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Is Anyone Really Using VDI?

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Note:

This is a post I wrote two months ago on my blog http://VirtuallyBright.com

The post generated a very long and intense discussion on some LinkedIn groups.
A follow up post is in the works but I wanted to share it here with the community.
Let me be clear, I am not against VDI. I think it is great. I am just looking for someone to answer the questions I ask.

Dov

 

VDI is everywhere. Every single day I read more and more about new solutions, new partnerships and new VDI offerings. All the big companies offer a solution and almost every re-seller is determined to prove that it is the answer to all problems.

 

The technology is impressive. It truly is. The premise (and promise) is that it will simplify management, deployment, security, patching, upgrades and overall administration. so my question is, why don’t I see it more in production?

 

I know many organizations that have purchased a VDI solution. I see pilots, POCs and hybrid solutions where the VDI client runs on top of a full-blown OS. I see some implementations of virtual apps and some remote access solutions. What I don’t see are many complete, end to end converts. Why not?

 

At this very moment my company is in the middle of a migration to Windows 7. It is a messy affair. My colleagues are making use of all the expected enterprise solutions that are supposed to make this fast and painless. It isn't fast and it looks pretty painful. Now, if we had a VDI solution in place we would have been able to create the appropriate images and simply cut-over to the new OS when we want to. No walking over to user desktops to install apps that cant be packaged. No troubleshooting agent WMI communication that prevents remote deployment from working. No dramatic desktop hardware changes. This would solve many issues, wouldnt it? So why don't I see it more in production?

 

The piece of VDI that always gets me interested is the prospect of simplified administration. A few golden images. All patching, installations and updates are done once and every client gets them when their image is loaded. Sounds good. Actually, sounds great! This can simplify everything. But does it?

 

I am not criticizing VDI. Far from it. I find it amazing. I just want to understand why more companies aren’t using it. VDI is not new, it has been around for years, but looks like one of those products that are “good ideas” but not many make good use of. Products like NAC (Network Access Control) and SIEM (Security Information Event Monitor) solutions. Both of those products are very impressive technologically and if implemented and maintained correctly will offer great returns. The problem is that most who have attempted have discovered that unless you have a full-time team to administer them they will end up at best gathering dust and at worst causing major problems.

 

So what is the problem with VDI? Is the performance still not acceptable? Are the network requirements too stringent? Is the administration more complex and time-consuming than promised?

I am really interested to hear from people who are using it full-time. Administrators or clients. Not just in specific use cases (call centers) or for part of the company. How do you find it? Does it really make life easier? Does it truly deliver on the premise? Have you used it to perform a company wide OS upgrade?

 

I would truly appreciate it if you could share some impressions.


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