Wednesday December 13, 2006 Ponder This
Wednesday December 13, 2006 After 6 rewarding years at Sun, I have decided to accept an amazing opportunity outside Sun.
Deciding after 6 years of fighting the fight, that it could be the last and final round was not that easy. I am not one who gives up eaisly. You also get very comfortable. I came to Sun the same way, and had gotten very comfortable in the way I was doing things.
I came to Sun from a Windows world. Lived it, ate it and breathed it. At the time, Solaris did not even have GNOME support and Solaris on X86 was a bad joke. I recall sitting in my house at the time, trying to compile GNOME for Solaris as CDE was unbearable. I honestly was freaking out, wondering how I was going to be productive checking email with dtcal and dtmail? Believe it or not some people are still using dtcal and dtmail but, I will not name any names :)
It has been an unforgettable opportunity here at Sun. I spent the largest portion of these past 6 years focused on driving desktop technology and solutions. I have traveled the globe and worked with some of the best partners, customers and brightest minds in the industry. I have been given the freedom to innovate, speak openly about my ideas and have been allowed to participate in some amazing growth and changes.
I believe Sun Ray technology is the cornerstone of enabling Sun's vision of the network is the computer. Today more than ever, it offers customers the opportunity to choose what environment they display to their end users. Wether its the front end to an AS/400 or Mainframe, delivering a Solaris desktop, a Linux desktop, Windows desktops from a Terminal Server or Windows XP desktops from a VMware based VDI solution, it offers the most flexibility and freedom of choice.
As people connect more devices to the network, naturally changing the way they interact with information from the network, as security concerns grow, as distributed computing management becomes more painful, as technology changes improve the way we deliver rich content and the interaction between the network and the device. I believe, more enterprises will want a display only device such as a Sun Ray deployed in the enterprise.
There are some really passionate people in the desktop community at Sun. When your that close to people, it makes leaving that much harder. While processing my decisions, I could not help but think of the military's policy, leave no man behind. So, why leave right? I am very passionate about participating in the change I believe is occurring in the way desktop computing is done today. I am not ready to give up perusing that passion. I have been offered an amazing opportunity to chase that passion with a team that is just as passionate and full of amazingly talented people. They made it very clear, we share the same passion and wanted me as part of that team to go help make great things happen. It just made sense.
I want to thank everyone at Sun for all their support and camaraderie over the years. Sun is an amazing place. I also want to thank everyone that has called and sent e-mail messages. I have been overwhelmed with sad goodbys. I want to thank you for taking the time to show your continued support!
Posted by ponderthis ( Dec 13 2006, 09:43:16 AM EST ) Permalink Comments [3]
Thursday December 07, 2006 Desktop Virtualization Poll - What path will you take?
I was reading Johnathan's blog the other day with a slight grin because I have heard this story before. Its a classic story, not an uncommon occurrence really in the Technology space where new things come to market at a higher price and are bleeding edge. Over time, they become commodities. Competition catches up, new technology comes out, demand plateaus and prices drop. The sales persons quota never drops though.
I have always found it fascinating in the US as mortgage interest rates drop and herds of people refinance their homes. It seems like sales people of all calibers migrate to being loan originators. When new hot technology comes out and interest rates go up, they migrate back.
I wonder what they will do as rates go up, and all those people that did interest only loans realize they still need to re-finance at a higher rate, than they could have gotten on a 30 year fixed?
There were some interesting perceptions in this blog to ponder.
If you double the performance of a machine, customers don't buy half as many, they tend to double their order. Same goes for utilization, if you can double server utilization via Solaris containers or VMWare, people don't buy fewer computers - they buy more.
OK, the message I get here is, virtualization technology is good.
"wow, this is a great idea... thank you, Sun. But hey, why are you guys here? I thought you built big expensive stuff that ran in banks?"
Ok, the message I get here is bad. Sun is still perceived as a provider of high cost products.
One of my short comings if it is one, would be that I have never looked at the cost of the product alone. The cost is everything hardware, software, services,cultural changes etc. it takes to solve the problem, change the way something is done for the best, or taking something to market. With such a broad portfolio of products and potential ways to offer a solutions to customers why does this perception still exist?
Listening to a lot of thoughts lately on future direction and the politics that come with that. My opinion is the way the choices are presented to the customer drives this perception. We have not always been about offering choice but, over time this has changed for the better. For example, with our Sun Ray technology we offer the choice for you to choose which desktop environment you will deliver to your end users. Solaris, Linux or Windows. Somewhere people stop listening to the customer, the right choices are not offered and therefore a perception is created.
Desktop Virtualization is a RED HOT topic. It has the promise to help customers drastically improve how they deliver and manage desktop environments for their end users. Virtualization is reaching the point where competition is building. Technology providers are starting to posture and customers are going to have to make choices. Will I virtualize my desktops or not? If I do, what approach will I take?
Lets assume you have some industry standard hardware and are going to virtualize your desktops. All things being equal, cost and performance, what choices will you make? I really want to hear what the customer thinks!
Poll A: What desktop OS will you virtualize?
Poll B: Given the choice of a bare metal Virtualization solution, where there is no underlying “Host OS” . Or Given the choice of a Virtualization solution where the “Host OS” is installed first, the hypervisor is part of the OS and “Guest OS's” are added on top. Which approach will you use?
Posted by ponderthis ( Dec 07 2006, 07:15:43 AM EST ) Permalink Comments [2]
Sunday December 03, 2006 Well the time has come and I could not wait any longer. I had to retire my Sun Cobalt Qube. I have few of them actually. I came to Sun just as they were acquiring Cobalt six years ago. As part of the new hire training there was a competition and I was one of three people, out of hundreds that won a Qube. I Believe it was one of the few things I have ever won. At the time, it was the best there was. It was the Professional Edition with dual drives for mirroring. After a memory upgrade, it has been my personal web server and firewall at home for six years. I loved the Cobalt appliances. The customers that used them were passionate about them as well. It really did everything it needed to do as a home appliance. I started to collected parts for it, shortly after Sun decided not to continue on with the products from Cobalt. Because I was successful and securing components. I have been able to survive drive failures along the way.
A few months back I started moving all my lab systems and personal systems over to VMserver and ESX, in an effort to simplify things, reduce power and to build an environment that supports most the work I am doing these days. At the same time, I started a personal blog for sharing my dog training, travels and hunting experiences as I am an avid hunter and outdoorsman. While looking for a blog platform I opted for pebble. Its great and offers exactly what I need. I simply moved all the Qube services over to JES running on Solaris 10 as a Virtual Machine and left the Qube as the firewall. I keep regular snapshots and backups of the Solaris 10 VM image. Now, the whole thing is a lot more simple to manage.
The last part was to replace was the firewall function. I just do not feel comfortable with the low-end broadband devices. Last week I stumbled across the new Zone Alarm device. I ordered one last week and finished setting it up this weekend. So far it is great. It actually is very, very simple to set up. It connected instantly to my service provider using PPPoE. That is a lot more than I can say for my Dlink. It has a great logging feature and also offers advanced services for an additional cost such as SPAM filtering and Antivirus scanning.
There are a few features I do not like. The unit only allows five external connections. This can however, be upgraded to 15. I was a little concerned with this at first but, whent with it. Having now used it, I am not that fond of how they track the five connections. Any device that has the default gateway set will register with the device. So, if it makes any outbound connection attempt such as a DNS query, it uses a license. The license seems to lock for two hours or until the device resets, or whichever comes first. The other feature I do not like is the wireless. The wireless can not be on the same network as the device. For example, the wireless network needs to be 192.168.2.0 and the firewall 192.168.1.0. I am sure this is for added security however, its a bit of a hassle. The add-on services for SPAM control and antivirus seem reasonable priced for a subscription price but, could be cheaper I think.
All in all, I like it a lot and its cheaper than the devices direct from Checkpoint/Sofaware, as well as others from Sonicwall etc.
Posted by ponderthis ( Dec 03 2006, 05:47:25 PM EST ) Permalink Comments [0]
Saturday December 02, 2006
Believe it or not, my wallet was found and returned to me. I can not believe it! At least not as fast as I got it back. It was in the mailbox on Saturday. I guess more people walk around in that area than I expected. It was found in the street and was in the general area I had looked. I am not sure how I missed it? Believe it or not, all the cash was there the Eros, US and Singapore dollars. All the credit cards were gone though.
The missing credit cards is what blows my mind. They were deactivated less than 30 minutes after loosing it. If you are going to take the cards why leave the cash? I understand the foreign currency, as its a hassle to convert. I am eager to know if anyone tries to use the cards especially with it being the holiday season. I will be sending a nice reward to the guy in Redwood who mailed it to me. I have done the same in the past an would do it again. I am a firm believer in what comes around goes around.
Friday December 01, 2006 Time for a post on the lighter side. It's always easier to blame misfortune as someone else's devious intention to harass you, rather than take responsibility for your own short comings or bizarre behaviors.
For example, several weeks ago at Immersion Week my good friend Thin Guy tried to accuse me of a few acts of devious behavior. First, he accused me of sending his room a 5:00AM wake-up call. Then he later tried to accuse me of stealing a personal item of his, that he is quite dependant upon. Now, this was all after he had spent the prior day looking for his missing wallet. Which by the way, was in his pants pocket the entire time. As we all know, this is a common coincidence with him.As Dr. Phil say's “ The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” Now that could apply to a lot that is going on lately.
Anyhow, I pulled a Thin Guy this week. After a great meeting with some of the best partners in Europe, I was making my way up the 101 to catch a flight. Following standard operating procedure I stopped at Broadway to fill up at the 76 station before returning the rental. That is when it happened, I pulled a hair brained stunt. My biggest pet peeve of all! I was talking on the cell phone when I should have been paying attention. I reached for my wallet, swiped my card, put it back in the wallet and sat it on the trunk! Why! Cause I needed to pump the gas and my other hand was busy holding the phone and not paying attention. So, somewhere out there on the 101 is my wallet. If anyone finds it an wants to send it back to me, please do so. You can keep the Singapore dollars that are in it for shipping! I wanted to blame Thin Guy for rubbing off on me but, I am just going to have to accept that this was my own fault.
In the meantime I have been rebuilding my identity, moving money around and building a fortress around me in hopes to protect myself. Fortunately, Thin Guy has been sending me the steps on protecting myself since he and his wife have already been through the process.
Posted by ponderthis ( Dec 01 2006, 03:16:20 PM EST ) Permalink Comments [1]
Monday November 20, 2006 Sun Desktop Virtualization Solution White Paper - Part2
Ok, I am getting overwhelmed with requests now after VMworld and Sun's Immersion Week. This is a good thing trust me, I am not complaining. We have been secretly working on some sauce for VDI based solutions. It is a long story actually, and I will not go into it now. If we ever come across each other in person just ask and I will give you the whole story. It really was secret, even my really really good buddy thinguy did not even completely know :) I felt bad because he just found out this past week at Sun's Immersion Week what we had been working on. I usually share everything but I really did keep forgetting to tell him with everything that is going on.
We started talking about the VI Access Kit openly at VMworld. Simply put, the VI Access Kit is the glue between Sun Desktop Infrastructure Products and VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. It introduces the ability to automate virtual desktop lifecyle management for virtual desktop environments. We introduce a concept we call a factory which dynamically creates the virtual desktops on the fly based a few different variables. It also handles the pooling and recycling of virtual desktops as well.
The demonstrations at VMworld were well received. We are marching forward as fast as possible cleaning it up and writing part two of the Sun Desktop Virtualization solution white paper. In this paper we will explain the architecture, how its implemented and how to deploy it. We are also releasing it on a limited basis to customers moving to a VDI based solution as well.
Please bare with me, I am hammering away at the white paper as fast as possible. I hope to have it finished in a few weeks. I am really trying to make that goal so we can push it through the machine and get it out to you.
Stay tuned.....
Saturday November 11, 2006 VMworld 2006 is in the books as they say. It was quite the event.VMware went all out with the parties. Including renting Universal Studios with an open bar. Very impressive. The conference itself was great. VMware had some really good breakout sessions, from the feedback I have received. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend any of them. My session was well attended and I was very pleased with the turnout.
There were a ton of questions, as I expected. There was a lot of follow up at the booth afterwards as well. I always use my voice as a gage of how much traffic has come through. By the second night it was almost about to give out which usually tells me I have told the story quite a few times. Curtis was there from the US as well as Dirk from Germany and they were also talking it up. Proving we had a number of people interested in what we have to offer.
The big buzz was unquestionably desktop virtualization. Diane Greene - President of VMware made it very clear in Tuesdays keynote that desktop virtualization is happening now and taking off. I strongly recommend you visit VMware's website and look at the presentation from the keynote.
The feedback from existing Sun customers and the ones that had no idea we offered compelling desktop solutions, was very clear. WOW you guys are doing some really cool stuff. Of course, I am slightly biased and agree we are doing some cool stuff. We also have some work to do too make it better in my opinion. There was only a small handful of people that had requirements that we could not meet and I actually recommended they consider another solution. We are not going to be the best fit for everyone and this is OK. I did find it ironic though, one of them kept coming back with more questions.
I have a pretty good idea of what others are doing with their solutions. Most of which, I have started calling a "Desktop on a Desktop". Guess what? The customers are as well! Customers are smart, they are not stupid and I knew it was only a matter of time before they bushwhacked through most of the hype around some of the other solutions out there. Several people made it very clear our solution is the only solution that provides a seemless user experience and appears to be the most streamlined. I try to be fair, we know where our gaps are and I really make an effort not to hide them. I make it clear where we feel we need to improve and listen closely to customers about where they would like to see our solution improve.
What really surprised me, was the shear number of smaller boutique type " Session Brokers " that have come to market. What is more surprising is how many of these are simply taking the Remote Desktop Web Connection software from Microsoft, front ending it with a custom branded web page and calling it a product. They are actually trying to sell this to people as a " Session Broker " with little to no value add wrapped around it. I usually keep quite about things like this but, this is lame. They are also trying to OEM their " Session Broker " to other vendors. I expect most of these players and I stress players :) will drop out of the game in short time and will be long forgotten.
Maybe we need to post a Desktop Virtualization Questionnaire that gives customers a list of questions to ask these companies. A few to start off with could be.
Does your session broker for connecting to XP require ActiveX?
Does your session broker for connecting to XP require that I use a web browser?
Does your session broker require that my thin client run and embedded operating system?
Here is a good one!
If you do not use your own proprietary protocol or an open protocol to communicate with XP can you explain more about your RDP agreement with Microsoft?
Just something to ponder........
Posted by ponderthis ( Nov 11 2006, 12:43:32 PM EST ) Permalink Comments [4]
Monday October 30, 2006 VMworld 2006 - The Fast Path to Desktop Virtualization
For anyone interested in Sun's Desktop Virtualization capabilities, I will be speaking at VMworld November 8th 2006.
We are also completing some new capabilities for the solution. The new capability is basically a small add on kit and collection of tools to simplify the lifecycle management of virtaul desktop instances. Currently, we are calling it the VI Access Kit. Unfortunately, my content was already submitted, and we will not cover these new features in any great detail. However, we are working quickly on another white paper that explains how it works, what it does and how you can leverage it. Stay tuned for more details on that.
I will be available most the week to field any questions you might have or for general discussions. You can either find me at the session or around the Sun booth. You can also visit the VMworld networking site and schedule a specific meeting time as well. This will ensure we can speak without any interruptions.
http://vmworld.leveragesoftware.com
Posted by ponderthis ( Oct 30 2006, 10:00:00 AM EST ) Permalink Comments [0]
Wednesday October 18, 2006
Sun Desktop Virtaulization Solution White Paper - Published
The Sun Desktop Virtualization White Paper has been published externally. You can find it here
Sun Desktop Virtualization Solution
This version is an overview of how we use Sun's Desktop Infrastructure
Software along with VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 to deliver desktop
virtualization solutions.
We are already in the planning phases of a second version that covers
more details of how it works and a new component, the VI access kit that adds the features
for VM provisioning from a single golden image, pooling, check-in,
check-out and other VM lifecycle management features.
Stay tuned... I will provide updates as we get closer to wrapping it up.
Posted by ponderthis
( Oct 18 2006, 02:19:00 PM EDT )
Permalink
Comments [3]
Tuesday October 17, 2006 Reuters selects Sun for Desktop Virtualization
Here is the first press release from the Reuters deployment of the Sun Desktop Virtualization Solution.
As one of the early customers to deploy our desktop virtualization solution, this was in my opinion the worst case deployment we could have taken on. Going after a developer environment is not an easy task as most developer environments typically have advanced needs and requirements. However, with the suite of applications that needed to be supported and the security goals the customer had, desktop virtualization was the best route to take. We were able to collect a ton of data on desktop virtualization from a real world deployment that allows us to help customers make the best decisions in even the most challenging environments.
Reuters desktop users will benefit from a seemless virtual desktop solution. Our solution is not what I call a “Desktop on a Desktop” similar to what session brokers such as Leostream, Propero and Citrix's RDB solution, due out later this year are. Most solutions being positioned as session brokers are webbased and require a thin client device or PC that has a browser and in some cases Java support. This means the end user experiance will require interaction wih the local device OS as well as the virtual desktop. In some cases, this could lead to dual licensing costs, added cost for the thin client management software and the continued day to day management of the end user device's OS. Because these solutions are typically webbased the use must gain access to the device and then launch a connection to the virtual desktop Tis is a non-seemless two step process. This can be a painful learning curve for most desktop users.
With the Sun Desktop Virtualization Solution users have a seemless experience when connecting to their virtual desktop. Because the Sun Ray virtual display client does not use a local OS. The virtual desktop is “Displayed” to the end user in a single seamless step. Statically assigned users are connected to a static virtual desktop and dynamic users are assigned a virtual desktop from a pool. It is a seamless experience to the end user. When connecting remotely using a secure remote access component we do leverage a webbased solution to simplify the deployment and any client device software management burden from the IT staff.
Our solution offers a seamless access tier that requires little to no management allowing the desktop management team to focus on the Virtual Desktop Tier. We can offer and end to end solution that delivers a Virtual Display client, session mobility from device to device, secure remote access, desktop application publishing, pooled VM's static VM's, VM recycling, load balancing as well as other features.
Monday October 02, 2006
Desktop Virtualization Day - Germany This week I leave for Germany. The bad part is, I will not get to
attend or participate in CEC. CEC is a yearly gathering of Customer
facing engineers at Sun. Its a great opportunity for networking and
learning. Every year I am invited to attend and most years I do.
The good part is I am going to Germany to meet with customers, partners
and sales and will be having another Desktop Virtualization Day. So far
these have been a great success. As I visit geographical
areas, I am trying to coordinate these prior to arriving. I work
with the local sales teams and bring in their partners and VMware and
we spend a day going over and discussing Desktop Virtualization
Solutions using Sun's Desktop infrastructure products and
components from partners.
This is where the real activity occurs front line with partners and
sales that are interfaced with their customers on a daily basis. This
allows for the opportunity to bring the local VMware, Sun and
joint partners together work toward the same goal.
If your interested in have a Desktop virtualization day in your area
shoot em a message and we will see what we need to do to pull
something together.
Posted by ponderthis
( Oct 02 2006, 07:37:15 AM EDT )
Permalink
Comments [4]
Friday September 29, 2006
Desktop Virtualization Solution White Paper Complete
It has been a while since I have been able to publish any updates. I
had to take some vacation time, get away and recharge. Just prior
to leaving, I was able to complete the Desktop Virtualization white
paper I had been working on. I am really excited its finished and the
feedback so far has been great. Thanks to everyone who has
reviewed it, provided feedback and helped along the way.
In the paper we cover several topics
- Architecture Overview
- Architecture Design Goals
- Functional Use Cases
- Implementation
Its currently making its way through the machine for legal reviews etc. assuming there are no gotchas I hope we can externally publish it soon for easy access. In the interim, if you are interested in getting it now, contact your Sun Sales resources and we should be able to work out getting it to you.
I would like to add, this paper is only one approach in leveraging virtualization technology to solve desktop computing problems. It is not intended to be a silver bullet. Nor is it going to be a fit for every customer or enterprise. There are several variations of how virtualization technology coupled with Sun's desktop infrastructure products or products from our partners can be leveraged to add value and solve desktop related challenges. For organizations willing and looking to make changes, I hope we can continue the get these other approaches captured and documented in a same manner. As they start to proceed, I will post updates here.
I also want to than Ken Pepple. Ken has been the Chief Technologist for the Desktop Practice for several years now and was an awesome mentor and provided a ton of help with editing and mentoring along the way. Ken is going back to is APAC roots. I am not going to say he will be greatly missed because I will still call him whenever I want :) Posted by ponderthis ( Sep 29 2006, 06:00:00 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [0]
Wednesday July 26, 2006 Desktop Virtualization, views from others that are “Getting it”
I wanted to point out a recent article written by Ron Oglesby giving an overview of VDI. As it is called by VMware. Personally, I call it desktop virtualization. With the solution I've been working on, we use components from VMware. However, we are looking at other interesting approaches as well, that target different scenarios. After reading Ron's article I am glad to see that he is warming up to this approach. I strongly recommend taking some time and reading this, as Ron does a great job of simplifying what can b a complicated story. I'm finding though it resonates with most people fairly quickly. You can read the article here
Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDI): What's real today, what's not, and what's needed
I was starting to wonder if the presentation and talk I give had slipped out as I read some of the benefits that were pointed out. Here are some of the bullet points from the presentation I give. I think you will find some are very similar. This is not an entire list I categorise them into two areas.
Operational/User benefits
Overcome applications not fit for server based computing
Leverage Thin Client benefits today and still support legacy applications
Provide users a dedicated environment
Allow required users to have control over the desktop environment
Business benefits
Increase Desktop Life-Cycle
Upgrade handfuls of servers not truck loads of PC's
Protect Intellectual Property and leave no data behind
Easy to implement , fast to deploy and cheaper to manage
Increased user satisfaction and mobility
I also added a quote from a customer CIO that is very much in line with a bullet point from Ron.
Quote:
“I have one application we have tried to make work in a shared environment. Unfortunately, it is poorly written and our business depends on it.”
I also wanted to agree, this architecture approach is not intended to displace existing application deliver solutions. A solution should interoperate with existing solutions that are in place. We clearly call this out in a white paper I recently finished. I think most of what is pointed out in the perfect solution section are important and difficult parts to achieve. Some are harder than others and not completely because of technology limitations. Some are actually close to being a reality as well. It' correct to call them out though, and push the technology providers to help make it happen. I think there are a couple pieces here we have not considered, but could do today and it has given me something to work on.
I think we actually are overcoming the hopping situation extremely well. It could be simplified a little more in our solution, but it is nice. As well as very easy to implement and manage. Overall, after reading this, I feel it confirms we are on the right track, we are not trying to take over the world with desktop virtualization and are very focused on solving specific deployment scenarios and targeted users. They just so happen to be where the most pain is. We already have the session brokering done and have real customers deployed today. The thoughts here validate this is a worth considering for the right deployment and I could not agree more. I strongly recommend you take the time to read this article as another view of things.
Posted by ponderthis ( Jul 26 2006, 05:40:00 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [0]
Monday July 03, 2006 Is it Desktop Virtualization or Server Consolidation?
Figured I throw a post out there although, Sun is closed for the annual July shutdown. This year, I have been asked to focus on getting out and telling our Desktop Virtualization story with partners and customers. VMware recently released Virtual Infrastructure 3.0. The follow on to ESX 2.5.2 and Virtual Center 1.2. This will become a key part of the Desktop Virtualization solution we have been pulling together and deploying for some customers already. I will post some comments on my experiences with VI 3.0 later. I have been updating systems and migrating VM's over the last few days and have virtualization on the brain.
The V word is a hot word right now. There is no doubt it is exciting and the marketing machines are grinding away at cranking out messaging. A lot of which I think are shades of grey at best in regards to value propositions and how to leverage virtualization. Brain Madden is doing a great job of trying to paint a clear picture for what a lot of this really means Brian's Views on virtualization . I tend too agree with most his assessments. His article in 2005 about IBM's announcement is spot on.
In early 2005, IBM made a semi-big marketing splash regarding a Desktop Virtualization solution they were calling the IBM Virtualized Hosted Client Infrastructure. It was a collection of VMware components, their blade servers and Citrix. At the time, I had been looking into Desktop Virtualization for a while. It was a natural fit for Sun Ray thin clients. I knew the challenges we would face and quietly chuckled when I first read about this in Information Week.
Knowing what customers tell me about their pain on the desktop, I have struggled with the value of moving the physical desktops to blades in the case of a IBM or ClearCube approach. Unless you could really get a high consolidation ratio. I also struggled with how the connection between the thin client devices and XP Pro would be handled, unless those devices are CE or XPe based. As far as I am aware, there are only a couple of people that develop their own RDP clients. Are we accessing Virtual Desktops from thin PC's? If so, does that really solve anything for the organizations that have 1000's and 1000's of PC's being used for Knowledge worker tasks such as email, office productivity, data entry etc.
All the marketing hype made me ask myself, what is Desktop Virtualization? I define Desktop Virtualization as taking a desktop based operating system, virtualizing that desktop OS in a centralized server/blade infrastructure, and then accessing it via a ultra thin client device that requires no management, and/or remotely through some other access method when mobile or out of the office.
Taking 2000/2003 with Citrix Presentation Server or just Terminal Services alone, consolidating that on some servers/blades using a hypervisor and accessing a desktop environment, is not Desktop Virtualization. It is server based computing with server consolidation. It still does not solve the age old problem that stops most CIO's from moving to a secure thin client architecture (despite customer personal information leaking from organizations like the facet in my shower), “I have X amount of apps I need to run and I already know they do not work with Terminal Services.”
For customers that have Citrix or Terminal Server farms, front ended with thin clientsor PCs looking to consolidate physical servers into virtual server farms using Virtual Infrastructure 3.0 and Sun's Galaxy line of servers, we can do that already. There are significant gains in doing so as well.
When we set out to pull together a story around a desktop virtualization, we wanted to keep the solution in-line with allowing customers to have choices. We wanted it to be simple, straight forward, easy to implement, provide value and solve a specific problem, which is to enable CIO's and IT organizations the ability to deploy ultra thin clients today, without worrying about the legacy fat client apps they need to continue to support.
The deployments we have done to date have centered around using XP Pro as the primary desktop. Using our Sun Ray architecture, customers can leverage desktop virtualization to deploy their desktop of choice today and still have the option of moving to a Linux, Solaris or future Windows based desktop in the future. As their applications change and moving to a server based solution using any of the above makes sense, they can do so in the future. With our solution, the beauty is they do not need to replace or upgrade the devices on the desktop. Using Sun's X64 based servers in the Virtualization tier of our solution servers can easily be re-provisioned to a server based systems serving our thin clients or continue as virtualization servers hosting the server os serving the thin clients. All the management upgrades and reprovisioning happens in the virtualization tier using common hardware supported by all the required OS platforms.
Are PCs and Citrix, today, your choices for application publishing? That can stay in place, as is, without modification. Part of our solution is a Secure Remote access solution. If you have users authorized to access their PC remotely from home or other locations, they can access their Virtualized Desktop securely via any web browser. It does not requires code be deployed on the client level or managed by the IT team.
The standard value propositions apply, which is more secure, eaiser to manage, increased flexibility, increased mobility and longer desktop-lifecyle. We have some great partners deploying this solution today and adding value. There are really good results from the deployments we have already completed. I look forward to meeting and working with more customers this year and continuing to share our Desktop Virtualization story. If you want to hear more or discuss what we are doing further, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Posted by ponderthis ( Jul 03 2006, 07:25:00 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [2]
Friday June 02, 2006 I had the pleasure to be asked too
deliver a Desktop Virtualization presentation in New York this week.
I have been testing the waters in regards to the messaging, in
an effort to determine if I get blank stares or nodding heads.
Nodding heads are what I am looking for.
The market is buzzing
with the word virtualiztion. I share the same feeling as Brian
does " Read
how he feels " so hear, hear Brian, if your out there
reading.
My effort too get nodding heads has proven a little
more challenging than expected. It is not completely due to how our
story is being told but rather, how the rest of the market is telling
their story. The marketing machines have set the stage for what
people are expecting to hear.
The preso in New York was great
and many thanks to the coordinators and attendees. I am humbled.
There were appox 60 people in total including partners. If I achieved
anything, I hope I clarified what I think the difference is between
what we call Desktop Virtualization and what everyone else is calling
Desktop Virtualization but is really Server Consolidation with
Virtualization IMO. It should be more clear now what the opportunity
is and how we can help with the assistance of our tight partner
alliances.
Afterwards, I was able to meet with a Wall Street
Company that has been working on their desktop roadmap. Hats off to
those that have a plan beyond churning PC's every three years. It
takes a lot of effort, but the payback can be tremendous. In
general, we were on the same path and had a vision match. Personally,
I feel we really could get them closer to their vision today, than
anyone else. There are some trade off's though. Currently, they have
a few requirements they would like too meet but, they do not exactly
fit with our approach. I understand both sides. I think there are
some things we could do to smooth them out and have taken that feed
back to heart and voiced in side Sun.
I've been asked
to get out more in FY07 and tell the story so, I hope New your was
just the beginning. I look forward to other invitations to come share
the story globally with partners and customers. I expect the calendar
to start filling up!
Posted by ponderthis ( Jun 02 2006, 12:00:00 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [2]
