Will Your VDI Solution Support your Remote Users?

If your organisation has remote users – consider that the impact of centralisation on their desktop experience can be very different: and not always in a happy way. Citrix’s ICA protocol has been joined by the likes of Quest’s vWorkspace with EOP Xtream, or Ericom Blaze. There are a number of hardware solutions for WAN optimisation with the likes of Expand Networks focusing specifically on solutions to support VDI implementations. Don’t allow poor network performance and user experience to sabotage your desktop virtualization project.

How will you pay for your virtualised applications?

Does an evaluation for a virtualisation project need to be only an exercise in understanding if X hosts will on Y servers? Will you be able to to virtualize every service you deliver? Are new applications required? What are your existing service-levels and requirements across your application portfolio? In most enterprises today, IT is a cost centre not a profit centre. Business units often want detailed involvement in implementation plans, asset purchases and ownership: it is not unusual that requests for applications come in terms of functionality – not in terms of service levels. With their release of Workspace iQ, Centrix Software appear to be unique in endeavouring to aggregate information that can be used to deliver data that can help provide IT with improved costing information without relying on specific vendors solutions to be in place.

Citrix invests in Kaviza – VMWare's VDI to suffer from EMC demands?

Citrix have invested an unspecified amount of money in Kaviza whose grid architecture eliminates the expensive infrastructure that VDI solutions. With Kaviza’s solution all the functionality needed to provision and manage virtual desktops is consolidated into a single virtual appliance that scales on commodity servers. Will this announcement herald a major take-up of VDI? Indeed, can you really offer a turnkey solution to support your desktop centralisation strategy?

Does XenApp 6 Keep Citrix Ahead of the Pack?

Citrix has released XenApp 6 which finally provides support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 – what is available in this new release for your business. Besides R2 support, what does XenApp 6 offer your business, what WOW factors are provided to help justify the cost of using XenApp6 to springboard your x64 Presentation Virtualization implementation – be that a new implementation, or a migration from your existing environment.

Persona Management – User Environment Management by Another Name?

They say there’s no such thing as bad weather – just the wrong sort of clothes. Likewise, there shouldn’t be such a thing as a bad user profile experience – its more likely you’ve the wrong type of profile solution. VMWare View users can undoubtedly look forward to faster logon times, but is that the only thing they need?

Microsoft and Citrix offer a "Rescue for VMware VDI"

On March 18, Microsoft embarked on a major offensive to focus the desktop virtualisation market away from VMware View. Microsoft announced updates for their desktop virtualization technologies and solutions, including virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). The question is, are these announcements marketing hype or do they actually help deliver an improved VDI experience? Indeed, are you a VMware View in peril? The announcements from Microsoft and Citrix to little to impact on this marketing statement especially when we consider that, licensing changes aside, this announcement is an announcement of things to come, not an announcement of things available now.Perhaps an effective rescue for VMWare’s VDI will be to for VMware to deliver their client side hypervisor first and offer a single management environment for a business desktop delivery, regardless of device.