ebook The 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs

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1 ebook The 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs Digital workspaces offer powerful advantages over physical PCs. But the high cost of VDI has been a big barrier to adoption. Whether you re planning an initial rollout, re-architecting an existing implementation, or scaling a production deployment, learn the lesser known secrets that will save you real money. 1 ebook: 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs

2 #1: Reuse Those Old PCs We ll start with a no-brainer. Buying new thin or zero clients to replace all of your PCs will reduce your energy costs and hardware break/fix costs over time. But in the short-term, you ll have to shell out a lot of money for those new clients and Microsoft Virtual Desktop Access licenses (the annual subscription that you must pay for each user to allow non-windows devices to access Windows virtual desktops). You may even have to pay a disposal fee for each PC as well. Why not squeeze a little bit more life out of your old PCs by reusing them for VDI access, and stagger your thin client replacement purchases? How to Do It That s what Tulare County, California has been doing as they ve scaled VDI. The county has deployed about 500 virtual desktops as part of a planned 2,000 user deployment. Physical PCs are being repurposed as thin clients to conserve budget. Real thin clients are purchased in batches as the PCs break down and reach end-of-life. Many vendors offer software for repurposing PCs as thin clients. You can also do it yourself by modifying the Windows startup process to boot directly into your connection broker (e.g. Citrix Receiver, VMware Horizon View client), giving end users only one option to login to their virtual desktops. How Much You ll Save Reusing PCs will save you: The $ cost of a new thin or zero client. The $100 per user per year Microsoft VDA fee (assuming the PCs you are reusing are already licensed for Windows and are covered under Microsoft Software Assurance). The $20-80 PC disposal fee. For a 1,000 user VDI deployment, this could save you as much as $600, ebook: 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs

3 #2: Implement Layering for App and Image Management Once you decide to virtualize your desktops, you still need to figure out how you re going to manage your applications and images. Some IT organizations try to use existing PC management tools such as Altiris, LANdesk, or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). Others try to use first-generation application virtualization tools such as App-V and ThinApp. The results are rarely pretty with either approach. Agent-based PC management tools are not a good technical fit for virtual desktops hosted on centralized sever and storage resources. Plus, the agent installs are no more reliable in VDI than they were on physical PCs, resulting in costly service escalations. Application virtualization tools typically cannot package 30-40% of apps, requiring the apps to be embedded in multiple gold images to avoid unnecessary licensing costs. Plus, app isolation prevents app interoperability, further limiting its use. Both approaches require advanced IT skillsets and lengthy packaging times. It can take anywhere from several hours to several days to package a single app even for admins with deep MSI and sequencing expertise. Fortunately, there s now a better way. Many IT organizations are adopting application lifecycle management solutions that utilize layering technology. These solutions capture apps as virtual disks for error-free, install-free delivery to users and package-once, update-once efficiency for IT. Layering enables apps to be captured with a standard install and assigned to any number of users. The virtual disk storing the layer is attached before a desktop boots or when a user logs in, eliminating the need for repetitive, failureprone agent installs. Layered apps appear locally installed, overcoming the app interoperability limitations of traditional application virtualization. Now mature and proven in thousands of customer environments, layering provides a boatload of capital and operational capital cost savings. How to Do It Several application layering solutions are now available, but the two leading solutions are Unidesk and VMware App Volumes, which are often compared and featured in the same IT publications. 2 ebook: 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs

4 Unidesk has been adopted by more than 1,400 enterprises because it is the leader in: App compatibility Unidesk is the only below-the-os layering technology that can virtualize every component of a Windows workspace, including Windows itself. This is why Unidesk is the only solution that can package all apps, including apps with boot-time drivers (e.g. printers, scanners), apps with deep Windows dependencies (e.g. Internet Explorer), apps that start very early in the Windows boot sequence (antivirus, Citrix XenApp VDA), and apps that need to be running when users are logged out (e.g. Imprivata OneSign agent, VMware Horizon View agent, Citrix Receiver). By enabling all apps to be layered apart from Windows, and a single clean OS instance can be used for all desktops to minimize patching costs. Unidesk is recognized for its unique ability to layer all apps independent of Windows Login performance Unidesk is the only solution that offers both in-guest layer delivery that mounts assigned virtual disks when users login, as well as out-of-band layer delivery that merges multiple virtual disks pre-boot into a single Layered Image that can be delivered through existing provisioning technologies such as Citrix Provisioning Services and VMware Horizon View Composer. You can optimize login performance by including apps that are used by many users in a Layered Image, and deliver only the one-off and departmental apps at login. App portability Unidesk is the only solution that enables the same app layer to be used on different hypervisors without repackaging. This ability to layer apps once and deliver them on vsphere, Hyper-V, Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor, XenServer, and other platforms 3 ebook: 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs

5 gives you tremendous flexibility and agility. It also enables you to easily switch virtual infrastructures to reduce costs, or use the threat of switching as leverage in renewal negotiations (more on this layer). Cloud support Unidesk s strategic relationship with Microsoft for managing applications in Azure and its unique full stack layering technology that can generate complete Layered Images provides an easy path to the cloud. The same apps packaged for on-premises deployments can be delivered to cloud platforms for greater IT flexibility, enhanced business agility, and more cost-effective disaster recovery. How Much You ll Save Cost savings will vary by environment. Here are several examples from different customers. 1. Windows image management OpEx savings. One organization was patching 35 images every month, each of which took 3 hours to prep, test, and deploy. With their Tier 2 administrator salary estimated at $50 per hour that equated to $63,000 a year. Unidesk reduced the 35 images to 1 OS layer, saving $61,200 annually. 2. Application management OpEx savings. Another organization hired an App-V consultant who needed an average of 4 hours to virtualize each of the firm s 100 apps. Each app was updated an average of twice a year, and the consultant was paid $100 per hour. Annual app management cost was $80,000. With Unidesk, the organization assigned an on-staff Tier 1 IT admin making $40 per hour to the project and app packaging time was reduced to 30 minutes per app, saving about $74,000 every year. 3. Storage CapEx savings. Another organization implemented 500 full clone virtual machines to give users their own individual apps and settings. Each machine required 70 GB of flash-optimized SAN storage at a cost of $10 per GB. The storage cost for all 500 desktops was $350,000. With Unidesk layering, they re-implemented the desktops as non-persistent pooled machines, and dynamically assigned layers on a per user basis. Sharing the layer VMDKs across many machines reduced storage requirements to 10 GB per desktop. Furthermore, only 400 pooled machines were now needed for peak concurrent user access. This resulted in a savings of $310,000 in storage CapEx. 4. PC management maintenance savings. The organization above was using Symantec Altiris to manage its full clone VMs the same as physical PCs. The yearly maintenance cost of Altiris was $14 per desktop. The organization decided that it no longer needed Altiris after Unidesk was deployed, saving $7,000 in annual maintenance costs. Faster break/fix, improved control over license usage, and reduction of user downtime by using layer rollback to undo bad patches can net even more savings. 4 ebook: 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs

6 #3: Use Citrix XenApp or RDSH Instead of VDI If you already have Citrix technology in-house, you should ask yourself whether you really need VDI at all, since you can now get the same customizable user experience offered by virtual desktops through traditional Citrix XenApp published desktops. Extending your existing Citrix XenApp investment could save you a boatload of cash. You won t have to invest in separate VDI server and storage infrastructure, software licensing, and IT skills training. Plus you ll be able to take advantage of the greater user density of XenApp shared hosted desktops, which is often double to triple that of VDI. How to Do It One of the big reasons VDI was invented was to give every user a customizable, PC-like user experience with different apps and settings. That was the big knock against XenApp published desktops users logging into the same XenApp server all had to use the exact same apps. That s no longer the case. Unidesk application layering innovation for Citrix XenApp enables unique apps and personalization to be delivered to individual XenApp sessions based on Active Directory user and group membership. The virtual disk layers representing each app are attached to an individual user's session at login. Each session is isolated so that users on the same XenApp server only get their apps. With this hot-add layering capability, XenApp can now provide the look and feel of persistent VDI, making it a fit for all users and use cases. Application layering enables Citrix XenApp published desktops to be configured with different departmental apps, personal apps, and settings at login, enabling users accessing the same shared instance of Windows Server to have their own personalized workspaces. 5 ebook: 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs

7 How Much You ll Save Your savings will vary, but they can be broken down into the following components: 1. VDI license savings. If you already own Citrix XenApp and are considering a purchase of separate VDI solution such as VMware Horizon Enterprise, you could avoid the cost of $423 per named user. For a 2,000 user deployment, that equates to an upfront capital cost savings of $84, VDI server and storage infrastructure savings. Assuming a per user infrastructure cost of $500 per VDI user, you could save the entire amount if you already have sufficient Citrix infrastructure in place. For a 2,000 user deployment, that could mean a savings of $1M. If you do not have sufficient Citrix infrastructure in place, you could still save 1/2 to 2/3 the amount required by VDI by leveraging the superior user density of XenApp published desktops. For a 2,000 user deployment, again assuming infrastructure cost of $500 per VDI user, this could mean a total savings of $500K to $666K. 3. IT training. By leveraging your exiting Citrix skillsets, you could avoid the training needed to ramp up on VDI. 2 weeks of IT staff training for 2 people could cost $10K or more. To see if published desktops can be an acceptable substitute for VDI, read the comparison blog Citrix XenApp vs XenDesktop: How to Decide. 6 ebook: 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs

8 #4: Keep Your Hypervisor Options Open There was a time when VMware had to help IT organizations answer the question, Why should we virtualize our data center? Now, virtualization is such a staple that the question has changed to, How can we save money on our virtualization stack? This is especially true with workloads like VDI. As IT publication TechRepublic explains in Why VMware may fall victim to virtualization cost cutting, VMware vsphere has gone from a product that reduces costs to a baseline expense that enterprises are looking to eliminate. TechTarget SearchConvergedInfrastructure substantiates this in the story Nutanix AHV tire kickers say they avoid 'VMware tax. Clearly, there are savings to be had if you keep your VDI hypervisor options open even if you just use the threat of switching as leverage when negotiating your next VMware renewal. How to Do It The best way to keep your hypervisor options open is to ensure application package and image portability. Then you ll be able to manage your apps once across VDI platforms and hypervisors, and switch between them with ease. The only solution that offers this portability is Unidesk. Unidesk enables you to capture any desktop application as a virtual disk, providing packageonce efficiency for IT and installfree delivery for end users. But it s the Unidesk Platform Layer that completely changes the game when it comes to managing across multiple clouds and data centers. The Platform Layer abstracts out device drivers and components (e.g. Citrix VDA, VMware Tools) specific to any one platform, enabling you to deliver the same layers to any hypervisor or cloud without re-packaging. To migrate to a new platform, just switch the platform layer. The Unidesk Platform Layer enables the same application packages to be used across different hypervisors and cloud platforms to ensure business agility and flexibility. 7 ebook: 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs

9 How Much You ll Save The major U.S. university interviewed in the TechTarget story reports that they re saving $30,000 a year by switching from VMware ESX to Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV). Feedback from Unidesk customers such as Leith Automotive and Hanford Elementary School District who have switched to Hyper-V say that the savings can be even greater, since Microsoft s hypervisor is included free as a feature of Windows Server, which many IT organizations have already licensed as part of their enterprise license agreements. Whether you re considering Citrix XenServer, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, OpenStack, or another hypervisor, Unidesk ensures you have multiple options for hosting your VDI workloads. And having these options gives you more negotiating leverage even if you decide not to switch. 8 ebook: 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs

10 #5: Use the Cloud for Disaster Recovery VDI is expensive enough to implement once even with the cost savings outlined in this ebook. But many organizations are implementing VDI twice in active-active configurations to provide DR. Building out two separate on-premises VDI environments essentially doubles the cost. What if you could leverage the cloud for pay-only-when-needed DR? What if you could provision applications at a moment s notice and give your users digital workspaces that look almost identical to the ones delivered by your on-premises VDI environment? By avoiding the cost of a second VDI instance, you could save a massive amount in up-front CapEx. How to Do It This is now possible with Azure and Unidesk. Unidesk won the Best of Citrix Synergy 2016 award in the New Technology category for three exciting innovations. One is its ability to deliver the same app layers to multiple hypervisors, and also to the cloud, starting with Azure. Said the judges, Unidesk completely rebuilt its platform so it works with on-premises platforms and Microsoft Azure. Being able to deploy virtual machines composed of layers to any platform is a unique and valuable feature. This is made possible by the previously discussed Unidesk Platform Layer. You can use the Platform Layer to publish the same Layered Image and deliver the same Elastic Layers to any hypervisor or cloud through any VDI or RDSH platform. Today, Unidesk enables Citrix XenApp servers to be quickly built and customized on-premises or in Azure using the same app layers. With the partner announcement between Citrix and Microsoft that Windows 10 desktops will soon be supported in Azure and delivered through Citrix XenDesktop, Unidesk will support VDI in the same way. How Much You ll Save Your savings will depend on the size of your primary VDI environment, the projected size and cost of your secondary DR environment, your Azure license agreement, the amount of time you need to use Azure for testing purposes, and the amount of time you need to leverage Azure during a DR event. At a high level, if implementing DR on-premises would cost $2 million in upfront capital costs, implementing on-demand app delivery through Azure would be a fraction of that in pay-only-if-needed operational costs. 9 ebook: 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs

11 Executive Summary The security, mobility, BYOD, mobility, and compliance advantages of VDI relative to physical PCs are inarguable. The high cost of virtual desktops, however, has been difficult for many organizations to justify. After reading this ebook, you should now understand 5 ways to significantly reduce the cost of digital workspaces. Hopefully, this will help you make a stronger business case for either starting or expanding your desktop virtualization initiative, and put an end to costly PC refresh cycles. About Unidesk Unidesk is the leader in application packaging and lifecycle management software for the digital workspace. With Unidesk layering technology, IT organizations manage Windows desktop applications once across published desktops, published applications, and virtual desktops with unparalleled packaging simplicity and 99% application compatibility. Unidesk s hybrid management solution supports all virtualization platforms including Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and VMware vsphere; leading cloud platforms such as Azure; and leading end user computing solutions including Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop, Microsoft VDI/RDSH and VMware Horizon. Unidesk is a privately held company headquartered in Marlborough, Mass., with 1,400 customers and solution partners around the world. Visit to learn more. Unidesk Corporation, 313 Boston Post Road West, Marlborough, MA USA Tel Fax Copyright 2016 Unidesk Corp. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. Unidesk is a registered trademark of Unidesk Corp. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. Item No: UNI-EB-5-LITTLE-KNOWN-SECRETS-SLASH-VDI-COSTS ebook: 5 Little-Known Secrets to Slash VDI Costs