How to construct a modern virtual work place? TADetails

Relevance of a problem

Today the market of virtualization of desktops develops in high gear. While most the large western companies already implemented VDI, continuing work on optimization of already available solutions, Russian so far only look narrowly at VDI - solutions.

Not the last role here, of course, is played by crisis – the companies prefer to invest in server virtualization where economic effect miscalculates easier. However it is obvious that let and with a certain lag, the Russian market of VDI will grow. It is caused by the interests of business, VDI goes hand in hand with the concept Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

The researches conducted by the companies J’son & Partners Consulting and "Bitriks24" show that by 2020 the number of employees in Russia whose workplace will be completely virtualized and which will be able to work the most part of the time far off will grow from current 5 to 20%.

Main advantages of VDI are solutions for business

Advantage 1. First of all, this increase in security because connection to the VDI servers is performed through a secure channel and is transferred only the picture and clicking of the keyboard with a mouse. Corporate data never leave limits of DPC of the enterprise. And it is only basic level of security which is available from a box by default. Modern solutions of VDI incorporate extensive set different the politician which will cover the majority of requirements of the companies with increased requirements to security (state. organizations, banks, etc.).

Advantage 2. VDI allows to implement concepts "any place, any time, any device" (an opportunity to work from any place, at any time and from any device) and is the first step to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). VDI - platforms from the leading vendors (Citrix, Microsoft, VMware) allow to deliver virtual desktops and applications (Windows and even Linux) to any devices and can adapt to any communication channels, thereby increasing mobility of employees. Thus, employees productivity increases and, therefore, business will work more effectively.

Advantage 3 is cutting of costs for the centralized software updating and migration on new OS. Everything that is necessary, it to update a gold image and to load VDI - machines from this image. Theoretically, transition to the new version of Windows can be implemented in a night, but in practice everything depends on features of infrastructure and requirements of the specific company.

Moreover, at correctly implemented VDI - the solution housekeeping overheads of users due to standardization and use of special tools of the centralized monitoring and infrastructure management of VDI will be reduced. Several engineers can service thousands of users. Replacement of standard PCs with zero or thin clients will allow to save even more on licenses, the electric power and service.

Advantage 4 – an opportunity to work through slow communication channels. Some Russian companies consider that VDI is not applicable to their system because of existence of the distributed offices and slow communication channels between them. The main problem which is here consists in insufficient understanding of opportunities of VDI - technologies.

The protocols used for data transmission in the environment of VDI were drafted still in the early nineties for work through communication channels with a speed of 20-30 kbps (modem or satellite connection) and are improved still. Moreover, VDI protocols can instantly adapt to changes of parameters of network without connection break. Of course, network infrastructure differs in the different companies, and for successful implementation of the VDI project and the subsequent obtaining business benefits it is necessary to carry out the preproject analysis of infrastructure. Design of the environment taking into account features of infrastructure and the customer's business requirements will be a further step that requires professional approach and existence of wide experience.

Thus, modern VDI - solutions have the mass of advantages to business thanks to which they surely occupies the niche and gradually gain popularity. At implementation of VDI - solutions a key role is played by comprehensive preproject examination and careful planning which will be the key to success of implementation and the subsequent operation since VDI together with a set of advantages has as well a number of restrictions. Therefore in most cases hybrid architecture is ideal option for customers. Specialists of ICL Services company are experts in design, implementation and the subsequent support of modern jobs, having implemented tens of projects and having long-term contracts on support of virtual and hybrid architecture of jobs. In this article it is told about approach and experiment of ICL Services on creation of modern flexible VDI - solutions.

ICL Services approach

The virtual desktop of the user can be presented in the form of puff pie as it is provided in the drawing.

Apparently, it consists of four layers: hardware (servers, DWH, network), operating system (server or client), applications and data of the user. All these levels are connected among themselves.

Approach of ICL Services consists in splitting this whole pie into independent layers. At each user login, i.e. on demand, layers will gather, forming a full-fledged virtual work place.

Thus it is possible to get a number of additional benefits:

• an opportunity to manage independent lifecycles of all components separately;
• more long lifecycle of components;
• reduction of complexity of all system;
• simplification of management at the component level;
• increase in flexibility and speed of changes (fast reaction to changes);

In other words, it is possible to change each of components, without mentioning nearby, and the solution at the same time will continue to work steadily. All this is reached due to virtualization of each layer. The hardware layer in this article will not be considered as in most cases it represents the virtual machine in DPC of her company. Further each layer separately will be considered.

Virtualization of OS

In classical version of OS it is inseparably linked with the hardware ("iron"). Installation of updates, drivers requires big costs and bears in itself risks if it is about tens or hundreds of machines. Because of it many companies do not hurry to upgrade to newer versions of OS.

Modern solutions of VDI allow to separate the operating system from "iron" and to deliver them on demand. It is possible to give the solution of Citrix company as an example – Citrix Provisioning Services. It is enough to create of one or several (depending on requirements) gold images (vdisk) and to load from it the VDI servers. Citrix Provisioning Services will transfer traffic to reading on network, and changes in process of work of OS will register in a local cache (HDD or RAM). At reset all changes are nullified, and the machine reverts to the original state.

Thus, in case of a problem with OS it is rather simple to reboot the server, thereby having reduced costs for diagnostics of a problem. Updating or transition to new OS will be performed by updating of a gold image (vdisk) and the subsequent reset of the machine. Also there is a function of return to the previous version of an image in case of any problems.

Citrix Provisioning Services is an ideal example of stream delivery of an image of OS and most of all is suitable for Enterprise companies - level, but It should be noted that there are also simpler solutions in the form of VMware Linked Clones or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). These solutions most likely will be interesting to small and medium business. Anyway, the choice of an optimal solution should be based on requirements of the customer and also take into consideration features of IT - infrastructures of the company and the project budget.

Virtualization of applications

Virtualization of applications allows to pack separate applications in so-called packets (package) and to start in the own isolated environment on VDI - the machine, thereby increasing security of the solution. The isolated application is not capable to do harm to OS and other applications. Besides, the virtualized applications can be updated on a centralized basis and to provide on demand.

To all the known App-V which is a part of Desktop Optimization Pack from Microsoft (MDOP) company can be a good example, and in new Windows 10 it is included in OS kernel at all. Most the companies use this technology worldwide though now steel appears alternative solutions which place applications in a virtual disk (Citrix AppDisks, VMware AppVolumes). At the moment they cannot replace completely App-V technology and should work together, supplementing each other.

Virtualization of the user environment

VDI - the solution should not only increase mobility and employees productivity, but also to provide the modern workplace meeting all their requirements. If earlier employees adapted to requirements of IT systems, then all on the contrary (User Centric IT) now. First of all, it means that the user should have an identical user environment (data and settings) irrespective of an image of OS and the device from which it is connected.

For the western customers of ICL Services has successful experience of implementation of specialized solutions for separation of the user environment from basic OS (AppSense, RES) and hybrid profiles (hybrid profile management). These products have several advantages:

• separation of the user environment from an image;
• centralized operation by settings of users;
• possibility of rollback;
• an opportunity to apply personalisation on demand;
• simpler management;
• reduction of time of login (logon time).

As a result the user receives a usual working environment irrespective of the device or an image, and the administrator - the simplified management of the user environment.

Standard group politicians and the moved profiles also often are used in the companies of small and medium business and provide basic level of management of the user environment.

Example of the implemented project

Further the example of the implemented VDI project for one large European producer of the garden equipment is given.

Project Objective:

Update an environment of XenApp 6.0 on all divisions of the customer to XenDesktop 7.6 that Wednesday could meet the current and future requirements of business (scaling from 2500 users to 8000 users in the long term is planned 3 years).

Tasks:

• Preproject analysis of infrastructure;
• Development of design taking into account requirements of the customer;
• Deployment of the "turnkey" environment;
• Migration of applications on the new platform;
• Migration of user data;
• Maintaining and coordination of the project;
• Cutting of costs for service;
• Transfer to service.

Solution:

• Infrastructure of virtual desktops on 2500 users based on Citrix XenDesktop Platinum Edition;
• Five DPCs worldwide;
• Client devices: thin clients, notebooks, PC, tablets, smartphones;
• Stream delivery of OS by means of Citrix PVS;
• Quantity of workload of servers: 106;
• Stream delivery of applications on demand using App-V 5.1;
• Citrix Director for user support;
• Managements of profiles by means of Citrix Profile management;
• Citrix Universal Print Servers for management of printing;
• Two Citrix Netscaler Gateway in HA a cluster for the protected remote connection;
• The analysis and migration of applications using Citrix AppDNA;
• Analysis and optimization group politician.

Results:

• Considerable decrease in loads of DWH thanks to PVS Cache in RAM with Disk Overflow technology;
• Double economy of the place on DWH;
• Secure remote access from any device from any place in the world;
• The number of the migrated applications: 200+;
• Reduction of response time of applications and desktops;
• Optimization of performance of Skype for Business and exchange;
• Expense optimization on support – 1.5 engineers on the third support line.

Products and technologies: Windows Server 2012 SQL R2, 2008 R2 Symantec Endpoint Protection, Citrix XenDesktop 7.6, Citrix Provisioning Services 7.6, Citrix AppDNA VMware vSphere, Citrix Netscaler Gateway, Center, App-V 5.1, Netapp Office 365, Fujitsu Futro.

Outputs

Implementation of VDI is, as a rule, the difficult and responsible project. Though the companies often have concerns whether it will be able to bring benefit and whether will help to achieve desirable effect, are absolutely sure of ICL Services that they for the majority of cases of the requirement will be implemented. Of course, it means the correct organization of work. In particular, it is necessary to pay attention maximum to careful preproject inspection and the correct broadcasting of its results in project technological solutions.

The text is prepared with assistance of ICL Services