The virtual workplace often comes from the cloud today . Smartphones and tablets make this clear, because they are inherently dependent on the cloud. Software distribution and device management also take place via a cloud, in which the apps also process and store their data.
However, mobility is only one aspect. Employees have been using laptops for many years to work anywhere. What has changed in the meantime is the growing influence and proliferation of consumer devices and apps. The consequences of this are well-known: a high variety of devices, their very complex management, constantly new security risks as well as increasing administrative costs for operation and support.
Businesses today need solutions that can take advantage of flexible, nonlocal access to cloud resources, both internally and on demand, without having to struggle with the dark side of an increasingly confusing client world. Desktop virtualization makes this possible.Virtualize clients
Today, software for centrally delivering virtualized desktops is available for virtually all stationary and mobile devices running common operating systems - from Windows to Linux to Android, iOS or Windows Phone. For example, the IT resources used can be located in a private cloud . In addition, companies have a choice of several client virtualization solutions, including Citrix XenApp, Citrix XenDesktop, VMware Horizon View, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS), and Dell's Wyse vWorkspace.Probably the biggest challenge in moving from a distributed to a centralized and virtualized client infrastructure is to choose the most appropriate architecture variant and to properly estimate the sizing of the involved components, such as server CPU and memory, storage and network , ie especially to avoid too small sizing.
In addition, important decisions have to be made in VDI projects, for example, how the employees should be divided as meaningfully as possible into user groups that determine which applications, contents and which peripherals should be used. The goal is to provide each group with the most uniform possible virtual client variant, without having to create and manage an unnecessary number of individual desktops.
Thus, it has to be clarified which user group, so-called "shared desktops", which standardized virtual desktops and which users can or must use persistent, individual virtual desktops. On the one hand, questions such as these can have a major impact on the user-friendliness of the virtual desktops. On the other hand, they have a technical impact on storage requirements and thus on the cost of the client virtualization project, as underestimated storage needs can easily shake up the initial costing of a VDI project.
