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Cover Story: Moose Views Goes Green
Is VDI Really a Bad Idea?
July Trivia
Personal Disaster Preparedness
Moose Logic Coming Events
July Recommended Reading

(Moose Views is a monthly newsletter prepared by Moose Logic to bring you information and tips on maintaining a trouble-free network)

It’s not March, St. Patrick’s Day is long gone, so why the green color scheme in our printed newsletter? It’s to highlight the fact that Moose Views is going green.

Our subscription list continues to grow, month after month, and for that we are grateful! But it also means that we’re killing a lot of trees.

So, after a great deal of internal debate, we’ve decided to transition Moose Views to an e-mail newsletter, unless you specifically request a printed copy.

This means that, unless you specifically let us know that you would prefer a printed copy (or unless we don’t have your email address), this is the last printed copy of Moose Views you will receive.

If we don’t have your email address, we’ll be trying to contact you by phone over the next few weeks to determine your preference. (So you could help us out by simply dropping us a line at info@mooselogic.com and letting us know.)

We will continue to make Moose Views available on our Web site in both HTML and PDF formats, so you can download and/or print out a copy if you choose. And we will also continue to announce the availability of new issues via our Twitter feed and Facebook Fan Page.

Please note that if you would rather have a printed copy, we will be glad to mail one to you. We just don’t want to consume any more paper than necessary.

Thanks for being a Moose Views subscriber—we look forward to continuing to provide you with content that’s worth your time to read!

Is VDI Really a Bad Idea?

I read a blog post recently on techtarget.com by Don Jones and Greg Shields (who bill themselves as “The VDI Skeptics”) entitled “Four Reasons Why VDI Might Not Be Right for You.” If you’d like to read the post in its entirety, you can find it at http://tinyurl.com/2axg62o — although you should know that you’ll probably have to register and give up your email address to access it.

While they raise some valid points, I don’t agree with many of their conclusions, including their opening statement that “Virtual desktop infrastructure is a bad idea.” I do agree with their statement that business, not technology, needs to come first, and that VDI (as it is classically defined) does not offer true value to a lot of the businesses that pursue it. But I would submit that this is primarily because of the way they pursue it.

I should probably clarify what I mean by “VDI as it is classically defined.” By that, I refer to an infrastructure that has some kind of virtualization platform (typically VMware, Hyper-V, or XenServer) that is supporting multiple virtual instances of a Windows PC Operating System, with users connecting to those instances remotely using a protocol such as RDP, ICA, or PCoIP.

There are indeed multiple ways to get into trouble with classic VDI, and Jones and Shields identify several of them — but they appear to be deliberately ignoring the fact that Citrix XenDesktop offers some elegant solutions to these pitfalls.

First of all, Citrix recognizes that classic VDI is not the only way, and not always the best way, to present a user with a virtual desktop. A shared desktop running on a XenApp server is another kind of virtual desktop, and one that fits many use cases perfectly well. A PC/OS that is streamed on demand to physical PCs across a LAN is another kind of virtual desktop. And XenClient, the client-side hypervisor that is now available as a public beta, gives laptop users an elegant way to take a virtual desktop with them. And XenDesktop Enterprise or Platinum licenses allow you to mix and match any or all of these as required to fit your users’ needs.

When you boil it down, the first three of the four reasons in their post have to do with cost:

1. You might not save any time or money (although they concede that “for certain users, it might”).
2. Virtual desktops can cost more than real ones.
3. VDI converts inexpensive desktop storage to expensive SAN storage.

They rightly point out that, “if you end up having one virtual desktop per user, then you have achieved nothing other than relocating those users’ computers from their desks into the data center.” They’re also correct in that if you take this approach, you’re also converting inexpensive desktop SATA storage to very expensive SAN storage.

But this is a straw man argument, because no one who really understands desktop virtualization would seriously recommend that you do that! That’s why XenDesktop includes the ability to boot and run multiple virtual — or physical — PCs from a common, read-only image.

The authors make reference to using “desktop pooling” to avoid the one-desktop-per-user issue, but state that “it’s only practical when your users’ ‘personal computers’ aren’t all that personal — meaning each virtual desktop has minimal customization.”

This is absolutely not the case in a XenDesktop deployment. XenDesktop includes the tools you need to separate the delivery of the desktop OS from the delivery of applications, and the ability to dynamically merge user personalization settings in on the fly, using the Citrix Profile Manager tool (not Microsoft Roaming Profiles, which can truly be a pain in the lower posterior).

Still, building out the virtualization infrastructure and provisioning the SAN storage that you will need, even with the Citrix OS provisioning technology, is not cheap—and may indeed offset any capital expense you avoid by deploying thin client devices instead of buying new PCs, or by simply continuing to run your existing PCs as thin clients until they die.

But, again, that’s a straw man argument. Most vendors, if they are being honest with you, will tell you that your savings will be in ongoing operating expense, not in capital expense. Gartner estimates that XenDesktop users can gain as much as a 40% reduction in TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) compared to unmanaged PCs.

Their fourth objection is, “VDI’s layers are still too many, too complex.” They then go on to state, “A recent independent technical analysis by our company, Concentrated Technology, found 19 separate components that you must correctly integrate to create VDI,” and provided a link to their Web site where one could download a presentation of the findings.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of material on that site to sift through, and, although I didn’t sift through all of it, I did go through the PowerPoint decks that looked like they had something to do with virtualization, and could not find anything that showed me 19 separate components to integrate. Instead, I found a description of a VDI “stack” that consisted of seven components:

• Performance monitoring
• Hypervisor (virtualization platform)
• Desktop Provisioning
• Application Virtualization
• Workspace control
• Desktop Broker
• Endpoint device

XenDesktop, in fact, includes six of these seven components — the only item not included is the endpoint device. It also allows you, if you prefer, to use Hyper-V or VMware as the hypervisor, and/or to use Microsoft App-V for Application Virtualization.

So, unless they’re more forthcoming with exactly how they came up with 19 items, my opinion is that they’re indulging in a bit of hyperbole.

The question of complexity is a valid one, though, even with XenDesktop, but there are two ways to mitigate that:

First, walk before you run. Plan on implementing desktop virtualization in a disciplined fashion — do a small Proof of Concept so both management and users can see how a virtual desktop performs. Then do a pilot with a small group of users who understand that the purpose of a pilot is to identify and mitigate issues that might negatively affect a wider deployment, so things might not work perfectly at first. Figure out which kind of desktop virtualization is going to work best for which groups of users.

Second, find a Citrix partner that really understands the technology. Obviously, we’d like to be that partner, but then we’re biased...we believe we have the best XenDesktop engineers in the Northwest!

So, to answer the original question, no. We do not agree that VDI is a bad idea. We just believe that VDI is only one tool in the desktop virtualization toolkit...but the toolkit itself is pretty darned powerful, and has a lot of business value to offer.

July Trivia

July is...

• International Ice Cream Month
• National "Doghouse Repairs" Month
• National Grilling Month
• National Horseradish Month
• National Hot Dog Month
• Women's Motorcycle Month

...and don't forget to observe...

7/1 - Second Half of the New Year Day
7/2 - I Forgot Day
7/3 - Stay Out of the Sun Day
7/4 - International Drive Your Studebaker Day
7/4—7/10 - Be Nice to New Jersey Week
7/6 - Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day
7/7 - Tell the Truth Day
7/10 - Don’t Step on a Bee Day
7/11—7/17 - Sports Cliché Week
7/12 - International Town Criers Day
7/13 - Embrace Your Geekness Day
7/17 - National Woodie Wagon Day
7/18 - National Ice Cream Day
7/19 - National Hug Your Kids Day
7/22 - Rat-Catchers Day
7/23 - Hot Enough For Ya Day
7/24 - Cousins Day
7/25 - Parents Day
7/27 - Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day
7/29 - National Chili Dog Day

Personal Disaster Preparedness

Most of us have given at least some thought to disaster planning for our businesses, but do you have a personal disaster plan? Here are some things to consider:

• Realize that you may be on your own for a period of time. Do not depend on the government for help, at least not right away. Government agencies are likely to be overwhelmed by a major disaster, and be operating in triage mode for several days.
• Go over what resources you use on a daily basis. Come up with alternatives if you are unable to access them.
• Keep an emergency kit available, stocked with supplies for at least three days. Don’t forget prescription medications, extra pair of glasses, etc. Make sure you include a list of important phone numbers. If you need more ideas about what should be in your kit, do a Web search on "72 hour kit ideas" - you'll find lots of information.
• If you have a pet, keep an emergency kit for him as well, including food and extra water.
• Buy a hard hat, and place it under your bed, along with sturdy shoes and a flashlight. If an earthquake hits at night, you’ll have a light source, a way to protect your feet from broken glass, and protection against hitting your head on something in the dark.
• If you, or someone you love, are getting federal benefits, consider switching to electronic payments (if you haven’t already) so you will still have access to the funds if mail service is disrupted.
• Consider banding together with your neighbors to form a neighborhood plan. There are some great planning resources at http://3steps.org.

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