Page 16 - COMPASS, Q2 2017

feature > vmware euc
NON-PERSISTENT DESKTOPS DROVE DOWN THE COST OF VDI, ESSENTIALLY GRANTING DESKTOP RESOURCES “ON-DEMAND” INSTEAD OF AT THE TIME OF PROVISIONING.
Protocol (RDP) and Teradici PC over IP (PCoIP). RDP is a highly utilized protocol for desktop presentation; it’s connection-oriented, requiring handshakes and packet integrity. PCoIP, on the other hand, is a connectionless protocol; because of that it can be lossy at times, dropping packets along the way.
In 2008, VMware licensed PCoIP for VMware View, and it has become the de facto protocol in use by thin clients and zero clients alike. PCoIP provides a much faster desktop delivery in situations where low bandwidth may be an issue; while it can drop packets, it’s favored over LAN and WAN connections.
NON-PERSISTENT DESKTOPS
A few years later, the idea of non-persistent desktop pools became a reality. The ability to thin provision desktop hard drives and maintain a pool of desktops that shared resources was a much more effective and efficient mode of operation.
Non-persistent desktops drove down the cost of VDI, essentially granting desktop resources “on-demand” instead of at the time of provisioning. Non-persistent desktops meant that a user could receive a different desktop each time they logged in. When that user logged off, none of the changes they made locally to the desktop were kept. This allowed the desktops to be returned to the pool and ready for use when the next end user needed a desktop.
(There are still use cases for persistent desktops, however, and some admins need to be able to manage both pools of persistent desktops and non-persistent desktops.)
These days, the model of the on-premises infrastructure is rapidly shift- ing to a cloud-managed infrastructure. The cloud-based infrastructure can be private, public or hybrid. Many companies began cropping up, offering to host VDI infrastructures in the cloud. A cloud deployment drivesdownthecostsofhavingtomaintaintheon-premisessolution.
Fast-forward to 2011, when VMware released VMware View Persona Management. Persona Management allows end users to keep their settings, such as browser history, wallpaper and files, even in a non-persistent desktop infrastructure.
While Windows Roaming Profiles is similar, the difference is that Persona Management only downloads files on-demand and as needed; it’s not local to the user’s desktop, instead residing on the storage back-end. This allows the user to have a better logon/ logoff experience. View Persona Management requires storage on a Common Internet File System (CIFS) share equal to or greater than the size of the user’s local profile.
In 2014, VMware rebranded VMware View to VMware Horizon. With the rebranding came many new features for desktop virtualization, including one of the most important: VMware Horizon Cloud Pod Architecture.
CLOUD POD ARCHITECTURE
Cloud Pod architecture introduced the possibility of an end user connecting to his virtual desktops from anywhere across the globe. While the end user realizes the abil- ity to connect whether he’s in Mumbai or Minnesota, there are great benefits for the administrator, as well.
Cloud Pod architecture (an example of which is shown in Figure 2) provides a user a virtual desktop session based on her proxim- ity to the nearest datacenter. This allows the end user to have the best possible desktop experience. With Cloud Pod architecture, the administrator can centrally manage VDI that’s globally dispersed. Desktop management becomes easier because IT administrators can:
• Balance the load across multiple data- centers separated by distance
14 vmug > compass Q2 2017