everyone
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Microsoft
Oracle
Citrix
VMware
• Novell
• HP
• Red Hat
• IBM
• Cisco
• NetApp
• Dell
• EMC
 But what the heck are they?
– Many forms
– SBC (XenApp, RDS/TS), blades, full virtual
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Virtual Desktop Definition
 Centrally hosted
– Presentation space/SBC
• XenApp/RDS/Terminal Services
– Virtual
– Blades
 Remotely accessed
 Separate user from compute resource
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Desktops are Different
 Server virtualization is simpler
– Migration can be isolated
– Already abstracted
• Do your users care where a server is?
 Desktops are a users’ work life
– And maybe more…
– Proprietary behavior
– Often mixed data and applications
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Why Bother With This?
 Desk-side support
– Cut road/hall time
 Power and cooling
– What are your office power costs?
 User lifecycle
– Create/destroy
 Agility
– Effort to try new stuff
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Where and How to Start
 Focus on users
– Find users who benefit
 Avoid focusing on technologies
– We all do it…
 Define the requirements of different
user communities.
– Encapsulate functions
– Some politics are involved
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Differing User Communities
 Break down the use cases
– Applications
– Locations
– Clients
– “Personalization”
 Define the minimum set of options
 Budget
– Think like a service provider
– Offer choices
– Can you bill back?
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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User Characteristics
Users
Requirements
Solutions
Front Office
Fixed location, Mixed
apps
Virtual desktop
Engineering
Lots of systems,
remote access,
Multiple OS
Virtual desktop,
Portables
Sales Team
Remote access,
Mobile
mobile devices, limited devices/portables,
apps?
SBC or SaaS
Executive
Remote access,
mobile devices
Mobile
devices/portables,
SaaS
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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One Size Does Not Fit All
 Major vendors prefer you fit to them
– Not a new idea…
 User requirements vary widely
– Consider current PC buying
– Use cases often hidden
• Who needs extra capacity?
• Is it the application?
 What you have is working on some level
– Investment in processes and procedures
– Start from there
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Solutions
 Existing desktops
– Known capabilities and costs
 Server based computing
– Terminal Services/XenApp/Others
– Great density
– Great solution for mobile devices
 Full virtual
– Many platforms and cost levels
– Consider density/pricing
– Different requirements for desktops
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Nobody Likes Change
 Transitions are important
– Where are you today?
– Why do you want to be somewhere else?
– Who will go with you?
 Users must be motivated to change
– What’s in it for them?
– Define the benefit
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Planning, Planning, Planning!
 Building a platform is not
enough
 Users have to want it
 Platform must support
users
– Functionality
– Performance
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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User Experience is Critical
 Make sure users get what they expect
– Have to set expectations
 Desktop delivery is key
– Viewing protocols matter
• Still no one size fits all
– Some situations need local execution
 Performance management is critical
– Storage performance
– Compute performance
– Have to have a plan
• And tools
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Personalization is Critical/Secondary
 It all depends…
– How personal is personalization?
• Wallpaper/browser links
• Applications
 Critical for some user communities
– Traditional knowledge workers
 Secondary for others
– Mobile users
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Delivery is Critical for Experience
 How do you get users what they need?
– Application virtualization
– Thin provisioning
– Storage optimizations
 Cloud Delivered Desktops
– Ready today?
– Doesn’t SaaS fix this?
– Which cloud?
• Hey, you! Get off of my cloud!
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Multiple Offerings are Unavoidable
 Single platform is just too expensive
 Plan how you’ll manage them
– Common management
– Configuration
 Expect migration
– Life cycle for offerings
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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How To Manage This Mix?
 Focus on how users connect
– Fixed assignments for some
 Authentication can help focus
 Unify user access
– Start with new environments
 Connection management systems
– Connection brokers
– Remote access
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Technical Alliance Partnerships
Leostream Overview
 Premier connection management for hosted
virtual desktops (HVD)
– Easy to deploy
• Diversity without complexity
– Ensures strategic flexibility at the virtualization layer
• Avoid committing to “forever”
 Virtualization pioneers
– Early P2V and V2V technology
 Since 2002
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Thank You!
 www.leostream.com
 [email protected]
 On Twitter at @e_hanselman
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Secret #7 – Client Virtualization Fixes Everything
 Not today, but…
– Some promising starts
 What are you fixing?
– BYOPC
– Configuration management
– Mobile access
– Security
 Are there simpler ways?
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Hidden Costs
 Storage
– And it’s different than server storage
• I/O capacity considerations
 Servers
– What you have won’t do for full virtual
 Clients
– Repurposed PC’s are tempting…
 Network
– Storage bandwidth
– Bandwidth to end users
 Licensing
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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Bonus Secret – You Shouldn’t Wait
 Good reasons to start
 Start carefully
– Pick your battles
 Manage transitions
You’ll have to, eventually
Copyright © 2011 Leostream Corporation
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