Desktop Virtualization: Simplifying PC management

Virtualization technology can significantly reduce the time and cost of managing desktops, but the choice of technology and solutions is confusing. The biggest benefit of desktop virtualization is the ability to use software from a centralized location to configure PCs and other client devices. It can manage a large number of enterprise clients in the data center, rather than on each user's desktop, reducing onsite support and strengthening control over application software and patch management.

Managing PCs has always been tricky, and endless application upgrades, operating system patches, and threat updates have made this work difficult. Even with web-based installation and patch management tools to ease the burden, IT departments spend too much time on the desktop, dealing with many of the problems caused by personal software, multiple versions of ActiveX controls, drivers or DLL conflicts, malware infections, improperly configured hardware, and so on.

Desktop virtualization technology is expected to centralize application software in the datacenter, simplifying management and configuration-leveraging hardware resources and minimizing annoying software conflicts. In some cases, this same technology helps to achieve these three aspects, bringing greater control and flexibility to the IT department, and users will not lament about losing their desktop.

At first glance, desktop virtualization technology sounds like the Terminal Services offered by companies such as the Citrix system, where servers run applications to provide remote access to users. The user's terminal or PC only displays updates on the screen and allows you to enter content through the keyboard and mouse.

Desktop virtualization, on the other hand, is a new way to provide a personal PC environment that white-collar employees need and enjoy. In fact, the server hosts the entire desktop environment dedicated to each user.

Earlier versions of desktop virtualization technology were blade servers, such as ClearCube technology and IBM Blades, which moved the PC's processing functionality to the data center, leaving input and display functions on the user's desktop. But the latest version of the technology uses the PC at the user's desktop to do most of the processing. This approach, called Desktop distribution (desktop streaming), retains the benefits of centralized management without the ability to discard the desktop. The required code is distributed to the disk and memory cache that is used only for that session, ensuring that nothing is left for the user to disrupt or tamper with.

Several providers are not content with desktop distribution and are involved in application distribution: IT departments can allocate runtime caching for individual applications as needed. This reduces the number of unique user mirrors to maintain and more clearly understands which application licenses are really needed.

Build a better thin client

The biggest benefit of desktop virtualization is the ability to use software from a centralized location to configure PCs and other client devices. It can manage a large number of enterprise clients in the data center, rather than on each user's desktop, reducing onsite support and strengthening control over application software and patch management.

From the simplest, application server-side virtualization can reduce hardware costs by having one server configure multiple desktop clients, rather than having one server per desktop client, said John Humphreys, an analyst at IDC. Virtualization technology also adds the ability to move the desktop environment and the applications stored on it as needed to achieve load balancing or fault replacement. To enable existing Terminal Services and blade systems to work with virtual machines, Citrix and ClearCube have developed agent (broker) technology that allows IT personnel to manage the mapping of virtual resources.

Today, Citrix, ClearCube, and Wyse technology support the use of VMware and Microsoft virtual machines on blade servers and other application servers. VMware also provides virtual Desktop infrastructure (VDI) software that enables users to access virtual machines hosted on a server through Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

Martin Quigley, a senior solution consultant for the company's Adaptive Infrastructure division, a Bell systems and technologies management call Center for the Canadian Bell Company, specifically noted that the company uses VDI to configure the desktop for Call center users to

To work elsewhere, even at home, does not add a burden to IT support. "The Remote Desktop protocol is fairly simple," he says, "so it doesn't burden the network." But Quigley looks forward to the next version of the basic technology, VMware's ESX, which can support load balancing across servers, simplifying the ability to maintain performance levels when user requirements change (this is a manual process at this time). ）

In Oklahoma State Duncan's Duncan Regional Hospital, the number of desktops has increased by more than one times over the past two years, to around 500. CIO Roger Neal decided to deploy ClearCube thin clients, centralize management, and improve the efficiency of existing staff, rather than lobbying for funds to hire more desktop support technicians. After ClearCube started supporting VMware virtual Machines in 2006, Neal began reconfiguring the blades so that each blade server could run three virtual machines. This way, if you need more desktops, you don't have to add more blades. Neal also found that desktop support calls were reduced by 40%, which he attributed to centralized PC management.

Distribute to Desktop

Applying the virtualization of managed servers makes it more efficient to deploy thin clients, but many organizations insist that PCs be handed over to users, although this requires support costs. Desktop distribution is becoming one of the most effective ways to support this pattern without the usual huge cost of desktop support.

A growing number of vendors are offering desktop distribution software that can configure the entire desktop environment from the server for desktop PCs (or thin clients), including Ardence, Propero, Stream theory, and Wyse.

Altiris, AppStream and Microsoft (through the recently acquired softricity) have pushed this concept to the next stage: distributing applications, rather than distributing the entire desktop environment. This increases the flexibility of configuring resources because IT departments can build basic operating system mirrors and then build a single mirror for each application, which can be quickly merged when needed. You don't have to provide a separate desktop image for each combination of applications.

Whether it is desktop distribution or application software distribution, the configured operating system and application software can use the client's local resources and do not have the overhead of permanently installing on the client. For example, Greg Nelson, an IT analyst at financial services firm Russell Investment Group, said the company had started using Microsoft's SoftGrid and found that the application deployment time had been shortened from four weeks to a week and a half.

A set of stub services is typically routed to the local cache at connection time, and then other resources are transferred when required. David Grescher, SoftGrid Marketing Manager at Microsoft, said: "When you run an application, you need only 15% to 20% of the service to start using, so this can be distributed over the network." ”

Bill Washburn, an operation analyst at the California State University in San Marco, admits that the distribution process does extend the initial access time for Applications-the university uses Altiris technology. "But once the apps have been installed, they say it's the best they've seen," he said. ”

Russell Investment group Nelson said that while desktop and application distribution would theoretically use more network resources than Terminal Services, this is not always the case. For example, under the traditional Terminal Services architecture, printing and transferring large volumes of files can make the network overcrowded. Desktop and application software distribution avoids this problem by using local printers and local storage.