Before you get all heated up reading this, let me say that the only type of VD that I’m interested in is Virtual Desktops. It’s something that’s getting a bit more attention from quite a few of my peers (myself included).
As the name suggests, VD is where you replace traditional PCs with virtual machines. Now why would anyone want to do that, you ask? To start off with, there is a lot to be said for client PCs to be totally managed from the data center. We can cut costs, regain control over desktop management, and extend our security and disaster recovery capabilities to the desktop, for instance.
These benefits are important, because we all know that the moment IT departments issue PCs to our users is the moment we start to lose control over those machines. Users start to download their own stuff, switch off important software like anti-virus, deactivate scheduled backups and security patches, and promiscuously hook up their iPods, thumbdrives or other “non-sanctioned” devices to the machines. When their inboxes crash, or they get blue-screened, who do they blame? Yes. Me.
Hence, VDI. While vendors like VMware have nifty offerings like Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, you need to think about some of the problems that may crop up:
- Serious latency and bandwidth constraints over the WAN which limit the effectiveness of your VDs
- High bandwidth costs, since you may need to transfer virtual desktop images each and everytime someone logs on
- Scalability problems preventing you from increasing the number of users
That’s why VD needs to be complemented with Cisco WAAS and Cisco ACE. For instance, Cisco WAAS, deployed on both sides of the WAN optimizes RDP traffic between the end users and the data center using a smart combo of traffic optimizations that accelerates WAN to LAN-like speeds. Cisco ACE appliances can be then be used to load balance virtual desktop connections based on application response time, providing scalability and resiliency to the VD setup.
According to a paper I’m reading, Cisco WAAS can accelerate VD performance by 70 percent, while bumping up the transfer of virtual machine images by up to 50 times!
The time is right to catch me some VD.
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