Post to Twitter |
Comments (5) |
Views (7894) |
For some IT readers this question may get your defenses up, for others it may be an acknowledgment of users perception due to the many business, policy and current PC deployment practices. No doubt many users ( and most IT Pros ) do in fact have a better PC at home than at work which only leads to higher expectations for how a PC could or should perform. How can Desktop Virtualization help the situation ?
Old PC's that are underpowered for the job - The traditional PC refresh cycle is the standard method to address this issue however users near the end of a 3 or 5 year recycle are not happy campers. Replacing old PC's with thin clients and centralizing desktop images with VDI or shared virtual desktops is an alternative to the refresh cycle and budget item. IT can keep capability in line with increasing user application performance requirements without the long refresh cycle obstacles.
User induced problems - For companies that allow users to have Admin access, users may be happy with the freedom to install the apps they want, but as IT knows this frequently leads to all kinds of problems. This could be due to malware, registry rot, startup clutter and many other ills well known by IT. A recent NetworkWorld article has a good summary here. Desktop Virtualization helps this situation in many ways, for example using PVS with XenDesktop users are provided a fresh image with each use making making damaged images irrelevant. For private image VDI deployments new images can be delivered in a self serve process with IT controls. If user breaks their image they just click to get a new one.
Locked down desktops - For task based users with limited requirements a locked down PC provides a functional, albeit expensive solution. For knowledge workers with variable needs the desire to install apps themselves causes much of the grief between users and IT. Most users also want to personalize their desktop/workspace which many locked down PC environments prevent. For task workers Desktop Virtualization can provide a lower cost and manageable solution with Thin Clients and Shared Virtual Desktops. For knowledge workers, Desktop Virtualization provides additional options that can be managed as well as personalization but the debate around user installed apps will continue.
Security software bloat - Many corporate PC's end up with cumulative security, ESD and monitoring software that can seem to do more harm than good. Certainly this is all implemented for a reason, but if it ends up with users impacted by slow PC's they are going to rightfully complain. Desktop Virtualization allows companies to minimize and optimize the security and deployment software installed in the Server or VDI images that can be transparent to users.
Unforeseen change issues - As made visible in last weeks Microsoft security update problem, ... happens. As much testing as Microsoft, App ISV's or IT does before rolling out a change or update there are bound to be occasional problems, especially in a distributed PC environment. Desktop Virtualization can minimize application conflicts by streaming and isolating apps into images on-demand. The opportunity for problems is intrinsically reduced by centralized fewer images without hardware dependancies. For OS update or change issues, XenDesktop with PVS allows IT to rapidly roll back to known good state with minimal impact.
Out of business when a PC is down - Downtime during repair can be a major issue if a user is dependent on a single PC, this issue is even more severe for remote workers. I have seen and heard examples of high paid remote sales professionals that lose a week of work ( plus company revenue impact ) because their laptop had problems that could not be resolved remotely and the laptop had to be sent to corporate for repair and then shipped back out ( A week of productivity is worth more than any PC ). Desktop Virtualization solves this issue easily by making loaner PC/Laptops easy to configure and deploy. For remote users IT can also enable safe "eyes only" access from an untrusted home PC while a repair is made.
I want to choose my own PC - More often employees are requesting PC's and laptops that are not on the corporate IT approved list. In addition many would like the option to use their own PC for work or better yet have the company reimburse the employee for a purchase of the PC that they can use for home and work. Desktop Virtualization makes the "Bring Your Own Computer" BYOC model a viable option keeping work and personal environments completely isolated.
What are the other reasons that employees complain about their work PC ? Can Desktop Virtualization help ?
Comments (5)
Feb 16, 2010
Faisal Iqbal says:
These are all great reasons. One question that keeps coming up is best practices...These are all great reasons. One question that keeps coming up is best practices for enabling security in a Virtual Desktop environment.
You said "Desktop Virtualization allows companies to minimize and optimize the security and deployment software installed in the Server or VDI images that can be transparent to users." Any thoughts on how can we help make AV more transparent to XenDesktop users without disabling it completely?
Since Citrix is driving adoption of Virtual Desktops, I think they should also play a part in driving the appropriate solutions from security vendors to secure these environments. (e.g. building an appropriate A/V solution for a PVS based desktop image).
Feb 18, 2010
Daniel Feller says:
Good questions/concerns. First, Anti-virus. The beauty of usi...Good questions/concerns.
First, Anti-virus. The beauty of using the Provisioning services golden image is that we know it is exactly they way we need it before users start monkeying around with it. We also know that this pristine image is free from viruses, malware and other baddies. So, why do we need AV on the virtual desktops? To make sure users don't add something. That means we only need to concern ourselves with items that have changed. No need for full system scans. I believe we just need toactively scan those items that have changed.
Feb 18, 2010
David Thomas says:
Network Drives Network Printers Domain Policys Logon Scripts Remote control so...Network Drives
Network Printers
Domain Policys
Logon Scripts
Remote control software
Audit software
These are extras that i business PC would have to deal with that a HOME PC would typically not.
A Office PC would typically have at least 1 if not alot more network drives mapped and network printers mapped. A users data will be shared on a network server along with a large number of other users.
This is vesus a PC where data is likely stored on a local disk or USB attatched storage disk.
Windows gets very hot and bothered when any of its network connections are unavailable for a short period of time and this tends to lockup the whole of the users session. Home Drive performance imparticular can have a dramtic effect on the user perception of their PC's performance.
Im concerned that VDI will increase these type of issues where more network/storage bottlenecks are likely.
Also the best practice of locating user data in the same data centre as a XenApp server could become more complicated if the VDI environment.
Feb 18, 2010
Daniel Feller says:
You are right that you need the network in order for this whole thing to work. W...You are right that you need the network in order for this whole thing to work. We saw the same deal when we first started rolling out XenApp (although it was called WinFrame in those days). What we found out was that the network was not as robust as the network team led people to believe. The XenApp implementations made the network team have a stable and reliable network. The same is true for XenDesktop. If you have a network infrastructure weakness, then you must get that corrected.
I would also argue that staying with the traditional PC model you won't have issues if the network is flaky. My problem with the traditional PC model is that
So if we store our data local to the virtual desktop, we can get to it from any device and it is protected. Now what if I'm in Europe and my virtual desktop is in a data center in the United States? Who cares. I just connect to the global enviornment and use the site roaming feature of XenDesktop 4. It will send me to the data center that has all of my data.
Feb 23, 2010
Jim Moyle says:
You can add a couple more categories Network/Branch Office speeds Locally inst...You can add a couple more categories
Network/Branch Office speeds
Locally installed applications that require low latency/large bandwidth perform badly when accessed over a WAN link.
Laptop issues
Time to fix when a laptop is broken, time to recover files, getting new/updated apps onto a laptop.
Out of date software
IE6, old versions of office etc. can cause large user frustrations.
User to User jealousy
If a user has more access/better apps/faster machine then his co-worker will say 'my PC sucks' Weirdly this leads to people taking over others PC's and or logins without wiping the PC first.
Add Comment