AMS.NET Blog

VDI Enables Workforce Flexibility- Work Anywhere, Anytime

Work is no longer a physical place you go to every day. Work is something you do whether you are at the office, on the road, at the local coffee shop or at home. Just as the place of work lines are blurred so is the line between work and personal time. Employees are working after hours, on the weekend in between family activities and even on vacation. VDI and the virtualization of Unified Communications support workforce flexibility and allow employees to work anywhere, anytime.

Virtualization began with servers and with further advancements in hypervisor technology; organizations now can virtualize desktops and mission critical applications such as Unified Communications (UC). Since UC delivers real time communications with call control and instant messaging, careful consideration should be made to the platform that supports this virtualized application so that it provides high availability and quality of service. A virtualized infrastructure should support virtualization features such as vMotion and Storage vMotion for high availability, optimization of resources and consistent security.   

VDI coupled with virtualized Unified Communication applications enable employees to access company resources from virtually anywhere, from any device at any time. From a company laptop, employee owned device or a thin client, employees can access their desktop. Along with user and organization benefits, a virtualized UC solution minimizes the traditional desktop maintenance. The desktop image is pushed from the virtualized data center. If there is a breach of security or malware attack, the session can be terminated and another desktop pushed to the user. Integrated Unified Communication phones and virtual desktop thin clients provide a smaller footprint on the user’s desk and further reduce IT maintenance and support.

Delivering UC services with VDI on a virtualized architecture enables the flexibility required of today’s workforce. Successfully delivering these applications requires planning, consideration of the virtualized data center and the virtualized desktop infrastructure. To learn more, please join us at one of our VDI Technical Seminars coming to a location near you.

5 Things to Consider Before Your VDI Deployment

While virtualization has been the hot topic over the last several years, organizations are now ready to deploy desktop virtualization to realize the benefits of increased access, improved collaboration and tighter security among other benefits. A recent IDC study showed that 45% of CIO’s state that virtual desktops is their number one interest in 2012. As your organization plans for desktop virtualization there are 5 main things to consider to ensure a successful deployment.

1. IT Roles
Technology is in constant change and IT roles respond accordingly. Organizations will still need network administrators, security professionals, hardware professionals and desktop technicians but their roles may change somewhat as you move to a virtualized architecture and transition to VDI. Network and storage administrators traditionally have separate rolls. In a virtualized architecture with virtual servers and unified storage, these groups will work closely together. The same applies to the security professionals as they need to ensure that the security profiles apply to this entire, fluid architecture. Desktop technicians will be thankful to minimize the headaches of managing a traditional desktop and will spend more time making sure that virtual desktops are in the correct pools, mapped with the correct resources and if necessary re-imaged or re-loaded.

2. Users
Careful consideration should be given to users and their desktop devices. Users should be documented and categorized based on physical location, connection type, job requirement/application set, device type and mobility requirement. Often these users are categorized by task workers, knowledge workers and power users. These user types and their requirements affect how VDI is deployed. User types that are primarily task workers or knowledge workers may affect the VDI software that is deployed. User type will also affect the type of virtual desktop mapped to that user, persistent or non-persistent, as well as how the desktops are pooled and load balanced.

3. Virtualized Infrastructure as the Platform for VDI
A virtualized infrastructure is critical to the performance of a VDI deployment. In a VDI environment, the operating system along with the data and applications are housed and run in the data center. Bandwidth, storage area network (SAN) and CPU requirements should be considered. It is important to optimize the data center and build a virtualized infrastructure that can adequately support a VDI environment.

4. Collaboration Support
A big driver of VDI is supporting users anytime, anywhere to enhance collaboration and productivity. The virtualized architecture and VDI solution should be able to support your VoIP, video and other corporate applications. VDI allows users the freedom of device choice and gives IT the control and security they require.

5. Security Across the Enterprise
A virtualized architecture increases security with data and applications residing in the data center. Consideration should be made to the security of data whether at rest or in motion with virtualization features such as vMotion. Security professionals need to deploy a VDI solution where security profiles are consistent throughout this fluid architecture. Centralized management helps with the traditional security challenges.

Organizations, users and IT administrators can realize dramatic results when key factors are considered and properly planned for when deploying a VDI solution. Technology solution providers, such as AMS.NET, have the expertise and knowledge to perform the assessment, conduct the pilots and finally implement and support these types of technology solutions.

3 Steps to Makeover Your Desktop into a Virtual Workspace

Often the consumer market drives technology adoption in business as is the case with virtual desktop deployment in the workplace. The PC is no longer center stage. Whether corporate assets or personal property; smart phones, tablets, laptops and other portable devices are being used at home and work. Employees are working differently and IT needs to be able to adapt to these users. A makeover of your desktops and the ability to provide secure access to various endpoints will provide that virtual workspace that your end-users demand.

Step 1. Modernize Your Current Architecture
The first step to providing a virtual workspace is to modernize your current architecture to make it virtual desktop-ready. Products such as the Cisco Unified Computing System integrate the compute, virtualization hypervisor, fabric interconnect and storage functions usually found in separate platforms. VMware vSphere is an integral part of this virtualized architecture that enables the abstraction of the physical processor, memory, storage and networking resources into multiple virtual machines. It also provides the means to create, manage, optimize, and migrate virtual machines from a centralized management interface. The third essential component of a virtualized architecture is unified storage from manufacturers such as EMC. Unified storage allows for resource sharing and supports VMware’s vMotion. EMC’s unified storage solution provides advanced failover and fully automated storage tiering to virtual desktop environments.

Step 2. Integrate Virtual Desktops
With a virtualized architecture in place, virtualizing desktops with VMware View, Citrix XenDesktop or other desktop virtualization software is the next step to providing your end-users a virtual workspace. These solutions provide the platform to create, administer, and deliver virtual desktops. They enable the delivery of secure desktop services so that users can access data, applications and other network services. 

To provide a consistent user experience from a variety of devices from anywhere, IT must improve performance and security controls. Cisco WAAS application aware DRE enhances virtual desktop user experience and improves efficiency across the WAN. Products such as Cisco’s policy based Network Access Control uses Identity Services Engine (ISE) to provide user-based security on any device therefore enabling a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model to the workplace.

Step 3: Migrate to Integrated Voice and Video Thin Clients
Thin clients, software thin clients or Zero client devices that attach to the back of an IP phone integrate the virtual desktop with voice and video capabilities. These types of devices optimize processing to use network and data center CPU resources more efficiently. HD delivers quality graphics and provides a high quality user experience.

Makeover your desktop environment and provide your customers, the end-users, with a virtual workspace that supports their need for anytime, anywhere access from a variety of devices while maintaining control and security. Give your customers the workspace that they demand!

Top 3 Storage Musts to Boost IT Efficiency

Organizations of all sizes are experiencing ever-increasing data growth and a growing demand for storage. Increased use of video conferencing and video surveillance in the workplace along with government compliance requirements have resulted in an overwhelming amount of data that must be organized, protected and archived. IT is tasked to manage this storage demand with limited IT staff and budgets. Unified storage as a part of a virtualized infrastructure has been significant to enabling IT organizations to accommodate this growth. In addition to consolidation, organizations demand that their storage solutions be flexible, efficient and easy to use. 

1. Flexibility
   Organizations run many different applications with various network protocols that require storage including iSCSI, FCoE, NFS, and more. Unified storage consolidates legacy block storage, file servers and direct-attached application storage and enables organizations to cost-effectively manage multi-protocol file systems and multi-protocol block storage access. Flash-optimized solutions deliver the highest system performance and the lowest storage cost with auto-tiering. With Unified Storage, IT managers don’t need to decide between cost and performance.
2. Efficiency
   IT managers require that their storage solutions are efficient and support virtualization features such as thin provisioning and automated data movement. Block compression and file-level deduplication are important to reducing disk space and allowing IT to regain capacity for the most efficient use of storage resources.
3. Easy To Use
   Storage solutions must have a centralized, simple to use management interface to setup and manage storage pools. Unified storage solutions deliver snapshot capabilities, replication and wizard-based management tools for provisioning. Unified storage solutions must integrate with VMware or other virtualization software to ensure an efficient server and storage virtualized infrastructure. Application administrators or generalists can manage storage pools.

Storage used to be a balancing act between performance and cost. Today, IT efficiency is a top priority and is solved with a unified storage solution. Unified storage solutions have the flexibility to support all types of applications, the efficiency to make the most efficient use of resources and an easy to use management interface to simplify storage management.

Come to work and BYOD!

A new trend has emerged in business; BYOD or bring your own device to work. With the increase in remote and mobile workers and the rise of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets in the consumer market, workers expect these tools and access in the workplace. One way organizations are providing these tools is through BYOD programs that subsidize the cost of the device and service plans. With these programs in place, businesses can allow employees to pick their device of choice and eliminate some of the maintenance and desktop management headaches of maintaining PCs and other devices.

Security, management and device ownership should be carefully considered with this model. Employees using a subsidized laptop, smart phone or tablet will undoubtedly be using the device for work and personal use putting the device and corporate intellectual property at risk. If IT manages these devices, maintenance becomes more complex when mixing different types of devices. If employees use a subsidized service plan, IT steps away from the desktop management and at the same time gives up some control and security.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, VDI, allows you to provide a BYOD program and retain control and more importantly provide secure access from many types of devices. With a VPN connection and a browser, users can securely access company resources from anywhere, using any device.

In a VDI environment, data and applications reside in the data center and users are provided a centrally controlled desktop image on demand. Employees can work from home, in the field or from a hotel room. Contract workers or visitors can gain temporary access without sacrificing security.

In the event of a security breach, the VDI session is ended and upon login a new clean VDI session is initiated. Instead of focusing on a long recovery process, the focus is on productivity and getting the user quickly back to work.

Centralized management tools allow IT to setup profiles based on user type and security requirements to ensure the appropriate rights and access. Virtual desktops can always be reached for software maintenance activities such as patches, upgrades, and removal of unsupported software to further enhance security.

VDI not only supports the BYOD model, it provides increased security and minimizes desktop management for both BYOD users and organizations with traditional PCs or thin clients.

 

Public or Private Cloud Computing? You don't have to decide.

When we talk to our customers about virtualization or cloud computing, their answers to the question, “private or public?” are somewhat cloudy.  Public clouds have raised some security and compliance concerns while private clouds often require new operational processes. Both cloud computing models have their strengths and weaknesses therefore most organizations will likely use both or a hybrid cloud architecture.

Private Cloud
Private clouds or virtualized data centers reside on-premise or virtually outside of the enterprise data center. Users can access the private cloud via a secure HTTP browser or if outside the firewall via VPN.  Private clouds are inherently more secure than other models because data resides in the enterprise data center. IT remains in control and can maintain regulatory compliance. There are some operational process changes that can be challenging. With the integration of server and network operations in data center, the distinct roles of a server administrator and an IT administrator now overlap.

Public Cloud
A public cloud is a model where a service provider makes resources, infrastructure and applications, available to one or more organizations over the Internet for a fee. This model allows an organization to handle resource peaks and valleys but security and control become concerns with critical data being transmitted over the internet into the cloud.

Hybrid Cloud
The hybrid cloud takes advantage of both models and allows organizations to maintain secure sensitive or critical applications on their private cloud and utilize the public cloud for additional resources in high peak periods. While a hybrid cloud sounds ideal, there are still challenges with interoperability and with management that can monitor both platforms. Many organizations are waiting until standards are developed before embracing a truly hybrid cloud infrastructure. 

There are many considerations when deciding whether a private cloud, a public cloud or a hybrid cloud best fit your organization. Building a cloud infrastructure is a journey and often an organizations first step is virtualizing the enterprise data center and building a private cloud infrastructure. AMS.NET can help you evaluate your current infrastructure, discuss your applications and business challenges and help recommend a solution that will meet your current needs and allow for an integrated hybrid cloud in the future.

Is there a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) in Your Future?

When desktops reside on a virtualized platform in the private cloud, resources are shared and controlling access is made easier. A virtualized desktop infrastructure (VDI) allows for the reuse of assets rather than one-off use, such as an individual desktop provided for each user. Performance levels can also be standardized based on the application use and compute need of each user.

Maintenance of each desktop is standardized and the desktop template can be replicated easily to provide a new interface quickly to minimize workforce disruption in the case where a desktop ceases to function or is stolen. Should a desktop become the victim of a virus outbreak, the solution is simple; delete the old machine and launch a new one in minutes. Data is more secure because it’s stored in a separate area, rather than on the C drive.

End-of-life equipment that should be replaced can instead run a virtual desktop with the latest op system without having to meet the specs on each of the local machines. If IT wants to do an upgrade to a new operating system, they can do that on a trial basis with a group of users and then roll it out to all virtual desktops when ready.

VDI is the future of computing because the end user device is becoming less important, meaning that the desktop needs to run on whatever device the user has access to. This will serve to reduce the number of devices people need and make work more flexible. The future workplace experience will require seamless movement between devices that provides the same experience for the user, regardless of the device or location they work from.

VDI is just another application within the private cloud, although it’s not necessary to have a private cloud prior to implementing VDI. You can choose to take either direction. This being said, users will be more likely to push back when you change their desktop work experience before you’ve moved other applications to the cloud.

The most important thing to realize is that VDI is not all or nothing. For example, a company may not approve of certain application use during work, such as iTunes. Users who want to use the application can run it locally while also using their virtual desktop. The same is true for video conferencing, if it’s not handled in the VDI. 

If you’re considering VDI for your company, the tips below should help you start planning:

• Consider the proper hardware platform
• Plan for capacity needs
• Get buy in from your end users
• Involve them in the testing process before the formal rollout
• Train IT to support the virtualized back end
• Set expectations about performance and limitations that may differ from the experience they’re used to from a local machine.

The Difference a Private Cloud Makes

The difference in cloud computing in comparison to traditional data centers is computing resources that aren’t specifically tied to a physical box. IT professionals don’t need to be as concerned about where these resources “live.” That’s because the private cloud allows IT to pool applications and resources together within a shared-hardware environment where resources can be allocated based on need, without dependency on a single box. That’s a big difference from traditional application deployments where each application required its own server, many of which sat (or still do) using only a small percentage of their capacity.

When you look at the physical components of cloud computing, they look a lot like typical hardware such as boxes, memory, keyboard and screen. But when IT pulls these resources together, they have the capability to build a “super” resource pool. This introduces new levels of performance because resources are no longer limited to the functionality available on a specific box. It also means IT can multiply the resources they have available without adding more physical servers. Now IT can maximize the demand for resources based on need, rather on the existence of an application.

Virtualization is a component of the private cloud. Virtualization is what allows IT this latitude to shift the location of resources to another virtual server (VM) when capacity needs expand. This level of flexibility allows IT to gain optimal productivity out of the data center without adding new hardware.

Here’s an example:

Let’s take an email server that is used heavily during the business day, but sits idle after the workday ends. The server then sits dormant, but is using power and energy as if it is still running.

Now, consider that you may have a backup system that runs at night, sitting idle during the day.

With virtualization, I can use the same computing resources to do both, maximizing compute cycles based on demand for the services IT needs to deliver to the business. This capability serves to reduce the cost of power, space requirements and hardware costs.

Additional benefits of a private cloud include:

• Reduced maintenance of hardware
• Reduced application disruption when issues with servers occur
• Perform maintenance during regular hours by moving virtual machines.
• Scale is no longer limited by rack space or time requirements to build, test and launch new servers
• Higher availability of services and applications
• Reduced power consumption
• IT can support more applications in the future with less footprint

If you haven’t considered a private cloud to help your IT department gain efficiencies and do more with less, there are a lot of great reasons why you should.

Top Reasons Why SMBs Transition to a Private Cloud

Organizations both large and small face similar IT challenges including managing the increasing demand for new IT capabilities with fewer resources. Sometimes of greater emphasis to small and medium size businesses (SMBs) is the need to secure business critical applications and data along with working more efficiently or doing more with less. Transitioning to a private cloud addresses these challenges and provides SMBs the virtual infrastructure to not only better manage resources and enhance security but also provide business agility and continuity.

Many SMBs are transitioning to the private cloud for these reasons:

• Better Resource Management
  A private cloud infrastructure delivers a centralized management platform in which IT can provision, monitor and manage resources for the entire infrastructure and respond to issues when they arise. Automated virtualization features such as VMware DRS dynamically allocate compute resources based on business priorities and pre-defined service levels eliminating the previous manual process while ensuring business users have the performance they need. With better resource management, IT resources can provide better service levels and be available for strategic projects.
  
  
• Enhanced Security
  Security is of utmost importance to SMBs and also one of the main objections to public cloud computing. Private cloud infrastructures provide many of the same cloud computing benefits and keep your critical data behind the firewall within your data center. When layering on applications such as desktop virtualization, data security is maintained. Virtual desktops are created, updated and maintained in the data center. IT sets policies that are updated and applied each time the virtual desktop is launched. Virtual machines can also be wiped out after each user session to ensure data integrity is protected.
  
  
• Business Agility
  One of the drivers of private cloud computing is the ability to quickly adjust resources or scale to meet the needs of the organization. A private cloud built on virtualization, unified computing and unified storage allows IT to rapidly provision resources and deliver new applications for faster time to market. Shared resources, built-in automation and centralized management provide private cloud computing and enable the agility organizations require to remain competitive.
  
  
• Business Continuity
  The fact is that when the business infrastructure and applications are down, the organization's production is delayed and the company loses money. Quickly recovering from an equipment failure or a natural disaster is critical to all organizations. With automated VMware features such as High Availability for automated restart of applications and Fault Tolerance for continuous availability without any data loss or downtime to applications, data can be quickly recovered and day-to-day business can continue.

Whether you are a SMB organization or a large enterprise, your organization can benefit from Private Cloud computing and realize increased productivity, enhanced security and overall improved business agility and continuity.

Where Virtualization Meets Unified Communications

The journey to the private cloud begins with virtualizing servers in the data center and building a virtualized infrastructure. Further down the path to the private cloud, organizations begin to layer on applications including virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), voice and unified communications. With Cisco’s release of the VXI architecture and endpoints, virtualization has met unified communications.

Cisco’s Virtualization Experience Clients allow organizations to realize the benefits of virtual desktops without compromising a high-quality collaborative user experience. Several Zero clients are available some of which attach to the back of Cisco’s Unified IP Phones (8961, 9951, 9971) and others are stand alone versions. All models support a Citrix and VMware View desktop backend environment. Cisco’s Cius tablet offers a mobile desktop device that can also act as an audio client when integrated with Cisco’s Personal Communicator.

Click here to watch video

Watch this short video of Cisco demonstrating the Virtual Experience Client Endpoints along with the Cius tablet as an audio client and endpoint for a Citrix desktop.

Imagine being able to truly provide a rich collaborative experience and access to any application on any device anywhere in a virtualized environment.