• Providing a quality user experience is the critical factor in any client virtualization deployment
• Various technical challenges, like application architecture, storage capacity and network performance, are issues to ensure user experience
Virtualization is touching all corners of enterprise IT infrastructure. From its roots in storage infrastructure and server farms, virtualization technologies are moving towards the client side. As vendors promote the efficiency that client virtualization brings, interest is also building among enterprises in Asia.
According to IDC AP's report on virtual client computing adoption in 2010, only four percent of the A-Pac IT decision makers named desktop virtualization as their top investment focus in 2009, but that number increased by over four-fold to 17 percent in 2010. Investment focus on application virtualization also grew from 29 percent in 2009 to 38 percent in 2010.
One of the reasons for this paradigm shift, said IDC, is the migration of Windows 7. Due to the less-than-enthusiastic uptake of Windows Vista, many enterprises delayed their schedule for OS and PC refresh, boosting recent uptake of Windows 7. While more new PCs are running on the latest Windows 7, many legacy business applications are having compatibility problems.
This is one of the reasons that Jose Chan, head of Computer Service Center of started exploring client virtualization technologies. "We need to provide the latest technology for our students for training," said Chan. "But there are more than 100 applications used for different academic programs and not all are compatible with Windows 7."
A quick fix of the problem is to delay OS refresh for some PCs at computer laboratories and reserve them for incompatible applications and related academic programs. But this would add workload to his small IT team to keep track and manage over 1,500 PCs with different OSs and apps.
"We also considered installing two different OSs, but this is taking up also a lot of storage and memory on the PC to perform well. So, we started to look for alternative solutions."
Another compelling reason for enterprises considering client virtualization is the increasing pressure of users demanding mobility and Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD). A recent worldwide survey conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dimension Data reveals that two-third of the 546 respondents experienced end-user interest in BYOD policies. This is exactly what Hong Kong-based Patrick Raths, director of Global IT of global reinsurer Swiss Reinsurance Company (Swiss Re) is going through.
As a global reinsurer, Swiss Re provides reinsurance for insurance firms worldwide and risk management solution for corporation. Business users need to access highly sensitive and critical financial data, thus the company has a very strict security and risk management policy.
"Staff increasingly desire connectivity to corporate data and personal information in a single device," he said. "We need to be very careful when to say 'no' to the users. We are here to make that available, but we don't want to expose any corporate data to the public."
While introducing mobility for users to access corporate email and calendaring via their personal smartphones, the company has a strict mobility policy. The company supports only iPhones and Blackberry devices and no jail-broken devices are allowed. Users are also required to provide company authorization to monitor and wipe all data from the devices if necessary.
Apart from enabling mobility, Swiss Re also explored the option of client virtualization to support its outsourcing partner in India. The company's tight security policy is restricting the partner in PCs access and hardware choice, bringing a lot of inefficiency. To allow them to operate more independently and securely, Swiss Re was considering client virtualization.
Similar security concern have also driven companies like LG and Huawei to turn towards desktop virtualization for their R&D users to protect the companies' intellectual property rights, added Victor Thu, senior product marketing manager, Citrix Systems.
All the cases appear to paint a beautiful picture for client virtualization. Then, why it has yet to hit mainstream adoption?
"No doubt the success in server virtualization is bringing more attention towards client virtualization," explained Thu. "But, unlike server virtualization, client virtualization does not come with an immediate cost saving in hardware."
Riding on the success and positive feedback from server virtualization, many enterprises are exploring desktop virtualization as the natural progression towards achieving efficiencies and cost savings. But the expectation of upfront cost efficiency often creates a gap to reality, as client virtualization deployment often require upfront investment to new servers, added Victor Wong, regional director, Hong Kong & Taiwan at Citrix Systems.
"Customers often make plans for client virtualization with the expectation of cost savings or simply seeing it as a terminal replacement project," said Wong. "To have a successful deployment, it has to solve a business issue or problem, regardless of increasing flexibility, protecting IP rights or securing sensitive data."
While making accurate estimations of TCO and meeting ROI is critical to the success of the project, Thu added the ultimate factor that make or break any client virtualization deployment is user-experience.
"Client virtualization requires a lot more details," added Thu. "If e-mail doesn't come for five seconds, it's OK. But if users move the mouse and it doesn't respond for five seconds, you will be in trouble."
He said the first critical step is understanding the users, the applications they are using, the OS that are running on their devices and the network they are connected to, is. Such understanding builds the foundation in determining the type of client virtualization technologies to be chosen.
Thu noted that there are two common types of client virtualization technologies:
* Application virtualization--also known as application streaming, it allows specific apps to run isolated from the client device's OS, neutralizing any incompatible issues between the apps and OS.
* Desktop virtualization--also known as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), through a hypervisor, it bring the entire desktop OS, processing power and app hosted at the data center. By connecting to the Internet (or WAN), users are accessing an image of the virtual desktop and applications through a dumb client terminal.
Wong added very often enterprises create a hybrid model by using a mix of these technologies to fit different needs within the organization. This is the model at MPI.
Apps are divided into three categories at MPI: a) basic apps, like Microsoft Office, that are compatible with Windows 7; b) apps that incompatible but still widely used among students; and c) apps used in specific academic programs, like SPSS and video editing applications.
MPI's Chan said basic apps are installed in all the PCs. The second type of
applications are being available to students and faculties through VDI technology. The last type of applications, which require heavy computing power, are made available through application virtualization.
"Our ultimate goal is to convert desktop into a utility, like any office supply," said Chan. "Each user will have their personal desktop image and they can access this image whether they are on or off campus."
Nevertheless, providing quality user experiences with high performance and stable availability was "extremely complicated" for Raths at Swiss Re. "It was very difficult to deal with the (technical) challenges," he said. "If we rushed into virtualization, it could be a problem."
One of the major complications for Swiss Re is its application architecture, which consists of 600 different applications. Not only are these applications often needed by users, many also don't have a Web solution. On top of that, many of these apps are running interdependently or required plug-ins to work smoothly.
Streaming the additional components is a major issue, said Raths, they are creating a bottleneck for the application performance. "In short, you need to have a good understanding of all your applications' interdependencies," he noted.
Apart from the application architecture, the data center infrastructure also needs to be ready to support the technology. "You must be prepared to pay a lot for the storage for each individual desktop image," said Raths. "Imagine if you have 10,000 desktops and each of them require on average 50GB for the desktop image."
Chan echoed the significance of an efficient storage infrastructure, as data centers consolidate the storage burden from each user and PC. "We have adopted storage virtualization and it is a critical foundation," he said.
In addition, requirements for network performance and bandwidth also surge significantly with the increased traffic over the network. Chan noted the availability of 10Mbps bandwidth in Macau since 2009 and the affordable upgrade of the campus network are the prerequisites for MPI's client virtualization initiative.
Despite all the complications and challenges, Wong from Citrix noted enterprises that deployed client virtualization have been enjoying the efficiency and flexibility brought to the organization. He added the critical success factor is to develop a clear road map and take baby steps to start with small scale deployment.
Raths from Swiss Re agreed no more. The company has slowed down and made changes from its original plan in client virtualization. Initially the project was to support its India outsourcing partner. But with the complications, technology is now brought internally to support its global staff to work from home.
As a trial, major apps are currently available for users to access from their own device at home through VDI technology. Raths added having the client virtualization first deployed for internal staff as an additional service has brought great advantage.
"Making this available as an additional service has its beauty," he said. "Users are more accommodating to the initial problems and challenges. It also buys more time for the team to learn and deal with different complications and errors."
HKUST has rolled out virtual desktop infrastructure to solve PC resource shortage and give staff and students greater flexibility in study and work By Chee-Sing Chan
According to Lawrence Law, director of the Information Technology Service Centre, HK University of Science & Technology, there were three key challenges that led the University to deploying virtual desktop technology.
One was the need to improve online collaboration and connectivity for students as they worked on projects. Secondly, to find ways to give students more access to PCs when there were only 300 PCs to share among 7,000 undergraduate students. And thirdly the change in education system to the new "3-3-4" scheme would mean more students coming to university and further adding to the shortage of computer facilities.
"Obviously we couldn't just add more PCs and in any case space was not available," said Law. "So with the launch of Windows 7 and remote computing functions we looked to create virtual desktops that could be deployed on almost any PC with a browser with access to key university applications," Law added.
As most computers in HKUST are Windows-based, the university chose Windows Server 2008 R2 to deploy virtual desktops so that students, with Windows 7 installed in their notebook or netbook computers, can use a remote desktop function to access the resources stored in computer laboratories. To test the model and understand students' usage and needs of remote-desktop, HKUST launched a pilot project in December 2009.
Law noted that since the pilot, almost 700 students run virtual desktops with some using iPads to access the applications via the remote desktop app that is now available.
Students, who must be invited to join the scheme as it is not completely university-wide yet, can now access university computing resources while at home, in their dorms or from any location as long as they have Internet access. "No longer do students need to wait for PCs to become free or be locked out from projects when the computer labs close," said Law.
Students can now access applications such as SPSS, CAD/CAM software and other apps that could only be previously accessed on university PCs.
Another key benefit was for internal staff that needs PCs dedicated to certain functions like banking transactions or financial tasks. These required higher security and specific access to data and applications, which could be difficult as staff often moved around and worked on other machines. When a staff leaves or joins the organization, it would also create problems in reallocating hardware.
By deploying virtual desktops to staff with specific functions, they could work on any machine and it is easier to manage and deploy when there is any staff movement. Consistent security policies could also be applied to users with rules such as no USB drive access applied to certain users.
Law noted that while the project is still in the test phase, there is constant reviewing and feedback being gathered. 'So far the students are very happy with the experience and flexibility. Convenience is the biggest benefit," said Law.
Performance-wise Law noted there has been little negative comment on response time and performance other than some minor issues when users connect via WiFi. But on fixed-line connections the virtual desktops have performed perfectly well.
Overall the experience has been very positive. Interestingly Law noted that based on pure hardware costs it can be more expensive to run VDI, due to the higher server requirements. But over time, the greater flexibility, simpler security and management plus the ability to roll out new "desktops" easily outweigh any cost concerns.