Deliver Desktops as a Managed Service with VMware
Streamline Desktop Management and Deployment
Instantly provision desktops to local and remote users from the datacenter with VMware View. Standardize desktop deployments by creating images of approved desktops, then automatically provision as many as you need. Easily manage groups of users from a single desktop image. Delivering desktops as a managed service with VMware View typically lets you reduce your overall desktops costs by 50% by centralizing management and resources and removing IT infrastructure from remote offices.
Improve User Satisfaction
Provide a superior end-user desktop experience over any network, with VMware View with PCoIP, a high performance display protocol. Virtual desktop users can instantly access their personalized desktops, including data, applications and settings, from anywhere, without suffering the lag times of earlier technologies. Play rich media content, use multiple monitor configurations and seamlessly access attached peripherals.
Standardize Your Virtualization Platform
Enjoy a unified management experience through VMware View’s integration with VMware vSphere, the only virtualization platform tuned and optimized for desktops. Dynamically load balance virtual desktop machines to optimize computing resources. Power on thousands of desktops at once, without any performance degradation. Bring the power of the datacenter to the desktop and use a common platform to manage both servers and desktops from the datacenter to the cloud.
Easily Deliver Desktops to Remote Users
Deliver cost-effective virtual desktops and applications securely to call centers, government agencies, healthcare providers, branch campuses or offshore facilities. Give partner organizations and independent service providers temporary access to corporate desktops through a secure network connection. Perform maintenance and troubleshoot user issues without engaging in expensive on-site visits or maintaining remote IT staff and infrastructure. Deliver a high performance desktop experience to users—wherever they are.
Deliver Built-in Business Continuity for the Desktop
Meet work-from-home mandates in the event of quarantine or natural disaster with an emergency preparedness policy and VMware View 4, the only desktop virtualization solution that provides built-in business continuity and disaster recovery for the desktop at no additional cost.
Provide high availability for your desktops within your virtualized environment without the cost or complexity of traditional clustering solutions and back them up nightly in the datacenter as a business process. VMware View with VMware vSphere for Desktops lets you extend enterprise features such as VMotion, High Availability and Distributed Resources Scheduler to the desktop, ensuring an “always on” desktop. With VMware View you can:
- Let your desktops take advantage of key features in the vSphere platform such as VMotion, High Availability, Dynamic Resource Scheduler and Consolidated Backup.
- Access virtual desktop from a wide variety of devices over any network connection to ensure business continuity.
- Quickly provision virtual desktops to remote users or groups of users in the event of a pandemic or catastrophic event when it is difficult for workers to access the office.
- Keep desktops running even when server hardware goes down with automated failover and recovery.
- Shift desktop computing resources automatically as user needs and application loads change with dynamic load balancing.
- Give remote users a high performance desktop experience with VMware View with PCoIP while protecting access to sensitive data.
Ensure Security with Centralized Control and Management
Protect your organization’s information assets and ensure compliance with industry and government regulations such as HIPAA, SOX, government mandates on settings for PCs and more with desktop virtualization. VMware desktop virtualization solutions enable enterprises to secure data, centralize control of desktops and software access and maintain compliance without sacrificing end user needs.
Ensure Corporate Security Compliance with End User Restricted Entitlements
Ensure appropriate access for end users with specified credentials by restricting access to desktops based on the authentication method. For some business environments, this may mean, for example, you can allow access only to users who have authenticated with a smart card. VMware desktop virtualization solutions are modular by design, enabling integration with 3rd party software to allow for further extension of security requirements.
Maintain Locked-down Desktops without Restricting Application Access
VMware virtualized applications run entirely in user mode and can be deployed to fully locked down desktops. No administrative rights are needed to execute these virtualized applications. Additionally, applications can be encapsulated in a fully encrypted file for deployment. IT staff can be assured security compliance needs are met while enabling end users to easily and safely access business critical applications.
Manage and Track Software Application Usage & Deployment
Monitor software license usage and ensure compliance with vendors without imposing new process or enforcement tools. VMware desktop virtualization solutions provide out-of-the-box integrations with existing policy-based usage mechanisms such as Active Directory and LDAP. VMware View seamlessly plugs into existing management frameworks for discovery of software assets and systems, so you can use your existing monitoring and distribution tools to maintain single-pane-of-glass control of software license compliance.
Decouple hardware, applications and operating systems to eliminate compatibility issues during OS migrations and upgrades. Get the benefits of newer platforms without paying heavy support costs to test and troubleshoot integration issues. Run a single image of a new operating system across a variety of hardware types. Encapsulate older applications and even run multiple versions of the same application side by side.
Source: VMware
Cloud Computing with Wyse
Cloud Computing involves using information technology as a service over the network.
- Services with an API accessible over the Internet
- Using compute and storage resources as a service
- Built on the notion of efficiency above all
- Using your own datacenter servers, or renting someone else’s in granular increments, or a combination
We at Wyse believe cloud computing has the potential to change how we invent, develop, deploy, scale, update, maintain, and pay for applications and the infrastructure on which they run.
Cloud Computing Benefits
Efficiency
Drives cost out of the delivery of services, eliminating capital expense in favor of more easily managed operating expense
Agility
Increases speed and agility in deploying services, adapting to seasonal or cyclical computing needs
Speed
Shortens implementation cycle time
Flexibility
With application deployment decoupled from server deployment, applications can be deployed and scaled rapidly, without having to procure physical servers
Ubiquity
Applications can be made available anywhere, any time
Cost avoidance
Minimizes the risk of deploying physical infrastructure, lowering the cost of entry, thin devices enable Green IT
Accelerated innovation
Reduces run time and response time, increasing the pace of innovation
Users
Task Workers
Call Centers addressing the trend to move employees off campus and into home
Challenge: PCs are virus prone, difficult to manage, and at risk of data being exposed or devices being stolen. Tried terminal services and dissatisfied with user experience
Require flexible seating, reduction in energy, and simplified management and deployment
Financial Services
Branch systems with varying classes of users across broad geographies attracted to client vitalization for security and compliance.
Challenges: VDI pilots proving difficult to scale, user experience across branch system is inconsistent, require higher levels of user functionality for banking peripherals.
Healthcare
Hospitals addressing the need for EMR and access to common databases and information
Challenge: Healthcare environment, ease of secure access to up to date EMR, access for field professionals. Risk of theft of traditional PC devices, and the liability of data loss and exposure, universal access throughout the primary and satellite facilities
Education
Schools need to provide common IT functionality to faculty, staff and students
Challenge: shrinking budgets, limited IT administrative support, ageing computing devices, providing lesson and status access to parents, teachers and students from home
Engineering
Technology companies needing to provide secure, access devices to on shore, off shore, and outsourced engineers and developers.
Challenge: Requirements to deliver productivity applications while addressing performance demands of engineers and developers
Simple EndPoint Benefits
Security/Privacy
No HDD prevents data from being stored on the client, improving data security. All data stays on the server / cloud, enhancing privacy enforcement. Devices can be virus proof, removing a security concern for the endpoint component of the environment.
Compliance
HIPPA in Healthcare, Basil-II in banking, and Sarbanes Oxley regulations all require data to be protected and centralized. Thin endpoints enforce this requirement, easing compliance.
Manageability
Lowest TCO is accomplished when all endpoints appear similarly to the server. TCs, TPCs, and Thin mobile devices (handheld and notebook size) are all centrally managed, and look the same to servers. Like the Southwest Airlines strategy – all 737-300s – easier to manage.
Reliability
Thin clients are far simpler in design than traditional PCs, and deliver far greater reliability. Measured in terms of MTBF (Mean time between failure), PCs offer 30 – 40K hours, but TCs deliver far better ratings at 80 – 375K hours.
Rapid Deployment
No imaging requirements on most thin devices make TCs deployable in minutes, not hours as with most PCs. TCs go from carton to desktop to productivity in minutes. No software to load, little configuration needed.
Power, Noise, Cooling
TCs use a fraction (less than 10 percent) of the energy needed by traditional PCs. No fans or moving parts in TCs eliminate noise, and reduce AC requirements in the work areas.
Pano Express Combines VMware vSphere™ Essentials, Windows 7 Operating System, Server and Storage Pre-Configured with Pano Logic’s Zero Client Platform
Pano Logic, the leader in zero client desktop virtualization, today announced Pano Express, the only all-in-one zero client, hypervisor, operating system, server and storage solution available. Pano Express drastically reduces the capital costs (CAPEX) and complexity of implementing a complete desktop virtualization solution by providing a pre-loaded, pre-configured 50-user suite combining VMware vSphere™ Essentials, Microsoft Windows 7 licenses, and server and storage hardware with Pano Logic’s award-winning zero client platform for just $489 per seat. That is the lowest cost available for a complete, all-in desktop virtualization solution. 
The pre-configured, pre-loaded all-in suite is designed for small and midsized businesses (SMBs) and eliminates the complexity and resources required to cobble together the right infrastructure, storage and software for these organizations. With an all-in price of $489 per seat, CAPEX spending for Pano Express is approximately half of what virtual desktop deployments from other vendors cost. The reduced complexity of Pano Express strips the decision-making process to one simple question: “How much does it cost to get started?” More importantly, because Pano Logic is a true zero client solution, with no processors, software or storage on the client device, lifecycle savings from reduced management, energy, repair and replacement costs are dramatic. Pano Express provides annual total cost of ownership (TCO) savings of as much as 80 percent over a typical PC infrastructure.
“Pano Express is the lowest cost desktop computing solution on the planet when you factor in the huge long-term savings in reduced support, maintenance and energy costs from zero client computing,” said John Kish, CEO of Pano Logic. “We’ve dramatically lowered the cost and made the entire transition process – the decision, the purchase, and roll out – simple for any organization to undertake regardless of training or expertise. Having already deepened our technical integration with VMware View™, we are continuing to expand our affiliation with VMware. Our low-cost, zero-complexity desktop virtualization solution will transform the implementation path for organizations embracing 100% centralization.”
Pano Express includes 50 zero client Pano Systems, VMware vSphere Essentials, 50 Windows XP or Windows 7 virtual desktop licenses, and a custom configured dual-quad core server with high-performance RAID5 internal storage. Pano Systems are comprised of the zero client Pano Device, Pano Direct service and Pano Manager. Pano Express ships pre-loaded and pre-configured, and will be available for purchase through an approved Pano Logic reseller in North America.
“We’re pleased with the release of Pano Express, a pre-packaged solution that will enable SMBs to tap the extreme value and simplicity of desktop virtualization,” said Patrick Harr, vice president, desktop virtualization at VMware. “This suite is a powerful tool for expanding and speeding the adoption of desktop virtualization so that customers of all sizes can realize the dramatic savings and simplicity of centralized computing.”
Available in early June, Pano Express has already achieved success in the marketplace.
“I was sold on Pano Logic based on the ongoing support, maintenance and energy savings I would realize over time but when I learned of the additional price benefits and the convenience of having all of the software fully loaded and ready to go, I jumped at Pano Express,” said Mike Stewart, Assistant to the Director of Information Systems of the Blue Ridge High School District. “My department is stretched thin trying to maintain a computing infrastructure with limited resources. Having the computing equipment arrive, the software fully loaded and the components ready brought tremendous peace of mind and immediate savings in deployment costs.”
About Pano Logic
Pano Logic is the leader in Zero Client Desktop Computing. Pano Logic’s all-in-one hardware and software solution redefines the delivery and management of end user computing by radically centralizing desktop management. Pano Logic is a complete end-to-end solution purpose-built for desktop virtualization that deploys in under an hour and dramatically simplifies the complexity and management of virtual desktops and slashes computing TCO by as much as 80 percent. The Pano Device, a zero client, contains NO processor, NO operating system, NO storage, NOR any moving parts, completely eliminating endpoint management and security breaches. The Pano Device uses less than 5 watts of energy or 97% less than a PC, drastically reducing energy costs. To learn more, visit http://www.panologic.com
Source” Pano Logic
Wyse Xenith™ – The zero client built for Citrix
Meet Wyse Xenith
Zero delays, Zero management, Zero security issues – Citrix HDX.
Outfit your cloud with the fastest, easiest to manage, and most secure Citrix client we’ve ever built – and that’s saying something.
From the company that invented the category and built more zero clients than anyone.
Yes, anyone.
Zero Delays
Go from 0 to productivity faster than a Ferrari.
Wyse Xenith is ready to work in six seconds because its dynamically delivered firmware is smaller than a single digital photograph. Its efficient design is three times faster than competing devices and sports gigabit LAN and wireless-n, so it’s ready for serious tasks whether you’re wired in or not. With an industry first media decoder in hardware, Wyse Xenith will be able to deliver HD video without taxing your server, network or patience.
Zero Management
That’s right, no management. It’s a zero configuration client.
Most thin clients require you to add software, tweak settings, or configure them in some way before you can use them. Not Wyse Xenith. Just take it out of the box and connect it to your network – your Citrix XenDesktop server configures it to your preferences.
Wyse Xenith is completely configurable, yet no management software is needed. So unlike some clients, when a hot new feature is released, you won’t need to buy new ones to get it.
Zero Security Issues
It’s one less thing to worry about.
Wyse Xenith is the only dynamically configurable zero client that is virus and malware immune. 
Yes, immune.
There are no Windows or Linux APIs for viruses to latch on to, so even network and memory-borne viruses can’t attack. Unlike other HDX compatible clients, Wyse Xenith needs absolutely no local firewall or anti-virus protection.
Zero Energy Use (Almost)
Save $70 a year in energy versus a PC*
Wyse Xenith draws less than 7 watts of power – in full operation.
That’s less than every PC on the planet. And no multimedia rich client on the market today uses less energy.
When you hug a tree – it might hug back.
Zero Compromise User Experience
Wyse Xenith is built for Citrix environments.
XenApp, XenDesktop, it’s what Wyse Xenith lives for.
It’s quite simply the best Citrix HDX client this side of Win32.
With HDX support that goes beyond any non-windows device on the market today.
The desktop just got a lot easier.
Specs
| Processor: | VIA 1GHz |
| Chipset: | VIA VX855 |
| Memory: | 128MB Flash / 512MB RAM DDR2 |
| I/O peripheral support: | One DVI-I port, DVI to VGA (DB-15) adapter included Dual-video Support with optional DVI-I to DVI-D plus VGA-monitor splitter cable (sold separately) Four USB 2.0 ports (2 on front, 2 on back) Two PS/2 ports One Mic In One Line Out Enhanced PS/2 Keyboard with Windows Keys (104 keys) PS/2 Optical mouse included |
| Networking: | 10/100/1000 Base-T Gigabit Ethernet Internal 802.11 b/g/n (optional) eliminates theft of external wireless adapters |
| Display: | VESA monitor support with Display Data Control (DDC) for automatic setting of resolution and refresh rate Dual monitor supported Single: 1920×1200@60Hz, Color depth: 8, 15, 16, 24 or 32bpp, Two independent full resolution frame buffers Dual: 1920×1200@60Hz, Color Depth: 8, 15, 16, 24 or 32bpp |
| Audio: | Output: 1/8-inch mini jack, full 16 bit stereo, 48KHz sample rate Input: 1/8-inch mini jack, 8 bit stereo microphone |
| Physical characteristics: | Height: 1.38 inches (34mm) Width: 6.94 inches (177mm) Depth: 4.75 inches (121mm) |
| Shipping Weight: | 6 lbs. (2.7kg) |
| Mountings: | Horizontal feet (optional vertical stand) Optional VESA mounting bracket |
| Device Security: | Built-in Kensington security slot (cable sold separately) |
| Power: | Worldwide auto-sensing 100-240 VAC, 50/60 Hz. Energy Star V.5.0 compliant power supply Average power usage with device connected to 1 keyboard with 1 PS/2 mouse and 1 monitor: Under 7 Watts |
| Temperature Range: | Horizontal and Vertical positions: 50° to 104° F (10° to 40° C) |
| Humidity: | 20% to 80% condensing 10% to 95% non-condensing |
| Safety Certifications: | German EKI-ITB 2000, ISO 9241-3/-8 cULus 60950, TÜV-GS, EN 60950 FCC Class B, CE, VCCI, C-Tick WEEE, RoHS Compliant |
| Warranty: | Three-year hardware warranty |
Microsoft’s System Center Essentials 2010
Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 will be Microsoft’s second release of an IT systems management product specifically designed for the midsized business. Based heavily on customer feedback, Essentials 2010 will offer integration of physical and virtual server management and monitoring into one product and one console. Essentials 2010:
- Provide a unified solution with a single console for managing a broad range of tasks across your servers (virtual and physical), clients, hardware, software and IT services for a unified experience.
- Enables you to proactively manage your IT environment, helping keep your system up-to-date with a solution that accelerates problem resolution and enables automation of system updates and data collection.
- Is easier to deploy and maintain helping simplify complex management tasks for increased IT efficiency.
The following screen shows the Essentials 2010 console.
New Investments for Essentials 2010
Unified Experience
- Integration of virtualization management, including live migration
- Automated computer grouping
- Server management limit increased to 50
Proactive Management
- Automated management of updates and installation deadlines
- Improved software distribution targeting
- Dynamic importation of monitoring management packs
Increased Efficiency
- Quick provisioning of new virtual machines
- Easy server conversions from physical to virtual
- Intelligent placement of virtual workloads
Wyse – What is Thin Computing and Zero Client Computing?
Thin Computing delivers the productivity people need, at a lower cost than traditional methods, all without compromising security or manageability. Thin Computing replaces the PC with a Thin or Zero Client, making it easier for IT to manage user desktops by moving their complexity to the datacenter. Analysts agree that this approach improves the reliability and security of information, dramatically lowers IT costs, reduces energy consumption, and is far better for the environment. Yet Thin Computing still provides the access to applications and data that people need in order to move the business forward. All while improving on the security, reliability, and availability of PCs.
People often make the mistake of thinking that Thin Computing is just another name for thin-client computing. Actually, Thin Computing includes hardware services and software that work with Thin Clients, Zero Clients, and PCs, as well as wireless devices and other systems. It gives everybody in the organization secure access to the information and the applications they need, without requiring the desktop systems to store them.
Why Thin Computing and Why Now?
Today, as much as 80 percent of IT’s budget is allocated to maintenance, making it very hard for any IT organization to add value to the business. Chief Information Officers have seen their titles evolve to Chief Infrastructure Officer, as they are totally consumed by the need to avoid regulatory problems and keep things running at the same time. Thin Computing not only reduces the cost to deliver desktop computing by as much as 40 percent or more, it also frees IT staff time to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Additionally, the increased availability of high-bandwidth network connections and the sophistication of datacenter architectures based on Microsoft Windows Terminal Services, Citrix Application Delivery, or VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, allow Thin Computing solutions to run at desktop speeds, and display rich multimedia like never before. This makes it easier and more acceptable for business professionals to use Thin Clients in mission-critical applications.
What is Zero Client Computing?
The majority of today’s thin clients have a small OS in them that provides the functionality to securely connect to servers and display applications for workers. The small amount of software in these devices is why they’re called “thin” clients. Enterprises have successfully adopted this technology in the millions of units, and for some, there is an opportunity to make the desktop or mobile device even thinner – called a Zero Client. A Zero Client has no local OS pre-installed on the unit. This information is provisioned to the desktop (like a cell phone is provisioned when purchased) when it is powered up, based on the worker’s role in the organization. Zero Clients cost less, and don’t need to be managed, but require more network bandwidth than Thin Clients.
Why Wyse Thin Computing?
Wyse is the worldwide leader in Thin Computing, offering Thin and Zero Clients before anyone else. Wyse software makes it easy to provision, manage, update, and even service any Thin or Zero Client from one central location. After all, it’s much easier and more cost-effective to manage several servers than thousands of individual desktop PCs. And with no moving parts thanks to solid-state technology, Wyse Thin and Zero Clients deliver greater reliability, availability, and lower cost of ownership than other solutions.
Wyse Thin Computing solution includes:
Thin-Computing Hardware
Thin-Computing Software
Thin-Computing Services
This total solution allows Wyse to deliver improved:
Going forward, the world is only going to get thinner. And Wyse is already moving in that direction. Check back soon to see exactly how we’re getting thinner. Thin Computing delivers the productivity people need, at a lower cost than traditional methods, all without compromising security or manageability. Thin Computing replaces the PC with a Thin or Zero Client, making it easier for IT to manage user desktops by moving their complexity to the datacenter. Analysts agree that this approach improves the reliability and security of information, dramatically lowers IT costs, reduces energy consumption, and is far better for the environment. Yet Thin Computing still provides the access to applications and data that people need in order to move the business forward. All while improving on the security, reliability, and availability of PCs.
People often make the mistake of thinking that Thin Computing is just another name for thin-client computing. Actually, Thin Computing includes hardware services and software that work with Thin Clients, Zero Clients, and PCs, as well as wireless devices and other systems. It gives everybody in the organization secure access to the information and the applications they need, without requiring the desktop systems to store them.
Windows 7 Migration – Using Dell’s KACE Appliance
Helping Provide Comprehensive Capabilities for Rapid and Reliable Migration
With the Windows 7 release now a reality, for many organizations the question is no longer whether to migrate, but how. As XP reaches end of life and Vista became merely a skipped step for most, the prospect of a full scale Windows 7 migration looms. Beyond the necessary tasks of actual Windows 7 rollout and preservation of user data, other migration challenges include identifying which machines can be upgraded, which applications are supported on Windows 7 and assuring that license tracking is not disrupted throughout the process. In addition, 83% of respondents in a recent Dell KACE survey stated that they plan to skip Vista and go directly to Windows 7. This strategy poses significant complications since Microsoft does not support in-place upgrades from Windows XP to Windows 7, and requires a fresh installation.
The Solution
Dell KACE Appliances help optimize the process of migrating to the Windows 7 operating system through easy to deploy and use appliances. The KACE appliance-based approach saves you time and money through a solution that helps facilitate tasks such as user state migration, operating system deployment and application distribution, helping speed the move to Windows 7 and minimizing end-user downtime. Upon successfully completing a Windows 7 migration, KACE appliances can assist to provide PC lifecycle management including patch and configuration management, providing even more potential savings.
Features of KACE Appliances helping support a successful Windows 7 migration include:
- Windows user state migration can permit you to retain user-specific files and settings when installing Windows 7. You can migrate user states when installing an operating system and applications, helping minimize end-user downtime and reducing the risk of losing critical information.
- Inventory assessment helps you check machines for Windows 7 readiness. The KACE Appliance discovers machines on your network and collects detailed hardware and software inventory. The appliance can then help assess which machines in a network are ready for a Windows 7 deployment. An innovative client to server communication protocol gathers inventory multiple times per day, helping ensure that your data is up to date.
- K-imaging is a flexible file-based imaging format. You can more easily add files and folders to a Windows 7 K-image. Through K-imaging, the KACE Appliance helps eliminate redundant transfers in the capture, storage, and deployment of Windows 7 images.
- Network OS install allows you to automate the build out of Gold Master reference machines used for Windows 7 image capture. The KACE Appliance slipstreams drivers along with a network OS install, helping to provide a hardware independent option to deploy Windows 7.
- Asset management helps track Windows 7 operating system and software license compliance. KACE asset history monitors assets as they undergo hardware and software changes through a Windows 7 Migration. Software metering shows you the Windows 7 software in your network that is actually being used versus simply installed. Unused software licenses can then be reassigned or retired, helping save your company money.
- Patch management allows you to deploy relevant Windows 7 patches and updates to machines on local and remote networks as they become available. Rely on the KACE Appliance to distribute Windows 7 updates so that you do not have to wait for the full service packs from Microsoft.
- Pre and post deployment configuration helps make it easy to bundle relevant Windows 7 applications while utilizing thin images, a systems deployment best practice. Since thin images contain only the operating system and applications that everyone in your organization needs, they help you to maintain fewer images. And because thin images are simpler, deployments can be more reliable and users can experience less downtime.
- Remote site management allows you to migrate machines outside your headquarter network to Windows 7. The KACE Appliance remote site management technology requires virtually no dedicated hardware. You can retain the convenience of a centralized administrative console while utilizing the remote network to serve as the engine for the deployment.
- KACE Virtual Kontainer technology lets you keep your Windows 7 deployment fresh and free from potential application conflicts. Deploy key applications with less worry of impacting your new Windows 7 deployment.
Source: Dell
On-demand Application Delivery
Definition
Enabling on-demand application delivery involves streamlining or automating the application delivery process to be more responsive to end-user productivity needs and less reliant on IT intervention, without compromising security or manageability.
Challenges
- Increasing number of mobile and remote users makes traditional application delivery less reliable
- Increasing mobility of users between computers complicates application delivery and license management
- The fluidity of virtual desktops and virtual machines requires an equally flexible delivery technology
Symantec Solution: Endpoint Virtualization
Provision and protect endpoint environments instantly using streaming, virtualization, and desktop broker technologies to reduce costs and increase productivity
- Avoid downloads and installations and improve application delivery and streaming
- Support local execution while maintaining central control
- Allow users to obtain authorized applications, on-demand, without requiring IT intervention
- Enable delta-only application upgrades or back-grades to reduce network bandwidth usage
Microsoft’s – Remote Desktop Services
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is an emerging architectural model where a Windows client operating system runs in server-based virtual machines (VMs) in the data center and interacts with the user’s client device such as a PC or a thin client. Similar to session virtualization (formerly known as Terminal Services), VDI provides IT with the ability to centralize a user’s desktop; instead of a server session, however, a full client environment is virtualized within a server-based hypervisor. With VDI, the user can get a rich and individualized desktop experience with full administrative control over desktop and applications. However, this architecture, while flexible, requires significantly more server hardware resources than the traditional session virtualization approach.
Key benefits of VDI are:
- Better enablement of flexible work scenarios, such as work from home and hot-desking
- Increased data security and compliance
- Easy and efficient management of the desktop OS and applications
VDI Standard Suite and VDI Premium Suite
Microsoft provides two suite offerings to purchase and deploy VDI: Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Standard Suite (“VDI Standard Suite”) and Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Premium Suite (“VDI Premium Suite”). These two suites make it simple for customers to purchase the comprehensive Microsoft VDI infrastructure and management software, while providing excellent value amongst competing VDI offerings.
The Microsoft VDI Standard Suite is a complete VDI offering which offers the following features:
Desktop Delivery:
- Basic connection broker to deliver personalized and pooled virtual machine-based desktops in low-complexity environments
- Web-based remote access and full-fidelity end user experience
Application Delivery:
- Separation of application layer from image with app streaming
- Reduces app-to-app conflicts and need for regression testing
- Easy application life cycle management via policies
Virtualization Platform:
- Reliable, micro-kernelized hypervisor with small footprint
- Supports live migration
Management:
- Integrated, end-to-end management
- Dynamic provisioning of apps to physical, virtual and session-based desktops
- Rapid VM provisioning with cloned VHD’s
- Support for failover clustering and storage migration
- Patching, updating and monitoring of physical VDI host
For customers that want additional functionality, the Microsoft VDI Premium Suite is a comprehensive desktop centralization offering: It includes all the features of the VDI Standard Suite, but it also leverages the full capabilities of Windows Server Remote Desktop Services to provide greater flexibility for desktop and application delivery. Specifically, it offers the following desktop and application delivery features and benefits on top of the VDI Standard Suite:
Desktop Delivery:
- Single brokering, discovery and publishing infrastructure for VDI and session-based desktops and applications
- Higher user density with session-based desktops than with virtual desktops
Application Delivery:
- Separation of hosted applications from the image
- Isolation of incompatible applications and consolidation of Remote Desktop Session Host server silos
In order to enable the above mentioned features, the Microsoft VDI Suites incorporate a package of specific use rights of the following Microsoft infrastructure and management products; please contact your Microsoft licensing specialist for details:
- Remote Desktop Services Client Access License (RDS CAL)
- Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) including App-V
- System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) Client Management License
- System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) Standard Server Management License
- System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) Standard Server Management License
Both the VDI Standard Suite and the VDI Premium Suite are licensed per client device that accesses the VDI environment, and thereby allow for flexibility of server infrastructure design and growth. The subscription based license will ensure that customers always have access to the latest versions of software. The VDI Standard Suite and the VDI Premium Suite are designed to complement the per device subscription model of VDA, further simplifying the buying experience for Microsoft VDI customers
VDI is best suited for contract and offshore workers and for users who need access to their work environment from home, including from a non-company owned PC. For complex deployments which require enterprise-level VDI capabilities, Microsoft is partnering with third party vendors such as Citrix Systems to provide a complete and scalable end-to-end solution to customers
Remote Desktop Services’ RemoteApp virtualizes a processing environment and isolates the processing from the graphics and I/O, making it possible to run an application in one location but have it be controlled in another.
Remote Desktop Services makes it possible to remotely run an application in one location but have it be controlled and managed in another. Microsoft has evolved this concept considerably in Windows Server 2008 R2, and renamed Terminal Services to Remote Desktop Services (RDS) to better reflect these new features and capabilities. The goal of RDS is to provide both users and administrators with both the features and the flexibility necessary to build the most robust access experience in any deployment scenario.
To expand the Remote Desktop Services feature set, Microsoft has been investing in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, also known as VDI, in collaboration with our partners, which include Citrix, Unisys, HP, Quest, Ericom and several others. VDI is a centralized desktop delivery architecture, which allows customers to centralize the storage, execution and management of a Windows desktop in the data center. It enables Windows and other desktop environments to run and be managed in virtual machines on a centralized server. RDD and VDI addresses all these challenges with the following features:
- Extends Remote Desktop Services to provide tools to enable VDI
- Provides simplified publishing of, and access to, remote desktops and applications
- Improved integration with Windows 7 user interface
- Multimedia Redirection
- True multiple monitor support
- Audio Input & Recording
- Aero Glass support
- Improved audio/video synchronization
- Language Bar Redirection
- Task Scheduler
New RemoteApp & Desktop Connection (RAD) feeds provide a set of resources, such as RemoteApp programs and Remote Desktops. These feeds are presented to Windows 7 users via the new RemoteApp & Desktop Connection control panel, and resources are tightly integrated into both the Start menu and the system tray. The improved RemoteApp and Desktop Connections features in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 provide the following improvements:
Improved RemoteApp and Desktop Management
While RAD improves the end-user experience, RAD also reduces the desktop and application management effort by providing a dedicated management interface that lets IT managers assign remote resources to users quickly and dynamically. Windows Server 2008 R2 includes the following RAD management capabilities to help reduce administrative effort:
- RemoteApp & Desktop Connections control panel applet
- Single administrative infrastructure
- Designed for computers that are domain members and standalone computers
- Always up to date
- Single sign-on experience within a workspace
- RemoteApp & Desktop Web Access
Improved RemoteApp and Desktop Deployment
Administrators faced with larger RAD deployment scenarios will also find additional management features in Windows Server 2008 R2’s Remote Desktop Services aimed at improving the management experience for all existing scenarios previously addressed by Remote Desktop Services as well as the new scenarios available via RAD. These improved management features include:
- PowerShell Provider
- Profile Improvements
- Microsoft Installer (MSI) compatibility
- Remote Desktop Gateway
Source: Microsoft
Citrix XenApp 6 Sets New Standard in On-Demand App Delivery for Physical and Virtual Desktops
Citrix Systems, Inc. announced Citrix® XenApp™ 6, the de facto standard for centralizing applications in the datacenter and delivering them as an on-demand service to both physical and virtual desktops. XenApp 6 offers major new enhancements that simplify computing for IT, including easier central management, enhanced enterprise scalability and seamless integration with Microsoft technologies like App-V and Windows Server 2008 R2. XenApp 6 also improves productivity for end users with extensive new high-definition HDX™ technology enhancements and simplified self-service access to apps from any device, including PCs, Macs, laptops and smart phones.
The new enhancements to XenApp 6 will also be available as an integrated feature of the company’s comprehensive desktop virtualization solution, Citrix XenDesktop™ 4. Mainstream adoption of desktop virtualization requires a proven, scalable solution with the ability to deliver any type of virtual desktop to any user on any device, and to be able to interchange delivery technologies at any time. With more than half the ROI of virtual desktops coming from centralized app management, this integration provides an unparalleled advantage over any other desktop virtualization solution on the market today. This powerful combination makes it easy for customers to deliver apps as an on-demand service to any user, on any device, across a broad range of both physical and virtual desktops.
Bill Burley, Group Vice President and General Manager, XenApp Product Group at Citrix
“Citrix XenApp 6 delivers an entirely new level of IT simplification and user experience that goes beyond anything we’ve ever done with XenApp. The new simplified management capabilities and increased scalability reduce the cost of application management by up to 50 percent for both physical and virtual desktop environments. Combined with Citrix Dazzle, the self-service enterprise app store, and broad new support for Macs, laptops and smart phones with Citrix Receiver, customers can now deliver apps as an on-demand service to any user in any location at a fraction of the cost of traditional application management.”
Garth Fort, General Manager of System Center Marketing, Server and Tools Business at Microsoft Corp.
“With support for Windows Server 2008 R2 in XenApp 6 and new integration with Citrix XenApp and Microsoft App-V, we are providing increasing value to our customers and delivering a simplified yet powerful application delivery infrastructure. Customers can leverage their existing investment in Microsoft solutions while continuing to expand their ability to deliver applications on-demand.”
Key Facts and Highlights:
- Simplified Management – XenApp 6 dramatically simplifies desktop computing with AppCenter™, a powerful new management console that makes it easy for IT to centrally manage all applications enterprise-wide from a single location.
- Unparalleled Scalability – XenApp 6 has been verified to scale up to more than 100,000 concurrent users in a single farm, giving customers unprecedented levels of cost savings and datacenter efficiency.
- Expanded Microsoft Integration – Seamless integration between XenApp 6 and Microsoft App-V makes it easy for customers to centrally manage applications using whatever mix of local and hosted solutions best fit their unique requirements. XenApp 6 also includes full support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, adding a broad range of platform enhancements including simplified provisioning, easier automation, and more efficient power consumption.
- Self-Service Apps – Through its integration with Citrix Dazzle™, XenApp 6 gives users an entirely new level of flexibility and mobility, allowing them to choose the apps they need on-demand, without costly manual IT support. Apps available to users through the Dazzle “storefront” can include those delivered by XenApp or Microsoft App-V, as well as IT supported SaaS or web applications.
- Mac and Smart Phone Support – In addition to supporting PCs, thin clients and laptops, XenApp 6 now makes it easy for users to access Windows apps from Macs and popular smart phones such as Apple iPhone, Google Android and Windows Mobile.
- Enhanced High-Definition HDX™ Technology – XenApp 6 includes broad new HDX technology enhancements that allow customers to deliver real-time media applications like voice and CD-quality audio with a rich, high-definition user experience. New HDX enhancements in XenApp 6 also expand support for a broad range of USB devices, including webcams, microphones, digital cameras and scanners.
Video: Highlights of XenApp 6
Pricing and Availability:
The new XenApp 6 release will be available for download beginning on March 24, 2010, and will be offered as a free upgrade to all XenApp customers with current Subscription Advantage agreements. Suggested list pricing for new licenses of XenApp 6 will begin at $350 per concurrent user. More information on the new features in XenApp 6 can be found at http://www.citrix.com/xenapp6.
XenApp 6 will also be included as an integrated feature of the company’s broader XenDesktop 4 product line, which is available to customers at a suggested list price beginning at $225 per-user or per-device.
Related Announcements:
- Citrix Dramatically Improves the Economics of Desktop Virtualization to Drive Mainstream Adoption
- Citrix Drives Mainstream Adoption of Desktop Virtualization with XenDesktop 4
- Citrix Dazzles End Users with Self-Service Virtual Desktops from Millions of Devices
- Citrix Adds Virtual Machine-based Delivery to Citrix XenApp
Follow us online:
- XenApp Community and Blogs
- Ask the Architect: Dan Feller on desktop virtualization
- XenApp TechTalk series
- Twitter @xenappjunkie
- Citrix on Facebook
About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a leading provider of virtualization, networking and cloud computing solutions for more than 230,000 organizations worldwide. Its Citrix Delivery Center™, Citrix Cloud Center™ (C3) and Citrix Online product families radically simplify computing for millions of users, delivering desktops and applications as an on-demand service to any user, in any location on any device. Citrix customers include the world’s largest Internet companies, 99 percent of Fortune Global 500 enterprises, and hundreds of thousands of small businesses and prosumers worldwide. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies worldwide in more than 100 countries. Founded in 1989, annual revenue in 2009 was $1.61 billion.
For Citrix Investors
This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with revenue growth and recognition of revenue, products, their development and distribution, product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, the Company’s key strategic relationships, acquisition and related integration risks as well as other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.
The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion and is subject to change without notice or consultation. The information provided is for informational purposes only and is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions or incorporated into any contract.
Source: Citrix
