Virtualization has been around for a long time. I remember even back from the 80’s we had DOS emulators under UNIX (They were so slow that they crawled more than they ran, but they worked). However, given today's technology: fast processors and vast amounts of RAM we can better virtualize the datacenter; increasing performance while saving money on hardware, software and energy.

As an IT professional, I see many benefits in using virtualization for our internal use and our clients; one which has me very interested is VDI. Desktop virtualization or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a wonderful solution if business requirements meet it’s capabilities. For example, a new application that exceeds the hardware resources of the installed workstation profile can be implemented on VDI and prevent major hardware/labor investments in the desktop. The deployment of a prohibatively expensive application can also be achieved via VDI by reducing the per seat license cost if all users do not need concurrent access.

We spend a great amount of time managing desktops. Users, regardless of antivirus and spyware software, manage to produce issues with their desktops. Some users require desktops everywhere, to work at different locations, and still have access to the same information. It's easy with a laptop. Plug it in, connect to the network, either directly or through the Virtual Private Network (VPN) and you're good to go. But people want light weight laptops and large screens. Owners and managers want low cost. Over the years even a few of our own developers managed to corrupt their laptops. Desktops are inexpensive, but the cost of managing them is much more.

There are a number of good VDI solutions, blade solutions, and tin clients in the market to use; our goal is to point out which solution is best for you. End user experience is of the utmost importance. Users are used to having their desktops next them; having no access to your desktop when the network is down is not going to be nice. Therefore identifying which user group will VDI is verse physical PCs is important.

I am going to cover a few different potential VDI requirements and possible solutions next coming to weeks. I will start with covering necessary requirement gathering. Once the requirements are defined I will identify how a VDI deployment will be able to reduce the IT budget and show the results to management. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself during the planning process:

1. Who are the users or group of users who need to get fully featured PCs? You need to budget for the continued purchases of desktops for this “Target Group”.
2. How will the newly virtualized users connect to their desktops? (tin client at work, old desktops with pixie boot, or home computers with internet access)
3. What applications does each “Target group” require?
4. What are the workstation resource requirements: memory, storage, HD display, USB, etc?
5. Do all the users need concurrent access to the newly deployed resources/app? Is it possible to use shared VDI desktops (this greatly reduces licensing cost!)?
6. Does either target group need a DR site for a fail over?

Next week we will take one possible scenario and discuss some possible VDI solutions.