Monday, February 13, 2012

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Is Here

By Dan Smith


Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is gaining more support everyday throughout the virtualization community. It is an amazing technology and in spite of this people are still slow to adopt it when first introduced. Let me talk about the basics of VDI and point out some benefits in the process.

Over many years I have seen the changes in the business infrastructure from Centralized to Decentralized. Early server rooms had gigantic mainframe type computers in them and people had screens or terminals on their desk. After that we each had a PC with applications running on it. We are now seeing a shift back to the terminal like infrastructure using VDI. Why the paradigm shift again? There are great advantages with VDI.

If the centralized infrastructure worked in the first place, why it has been replaced with desktop computers on everyone's desk. So why are we looking to get rid of PCs on the desktop and go back to dumb terminals. Well let's look deeper into the issue.

VDI gives more control to IT. More management control and reliability on top of that. You do not have to visit every desktop to make a change. People can still have a Windows 7 Desktop, it is just virtual! You have to have a server and normally more than one, and the network to support it. Each user needs a thin client or PC, and really VDI works on just about everything nowadays, even iPads.

The inital expenditure for VMWare View (VDI) is not cheap, but you will reap the ROI in reliability, management, and scalability. You can replace your old PCs with thin clients or use them to connect to your new VDI Windows 7 Desktops. In the computer room you will have more expansion options when using VMware for your backend. Your VMWare environment will provide the highest levels of up-time.

When it comes to VDI, VMware provides the best solution hands down. The 2 main things you need to consider when planning your VDI environment are server size and SAN size, but need to be MORE than adequate to handle your VMs. Plan for future expansion and you will have smooth sailing with VDI.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment