Planning Guide Desktop Virtualisation SEPTEMBER 2011 Four Key Steps to Planning a Desktop Virtualisation Implementation Why you should read this document: This guide provides practical information for desktop virtualisation planning based on Intel’s experience and best practices. • Categorise users based on a comprehensive list of usage needs and scenarios. • Evaluate the five primary delivery models against your current business requirements. • Analyse total cost of ownership based on seven factors, from hardware and software to usability. • Assess current software vendors to find the right solution for your business.
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Planning Guide Desktop Virtualisation - Intel€¦ · At its core, desktop virtualisation is a way of reconciling two (often competing) goals: IT’s desire to exert more control
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Planning Guide
Desktop Virtualisation
September 2011
Four Key Steps to Planning a Desktop Virtualisation Implementation
Desktop VirtualisationFour steps to planning a desktop virtualisation implementation in your organisation September 2011
Intel IT Centre Planning Guide | Desktop Virtualisation 2
3 Desktop Virtualisation: What It Is (and What It Isn’t)
5 Step1:DefineUserSegments andUsageScenarios
7 Step2:EvaluatetheFivePrimary DeliveryModels
•TerminalServices
• Virtual Hosted Desktops
•OperatingSystemImageStreaming
•ApplicationStreamingandVirtualisation
• Client-Side Virtual Container
13 Step3:AnalyseTotalCostofOwnership
17 Step4:ChoosetheRightSoftwareVendor
18 IntelResourcesforLearningMore
Contents
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Desktop Virtualisation: What It Is (and What It Isn’t)Maybeyoustartedthinkingseriouslyaboutdesktopvirtualisationonlyrecently,whentheheadofsalesbroughtinhisnewtabletdeviceanddemandedthatitbehookeduptothenetwork—andtwodozenmoresalespeoplequicklyfollowedsuit.Ormaybeyou’vebeenthinkingaboutitforseveralyears,sinceyourITdepartmentalsobeganlookingatservervirtualisation.
• Operatingsystem• Business-specificsoftware• Datasecurityrequirements• Performancefactorssuchascomputeload,requiredgraphicsperformance,delaysensitivity,webserverload, and so on
Environmentswhereusers have an entire desktopimagethatneedstobeaccessedfrommultiplelocations,and the operating system,applications, andworkloadof thatimagearestableandpredictable.
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terminal Services
How It WorksServer-basedmodel.Theclientismerelyadisplayandinputdevice.Allcomputationisdonecentrallyontheserver,andalldataisstoredinadatacentre.Nothingisexecutedorpersistentontheclient.Usersconnectremotelytoasharedsessiononaserveroperatingsystem.
Best Suited ForEnvironmentswhereacriticalbusinessapplicationisneededbyusersacrossa broadspectrumoftheuserbase,andapplicationcompatibilityandoperatingsystemsupportmaybeachallenge.IT canprovidetheapplicationasaservicewithoutneedingtestingtoensurecompatibilityacrossallplatformsandoperatingsystems.Examples:enterprisecustomerrelationshipmanagement,finance,andhumanresourcesapplications.
• Disaster recovery and business continuity:Ifserverfunctionislost,processingmustshifttoaredundantserverordatacentre;lossofnetworkfunctionrendersclientsinoperable.
• User satisfaction:ThisapproachdoesnotprovideaPC-likeexperienceinperformance,customisation,flexibility,
andmobility.
Virtual Hosted Desktops
How It WorksServer-basedmodel.Thevirtualhosteddesktops(VHD)model,sometimescalledvirtualdesktopinfrastructure(VDI),issimilartoterminalservicesinthatallcomputationandstorageiscentralised.ButwithVHD,usershavetheirowncompletevirtualmachineandcustomiseddesktop,includingtheoperatingsystem,applications,andsettings.Toimprovetheuserexperience,mostVDIprotocolshavetheabilitytooffloadsomecomputingtaskstotheclient.
Best Suited ForEnvironmentswhereusershaveanentiredesktopimagethatneedstobeaccessedfrommultiplelocations—andtheoperatingsystem,applications,andworkloadofthatimagearestableandpredictable.(Requirementsneedtobewellunderstoodtopreventoverloadingservers.)Example:Youneedtodeliverdesktopimagestoremote,internationalsoftwaredeveloperswhoworkwithdataandIPthatabsolutelycannotleavethecountryoforigin.
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• Disaster recovery and business continuity:Ifserverfunctionislost,processingmustshifttoaredundantserverordatacentre;lossofnetworkfunctionrendersclientsinoperable.
• User satisfaction: VHD is unlike the PC experienceinperformance,customisation,flexibility,andmobility.
How It WorksClient-basedmodel.Nooperatingsystemimageisinstalledlocally.Theoperatingsystemisstoredandmanagedinthedatacentre.Whentheclientpowersup,aserverstreamstheoperatingsystemimagetotheclientoverthenetwork.TheclientusesitsCPUandgraphicsforlocalexecution.TheclientmaybeaPCwithoutaharddrive,usingmainmemoryexclusively.Applicationdataisstoredinadatacentre.
Best Suited ForEnvironmentswheresecurityiscriticalornouserinformationneedstopersistafterasession—ineithercase,nodataisleftonthePCafterthepoweristurnedoff.Alsoverybeneficialwherelocalsupportmaybeachallengeoruptimeiscrucial.Examples:financialtaskworkerslikebankcashiers,insuranceagents,orotherswhoworkwithsecurecustomerdatawheremobilityisnotrequired;classroomsettings,clinicpatientrooms,andhospitalrooms—asimplerebootgetsafreshoperatingsystemimageandavoidscostlydowntimewaitingforlocalsupport;callcentreworkerswhorequiretrainingusingvideoattheirdesks—they
• Cost and manageability: Morestoragecapacityisneededifusingprivateimages.
• Software sequencing process: Not all softwareissuitable;initialsequencingsetup/debuggingcanbetime-andlabour-intensive;streamedandvirtualisedapplicationinteractionscanbeproblematic.
How It WorksClient-basedmodel.Theclientoperatingsystemislocallyinstalled,butapplicationsarestreamedondemandfromthedatacentretotheclient,wheretheyareexecutedlocally.Streamedappsfrequentlydonotinstallontheclientoperatingsystem,butinsteadinterfacewithanabstractionlayerandareneverlistedintheoperatingsystemregistryorsystemfiles(hencetheterm“applicationvirtualisation”).Interactionsbetweenstreamedapplications,otherlocallyinstalledsoftware,andtheoperatingsystemareminimised,eliminatingsoftwareconflicts.Italsocanimprovesecurityby“sandboxing”applicationsinisolatedcontainers.Streamedapplicationscanbecachedonalaptopandtakenoffthenetwork.Whenreconnected,theapplicationcanresynchronisewiththeservertochecklicensing,version,andusageinformation,anddownloadnewapplicationdatatothedatacentre.
Best Suited ForEnvironmentswhereapplicationand licencedeploymentandmanagement arecritical.Withapplicationstreaming andvirtualisation,ITcanusepoliciestocontrolwhenlicencesexpire,whetherthePCisconnectedtothenetworkornot.Example:settingthelicencetoexpirefortemporaryorcontractemployeeswhentheircontractshavecompleted.ITcanthenrepurposethelicence.
• Software sequencing process: Not all softwareissuitable;initialsequencingsetup/debuggingcanbetimeandlabourintensive;streamedandvirtualisedapplicationinteractionscan
beproblematic.
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How It WorksClient-basedmodel.Unlikealocallyinstalledorstreamedoperatingsystem,thevirtualcontainerisabstractedfromtheplatformviaaclient-basedvirtualmachinemanager.Virtualmachineimages,includingtheoperatingsystemandapplications,arecreatedandmanagedcentrallybyITandthendeliveredtotheclient,wheretheyarestoredandlocallyexecutedonaclient-basedvirtualmachinemanager(VMM).Changesfromtheclientimagecanbesyncedwiththecentrallystoredimageandviceversa.
Best Suited ForMostenvironments.Providesmobileuserswithacentrallymanagedandsecureimage.UsersgettheperformancebenefitsoflocalexecutionandITbenefitsfromcentralisedmanageability.EnablesmultipledesktopimagesorworkenvironmentsonthesamePC,withsecureisolationbetweenthetwoenvironmentstopreventcrossinfection.Examples:officeworkerswhorequireseparateoperatingenvironmentswithdifferinglevelsofsecurityandmanagement—forexample,apersonalandworkenvironment,oramobilecontingentworkerwithasecuredcorporateimage.
HardwareReducinghardwarecostsisoftenthedriverfororganisationstoimplementvirtualiseddesktops.Bymovingthecomputingpowertoacentralandsharedlocation,userswhoformerlyusedintelligentdesktopscanbeprovidedamuchlower-costthinclientdevicetoaccessthesharedcomputingpower.However,estimatesaboutthenumberofvirtualuserswhocanshareasingleservervarysignificantly—from6tomorethan70.Accordingtoa2010publishedsurveyfromGartner,mostorganisations average 6 to 8 users per server,andveryfeworganisationsmanagetodeploymorethan20usersperserver.1
• User type: Usertypehasasignificantimpactontheamountofhardwarerequiredtosuccessfullyvirtualisethedesktopenvironment.Userswhoinfrequentlyaccessthesystemoraccessonlysmall,lightweightapplicationscanshareaserverinhighernumbersthan“heavy”userswhospendthemajorityoftheirdayaccessinggraphics-intensiveoranalyticalsystems.Considerdeployingdifferentstrategiesforeachusergroup:
• Server size:Thesizeandtypeoftheserverhasabigimpactonthenumberofvirtualusersthatshareaphysicalserver.Theimportantconsiderationisnotthenumberofserversbutratherthetotalcosttoprocure,manage,run,andstoretheservers.Larger,morepowerfulserverswillhaveahigherup-frontcostandcostmoretocool,butwillholdmoreusers,takeuplessserverfloorspace,andcostlesspervirtualusertosupport.
1 Dayley,Alan.User Survey Analysis: Virtualisation Cost Reduction and Consolidation Promises Slow in Coming.Gartner,2009
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• Disk allocation:Manyofthedefaultvaluesincalculatorsassume10GBofspace.In2009,Gartnerconcludedthat25GBistheactualmidpointformostusers.1Butwiththeproliferationofvideo,music,andgraphicelementsinevenfairlybasicworkproducts,manyusersarenowfillingupdrivesof100GBormoreandevenadding500GBUSBdrivesforextrastorage.Organisationsneedtotrulyanalyseandunderstandthedatastorageneedsoftheirusersbeforearrivingataconclusion.Differentusertypesmayneedverydifferentdataallocations.
SoftwareSoftwarelicensingcostsareoftenconsideredinTCOandROIcalculationtoolsasapotentialsourceofsavings.Organisationsshouldbecautiousaboutassumingthesesavingswithoutaclearunderstandingofsoftwarelicenceagreements.Inadditiontonewsoftwarerequiredtorunthecentralservers,mostdesktopapplicationschargeonaper-userbasisanddonotallowconcurrentuserlicensing.Theendresultisoftenanincreaseinoverallsoftwareandsoftwaresupportcosts,notadecrease.Manyorganisationshaveseenaninitialsoftwarecostreductiononlytodiscoverduringsoftwareauditsthataretheyareinviolationoftheirsoftwareagreements,andtheyenduppayingboththefulllicencecostsaswellasapplicablefines.Organisationsthatvirtualisetheirdesigners,developers,orotherspecialtyrolesoftenfindthattheseusersrequireanintelligent desktop due to the nonstandard applicationstheyneedtorun.Asaresult,
Data Centre Real EstateSimilartoenergy,realestateconsiderationsshouldnotbeunderestimatedwhenevaluatingtheTCOofdesktopvirtualisation.Replacingatraditionalintelligentclientdesktopdevicewithanewthindeviceisunlikelytoreducetherealestaterequirementsofeachemployee.However,theadditionofmanynewserverswilldefinitelyincreasetheamountofrealestaterequiredinthedatacentre.Therearepossibletrade-offsrelatedtodatacentrerealestateversuscooling(forexample,thedensertheserversareracked,theless
• Increased cost of support personnel: The skill set needed to support and maintainvirtualdesktopsisoftengreaterthanforsupportingandmaintainingtraditionaldesktops.Althoughthetotalnumberofsupportfull-timeemployees(FTEs)mayreduce,theaveragecostperFTEmayincrease.
1 Dayley,Alan.User Survey Analysis: Virtualisation Cost Reduction and Consolidation Promises Slow in Coming.Gartner,2009
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• reductions in support problems: While desktopvirtualisationmayreducetruesupportinquiries,manysupportcallsareactually“how-to”inquiries.Thesehow-toinquiriesarelikelytoincreaseimmediatelyfollowingthedeploymentofvirtualiseddesktops.Organisationsshouldanalyseandunderstandtheirsupportticketmixpriortomakingassumptionsabouthowmanyoftheseproblemswillbesolvedwithvirtualisation,andalsoallowforaninitialincreaseinsupportcallsduringtherolloutandadoptionofthenewvirtualisedsystems.
• mobility: Thecostofmobilethinclientdevicesand,possibly,wirelessbroadbandInternetconnectivityservicesformobileworkersmustbebuiltintothecostmodel.Questions that organisations should answerincludethefollowing:
• Cultural impacts:Eachorganisationhasitsownuniqueculture.Goingvirtualcanchallengemanycorporatecultures.Iftheorganisationisalreadyaccustomedtoahighlymanagedintelligentdesktopenvironment,theshiftmaynotbeasignificantone.However,morethanonevirtualdesktopimplementationhasfailedbecauseuserswerenotpreparedtolosetheautonomyandfreedomtheirintelligentdesktopsprovided.
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• System/network failure: Although virtualisationcanprovideamorestableenvironmentthanintelligentdesktops,itcanalsomagnifyserverornetworkfailures.ThecostofensuringhighavailabilityandsystemandnetworkredundancymustbeincludedintheTCOanalysis.Organisationsmustalsobalancetherisksofsystemandnetworkfailureandthecostsofmitigatingthatriskagainstthecostsavingsofvirtualisation.
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Understand the User ExperienceAnalysevendorsolutionsfromtheperspectiveofyourusers.Ifyouimplementaparticularvendor’ssolution,whatwillusersexperienceintermsofperformance,capabilities,andeaseofuse?Takingaslittleaspossibleawayfromthecurrentend-userexperiencewillincreasethesolution’schancesofbeingacceptedbyusers.
Analyse Your IT Department:
How Mature Is It?Doanhonestevaluationofhowautomatedandprocess-orientedyourITdepartmentis.DoesitfollowITIL*bestpractices?SomevendorsolutionsfordesktopvirtualisationarequitecomplexandappropriateonlyformatureITdepartmentstoimplementandmaintain.Ontheotherhand,somevendorsolutionscanbequitestraightforwardandwillhelpyougettovaluerelativelyquickly.
Features to Look ForInadditiontoanalysingwhethera vendor’sdeliverymodelisrightforyourbusiness,considerfurthercapabilitiesof thesoftwaresolutionandwhetherthey willmeetyourneeds.Somefeaturesto lookforareasfollows:
“Developing an enterprise Client Virtualisation Strategy”Startingin2007,IntelIThasbeenstudyingavarietyofvirtualisationtechniquestoseewhichwouldprovidethewidestrangeofbenefitsforIntel.Wesummarisetheprosandconsinthispaper.http://www.intel.com/content/www/uk/en/enterprise-reliability/intel-it-enterprise-client-virtualization-strategy-paper.html
“enabling Device-Independent mobility with Dynamic Virtual Clients”IntelITisinvestigatingdynamicvirtualclienttechnology,whichusescontainerisedsoftwareappliancestoabstracttheOS;applications;andcorporatedata,personaldata,andworkspaces.http://www.intel.com/content/www/uk/en/mobile-computing/intel-it-mobile-computing-independent-mobility-dynamic-virtual-clients-paper.html
“Virtualising the Client pC: A proof of Concept”IntelITconductedaproofofconceptandfoundthatdesktopvirtualisationcouldreducetotalcostofownershipbystreamliningPCclientbuilds.http://www.intel.com/content/www/uk/en/virtualization/intel-it-virtualization-virtualizing-the-client-pc-paper.html
“Intel It Considering Dynamic Virtual Client”Inthisvideo,DaveBuchholz,TechnologyEvangelist,discussesthespecificsofhowvirtualclienttechnologycanhelpcompaniessupportITconsumerisationwhilereducingtotalcostofownership andimprovingproductivity.http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-4313
“Increasing productivity with mobile business pCs”IntelITconductedadetailedstudyandcomparedcomputingmodelsanddevicesagainstourcomputingrequirements.Afteranalysis,weselectedmobilebusinessPCsasourstandardplatform.Onekeyfactorwastheirabilitytosupportemergingtechnologiessuchasvirtualisation.http://www.intel.com/content/www/uk/en/mobile-computing/intel-it-mobile-computing-business-pc-paper.html
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“better together: rich Client pCs and Cloud Computing”TheIntelITenvironmentcontainsamixtureofconventionalandcloudcomputingservices,deliveredprimarilytomobilebusinessPCs.Asweaddnewdeliverymodelssuchasdesktopvirtualisation,weexpecttorealisebenefitssuchasincreasedend-userproductivityandlowerTCO.http://www.intel.com/content/www/uk/en/cloud-computing/cloud-computing-vpro-intel-it-rich-client-pcs-and-cloud-computing-study.html
“evaluating thin-Client Security in a Changing threat Landscape”IntelITconductedasecurityanalysisofthinclientsversusmobilebusinessPCs.Wefoundthatwhilethinclientsmaybesuitableforsomenicheuses,wehavechosenmobilebusinessPCstosupportthefunctionalityandflexibilityouremployeesrequire.Inaddition,mobilebusinessPCspositionustotakeadvantageofthebenefitsofdesktopvirtualisation.http://www.intel.com/content/www/uk/en/enterprise-security/intel-it-enterprise-security-thin-client-paper.html?wapkw=evaluatingthinclientsecurity
“the Future of enterprise Computing: preparing for the Compute Continuum”Bytakingadvantageofacombinationoftechnologiesandtrends,suchasubiquitousInternetconnectivity,virtualisation,andcloudcomputing,wehaveanopportunitytomeetchangingemployeerequirementsandrefinethewayweprovideservices.http://www.intel.com/content/www/uk/en/it-management/intel-it-the-future-of-enterprise-computing-preparing-for-the-compute-continuum-paper.html