DaaS Moves Into Spotlight

If you haven't heard, Desktops-as-a-Service (DaaS) are here.  Cloud-based subscription offerings are available today, and more coming soon, so that small and large businesses alike can get pay-as-you-need user desktops without extra IT costs, similar to the way many organizations now access cloud-based front- and back-office applications.  Home users will soon have the same choice.

Desktone is at the forefront in providing a full DaaS delivery platform, and we're proud today that Desktone and vmSight have announced the first DaaS partner alliance.  We are working closely together to ensure DaaS reliability and quality of service.  More to come on this, stay tuned.

Taking The Long-Term View of Virtual Desktop & App Performance

I see there's a little kerfuffle caused by VMware publishing data claiming that ESX is better than XenServer for XenApp workloads, and a response from Citrix CTO Simon Crosby calling it "bad science."

Here's an alternative view from the front-lines of end user experience and performance monitoring for VMware View, XenDesktop and XenApp on hypervisors:
Fact: as platforms for VDI or XenApp/TS, both hypervisors perform well, the differences seen in practice are relatively small.
Fact: when it comes to VDI or XenApp/TS on a hypervisor, for some use-cases performance today is fine, for some use-cases (such as graphics-intensive) it's either questionable or not-so-good.
Hypothesis: over the course of the next few years, performance will improve to cover more use-cases and performance differences in platforms will get increasingly small; in 2 years any arguments about ICA performance vs. RDP performance vs. PC-over-IP performance will be moot.

The "my performance is better than yours" dance is something platform vendors feel they have to do (all those RDBMS guys are still doing it).  But everyone's performance (and everyone's performance problems) will soon for all practical purposes be essentially the same.  If I'm right, then buying decisions are going to be made based on whether or not the solution adequately supports specific customer use-cases, and on factors other than vendor-published (or even independent) benchmarks.  Like manageability.  Or vendor and partner trust.  Or cost.  And the success of projects will hinge not so much on the platform chosen as on the appropriate implementation steps and tools.  One could argue that this is all true today.

Of course, many performance issues have nothing to do with the core platform capabiltiies, but more to do with how the environment is setup and used.  If you're looking for a solution to help measure end user experience and more quickly resolve issues with VMware View, XenDesktop or XenApp, whether you choose ESX or XenServer (or both) we invite you to check out vmSight.

Simple vs. Advanced VDI

Within the VDI community, among vendors and implementers and analysts, there has been a kind of debate and I think some confusion around what are the required elements of VDI.  There is discussion about stateful, stateless, and mixed in are discussions about the convergence of various desktop and application virtualization technologies.

While those of us working on the platforms and tools have come to some agreement and understanding about many of these elements, I continue to hear this creating confusion among those newer to VDI (mainly the customers).  I think we could do everyone a favor if we could create a better way to talk about it, and my suggestion is that we can separate it into "Simple VDI" and "Advanced VDI".

Without going into incredible detail, what I'm suggesting is that there is a natural breakdown along lines that separates certain technologies and use-cases.

Simple VDI -- for local and/or remote non-mobile users, group or department-sized deployments

• Broker - optional
• Disk de-duplication - nice to have
• Roaming profiles - not needed
• Offline support - not needed

Advanced VDI -- for non-mobile and highly mobile users, very large enterprise deployments

• Broker - required
• Disk de-duplication - required
• Roaming profiles - required
• Offline support - required (for the highly mobile users)

Here at vmSight we use Simple VDI and it's great for a small company like us (I'm working off my virtual desktop now as I do every day from the office, on the road or at home).  Someday we may want or need Advanced VDI.  I see customers doing both, although no platform yet really has all the features for Advanced VDI (notably offline is missing) and I see more customers starting with Simple VDI.  One other note is that Simple VDI is a great candidate for hosting in a Desktop-as-a-Service model.  In both cases there are still kinks that vendors are working on (such as aspects of performance and end user experience where vmSight fits in).

Anyway, that's terminology I find more useful when talking to customers, maybe it will be useful to some of you too.

Desktop Replacement and Cost Savings Drive Virtual Desktops

Another interesting set of facts we discovered from our recent survey of over 250 organizations had to do with the reasons driving virtual desktops.  Among the more than 80 organizations with active virtual desktop projects, the number 1 trigger for the project was desktop replacement, with remote access number 2.

And among the business drivers cited, it was very interesting that Cost Savings and Improved Manageability dominated the responses, and that Increased Security which is often cited by vendors as a leading reason to virtualize desktops was not a significant business driver for these projects.

What can we take from this?  As with server virtualization, at least among this group, desktop virtualization is being driven by its ability to reduce IT costs and complexity around PC desktop management.  Also just as we're seeing on the server side organizations are using the normal PC replacement cycle as a natural point to migrate appropriate users from physical to virtual.

Survey Shows Virtual Desktop Traction

If you did not catch it, vmSight recently released results from a survey of over 250 organizations conducted at VMworld.  While the survey was conducted at a virtualization conference so does not represent a true random sampling, some of the results are telling.

Over 140 organizations responded to the virtual desktop portion of the survey, and among these 35% said they have deployed or are piloting virtual desktops, plus another 50% said they are evaluating, leaving only 15% with no plans.  A similar story was revealed for the 130 or so organizations that responded regarding application virtualization.

Another interesting note is that among those actively deploying or piloting virtual desktops a large cross-section of industries were represented.

While drawing absolute conclusions from this survey would be faulty, the data suggests that virtual desktops are gaining real traction, and that they have potential benefits across organizations of many types.

vmSight + VMworld = Fun

VMworld was fun, informative, exhausting.  The coveted vmSight Virtualization Superhero bobblehead dolls -- likenesses of Superman and Batman -- caused our booth to be constantly overrun, and in general there was just a tremendous amount happening both on and off the show floor.  I know the projections were that attendance was up 30% or more from 2007, but personally I noticed that many more attendees clearly were further along with virtualization projects and therefore there was increased discussion about issues and solutions.  Particularly in the area of desktop virtualization, vmSight's key area of focus, VMworld further validated what we've seen all year, namely that organizations have educated themselves and are actively moving from pilots to deployment.

We conducted a survey at VMworld of over 120 organizations that have deployed, are piloting or are planning virtual desktops, and over 100 organizations that are using or planning application virtualization hosted on virtual servers.   We gathered some very interesting data from the survey that I'll publish in coming posts.

But another purely fun element at VMworld was our vmSight animated movie that our VP Marketing Sandy Tincher and our graphic artist / web specialist Hoa Giang put together with a group of talented contributors.  It was playing on a 65-inch plasma in our booth and was accompanied by a comic book that was another popular giveaway at the show.  For fun we've placed the animation on YouTube so you can take a look if you weren't at VMworld or didn't get to stop by.  Enjoy -- and watch out for The Choker!

 

RedHat's VDI Play

While the Qumranet acquisition certainly could pay off for Red Hat even if the VDI opportunity doesn't pan out, I can say that we've heard very good things from customers who are testing Qumranet VDI (Solid ICE and SPICE) and I believe they will emboldened by Red Hat's support.  In general, expected VDI growth is so large that I think Red Hat has a real chance here and the timing is good, and extra competition is healthy for VDI growth in the end no matter who the big winners are.  Of course it's always interesting to see how organizations assimilate and invest in acquisitions, so it will be interesting to see how Red Hat plays this hand.

VMworld Crazy

Probably like a lot of other folks we are kind of crazy here getting ready for VMworld and simultaneously putting our forthcoming new release through its final paces.  We're having a lot of fun planning so be sure to stop by booth #1239 and say hi, I promise you'll get a smile and something fun to take away.  Plus you can see our new release and find out about everything we're up to -- that should raise some eyebrows too.  And if you have time and interest I'm participating in a panel discussion Session PO3740 Achieving Regulatory Compliance in Virtualized Environments (catalog here).  Looking forward to seeing everyone at the show.

VMware Webcast on Scalable Virtual Desktop Deployments

We are beginning to see reference architectures and design patterns emerge for scalable virtual desktop deployments.  As with server virtualization, many organizations are starting small, piloting a few virtual desktops, with plans to grow much bigger.  If you are in pilot stage with virtual desktops, you want to make sure you have a handle on key management capabilities, such as how you will diagnose performance and reliability issues.  You want to make sure you know what to do if and when the help desk phone rings.

The good news I consistently try to convey to customers is that, with good planning, your administration and management capabilities can and should be much better in your virtual environment than they were in the corresponding physical environment.  That's one of the key reasons to migrate appropriate physical desktops to virtual.  But like with all new and different things, you don't know what you don't know and what you don't know can hurt you (confusing enough?) -- and that's where gaining insights from others who have "climbed the mountain" before can help.

In this spirit, Tyler Rohrer from the VMware Enterprise Desktop group and I have recorded a webcast that is kind of a Primer 101 on virtual desktop infrastructure and some of the upfront planning you can do to ensure scalability, performance and reliability of your virtual desktop deployment.  This is the first in a series of webcasts we at vmSight will be participating in with key partners on best practices for virtual desktop deployments.  You can view the webcast for free through the VMware web site.

Virtual Desktops: A Better Way To Protect Data

Federal regulators levied a $100,000 HIPAA-related fine against Seattle-based Providence Health for the loss of individuals' health data, including data on lost laptops.  And now the US Department of Justice has filed charges against 11 people and released more details around the theft of over 41 million credit card numbers from TJX, a theft for which TJX has already spent over $130 million (!) in settlements and other charges.  It is clear from the details released that the thieves gained access through wireless networks but their ultimate success came from installing malicious code inside the environment that intercepted credit card data and then sent it back out to the criminals' remote sites.

The threats and costs to businesses (and individuals) are clear.  But what's the answer?  Many people suggest we just need better security on our endpoints, on our network access points, and throughout the network and the data center.  But the cost and complexity is large, and the chance that we can continue our data sprawl while solving our data breach risk is remote.

At vmSight we believe virtualization offers a different and better solution.  Organizations that protect valuable data need to think about it like money in a bank.  To protect the money, you keep it in a vault.  You only let out what you need to, and very carefully at that, but at night it all goes back in the vault and you lock it down.  While you can't have video surveillance and careful tracking on every doorway and office in the bank, you can do it for the vault.  The cost and effort for security is reasonable, while the chance of any theft becomes much smaller and the chance of a major theft becomes tiny because a thief would have to penetrate the vault.

Rather than letting sensitive and valuable data flow and reside all over an organization, in order to protect it you need to centralize access and control, and limit the number of entry points as well as provide complete audit of all traffic in and out.  For the past few decades we moved in a different direction with our computing environments because centralized systems (mainframes and minis) were at odds with more productive end user systems (personal computers).  But now with virtual servers and virtual desktops, organizations can regain a hold on data security and create a true data vault, without sacrificing end user productivity and without tremendous cost to develop new software systems.  Plus there are many other cost savings benefits including improved manageability and disaster recovery.

For more on this, see the VMware and vmSight white paper on using virtual desktops for stronger security and regulatory compliance.