Rethinking VDI: The Role of Client-Hosted Virtual Desktops White Paper 2011 Virtual Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.virtualcomputer.com
The Evolving Corporate Desktop Personal computers are now an essential business tool in most organizations. But as the PC assumes a increasingly critical role in everyday business activity, the demands on IT staff are greatly intensified. IT priorities such as information security and cost control are often at odds with the preferences and needs of end users, including PC hardware and software choice, ubiquitous network connectivity, and varying usage requirements and technical knowledge. When these factors are combined with ongoing needs to refresh PC hardware and adopt new operating systems such as Windows 7, IT teams are left looking for any source of relief for escalating operational costs. VDI: Opportunities and Challenges Faced with evolving user demands and constant pressure to do more with less, IT teams are increasingly making virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) part of their next-generation desktop strategy. Executed properly, VDI may hold the key to dramatically lower desktop support costs, improved security of sensitive data, and the flexibility to embrace a variety of new usage models. But for many organizations, VDI is not a silver bullet. With most VDI approaches, the improved flexibility, efficiency, and security also come with a number of drawbacks. Skyrocketing Data Center Costs VDI solutions generally call for the wholesale replacement of traditional PC platforms with a server-based infrastructure. While centralizing management and end-user desktop execution into the data center offers efficiency and security advantages over traditional PC computing, these benefits require substantial cost. Based on success reducing hardware costs through server virtualization, many organizations assume that moving desktops into the data center will result in lower costs. While there are operational cost savings to be gained through desktop virtualization, the reality is that moving desktop sessions from commodity PC hardware to higher-cost servers and data center storage results in increased overall capital expense. There are certain cases for which the efficiency and security benefits of desktop virtualization justify the data center investment over a multi-year period. But, with budgets tighter than ever, many organizations need a more immediate return on investment. They do not have the luxury of making capital investments today for the uncertain promise of savings years down the road. Increased Network Infrastructure Demands Desktop virtualization that exclusively uses server-based computing places a heavy demand on network resources. When desktops are executed on servers, each session must be streamed concurrently over the 2011 Virtual Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 1
network to a corresponding user. This puts additional demands on IT teams to add bandwidth as use of desktop virtualization increases, consuming both time and budget. With server-hosted desktops, the network becomes a point of failure for end-user computing sessions. This creates a new category of risk that does not exist with today s distributed PC computing architecture. Unexpected network latency or downtime will take down large numbers of end-users simultaneously, resulting in unhappy users and increased pressure on IT operations staff. End-User Experience Compromises Users are often resistant to change and place their own efficiency and convenience over the efficiency and convenience of the IT team. While server-based computing has made great strides in areas such as multimedia and peripheral support, optimizing these functions remains complex for both IT and end users. For example, many end-users expect that a specialized USB peripheral plugged into their PC will immediately work. The moment that process becomes more complex than plug and play, the prospects for the success of desktop virtualization are undermined. Limited Support for Mobile Users PC shipment trends demonstrate an overwhelming move towards mobile computing. In most organizations, a growing number of users expect ubiquitous access to information across multiple corporate facilities, from home offices, and throughout any required business travel. Desktop virtualization solutions that only offer usage at fixed locations may have applicability to a subset of these locations, but lack of ubiquitous network connectivity and frequent need to cross organizational boundaries prevent most desktop virtualization solutions from achieving wide-scale adoption. More Challenging Scaling Curve In addition to the upfront expense of starting with a data center-centric desktop virtualization approach, this model is much more challenging to scale in budget-sensitive times. For example, if you assume up to 20 desktop sessions can fit on a given server, user 21 would require the purchase of a new server at great expense. While the excess capacity may be put to effective use in the future, the short-term reality is that adding one user costs several thousand dollars instead of the several hundred dollars with a traditional PC model. The Answer: Client-Hosted Virtual Desktops All of the Benefits, None of the Risk The benefits of desktop virtualization have very little to do with where the virtual desktops are running. Instead, they come from the fact that virtualization enables new management and security techniques and makes age-old tasks like deployment, patching and backup orders of magnitude easier. 2011 Virtual Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2
But what if the same benefits could be achieved through a distributed desktop virtualization architecture that preserves the experience, economics, and flexibility of the traditional PC computing model? The fact that most desktop virtualization solutions are data center-centric is more vendor-driven than needdriven. Early desktop virtualization approaches came from existing server virtualization vendors, who leveraged their core technology by making desktop virtualization an add-on to server virtualization. If one looks at desktop virtualization as a clean canvas, the data center is not necessarily the right place to start. The ideal approach is one that delivers the operational and security benefits of virtualization techniques without degrading the simplicity, economics and user experience of the current distributed PC computing model. At the heart of desktop virtualization sits hypervisor technology. As a result of the industry s server virtualization heritage, most hypervisors today run on servers. However, the technology exists to extend hypervisor technology to traditional PC hardware, creating an opportunity to achieve the management and security benefits of desktop virtualization using existing PCs. By combining the management attributes of server-based desktop virtualization with a delivery model that allows end-users to run their virtual desktop on traditional laptop or desktop PCs: Data center costs are kept to a minimum, with most computing power remaining at the endpoint Network utilization is limited and tightly controlled Mobile users can continue to use laptops and roam between online and offline Scaling curve is smoother, with little data center impact as new users are added. Types of Client-Side Hypervisor Architectures The key technology in a client-hosted virtual desktop approach is a client hypervisor. By running a hypervisor on the PC, the user s local virtual machines aren t dependent on data center infrastructure or network connectivity. Client-side virtualization software has been around for several years, but the evolution to baremetal client virtualization, a transition that has already been completed with server virtualization products, is transforming desktop virtualization. While there are two types of client-side hypervisors, only one delivers the benefits IT departments need to make desktop virtualization a success. The more common PC virtualization architecture today is a type-2 client hypervisor. A type-2 client hypervisor is installed as an application within an existing native operating system, enabling virtual machines to run on top of this existing OS. Type-2 client hypervisors are easy to deploy and provide the basic capability of running multiple operating systems on a single PC. However, since these virtual machines are highly dependent on the native host operating system for key functions, they are limited by performance and security drawbacks. These drawbacks are overcome by a Type-1 or bare-metal client hypervisor. With a Type-1 architecture, the native operating system is eliminated or isolated into a separate disk partition. The hypervisor installs directly 2011 Virtual Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 3
onto the bare-metal PC hardware and executes without a native operating system. Any virtual machines running on the hypervisor operate without a native operating system and are also completely isolated from each other. Following the precedent of server virtualization products, where Type-2 hypervisors eventually have given way to Type-1 hypervisors as the standard for performance and security, Type-1 hypervisor technology is an increasingly popular option for client-side virtualization. NxTop - The Next-Generation Desktop NxTop by Virtual Computer is the first product to combine centralized virtual desktop management with a Type-1 client hypervisor to deliver the management and security benefits of desktop virtualization without the risk and upfront expense. The NxTop solution consists of two core components: NxTop Engine: Bare-metal client hypervisor and proprietary management technology that allows fully managed virtual desktops to run on intermittently connected PCs. NxTop Center: Centralized management console to create, deploy, update and secure virtual desktops for execution on NxTop Engine, as well as to remotely manage NxTop Engine itself. While NxTop is designed to complement a server-based computing infrastructure, it has a very small data center footprint, is not sensitive to network availability and latency, and makes extensive use of existing PC investments. Figure 1: NxTop Distributed Architecture 2011 Virtual Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 4
More Efficient Operations Through Centralized Management NxTop provides a central console for all desktop management. IT teams create and maintain a single virtual machine for each operating system, which can be published to thousands of users. User-specific personality, data, settings and applications are applied dynamically at each endpoint. Patches and updates are applied on a one-to-many basis. The IT administrator applies patches once to a master virtual machine running on the NxTop management console. Upon republishing, the changed data blocks are streamed to NxTop-enabled PCs. A patched image is assembled in the background and transparently loaded on the next reboot. Distributed Desktop Execution on Bare Metal Before NxTop, the efficiency and security benefits of virtual desktops were limited to server-hosted approaches using tethered thin clients. NxTop augments this with the industry s first fully managed type-1 or bare-metal client hypervisor, allowing virtual desktops to run on traditional PC hardware. Unlike Type-2 client hypervisors running on untrusted operating systems, NxTop virtual machines are completely isolated from one another. Malware in an unmanaged Windows desktop does not compromise a managed NxTop virtual machine, even on the same hardware. NxTop presents a consistent set of virtual hardware to the end-user operating system, simplifying migration of users to new hardware platforms. Driver management and other hardware-specific compatibility challenges are eliminated. Integrated Security All virtual machine and system data on NxTop-enabled PCs is encrypted, providing peace of mind in the event that a PC containing sensitive data is lost or stolen. IT administrators can also protect against data leakage and unauthorized use with NxTop s robust policy controls. Access to hardware such as USB ports can be restricted or filtered based on centrally defined policies at global, group and individual-user levels. Virtual machines can be governed by time-based expiration policies and on-demand remote disablement. As an added layer of security, IT administrators can flag lost PCs for remote termination. If a lost or stolen PC connects to a network, NxTop digitally shreds all data and encryption keys, then self-destructs. Hassle-Free Data Backup and Restore Based on centrally defined policies, NxTop periodically initiates data backup without requiring end-user interaction. NxTop back-up technology captures changes at the block level, transmitting only the changed blocks to NxTop Center. The combination of central virtual-image management, data backup and hardware abstraction dramatically simplifies re-provisioning users in the event of a lost or failed PC. Simply register a new PC even a completely different hardware platform and with a few mouse clicks the user is running their exact desktop environment from the last time they connected to a network. 2011 Virtual Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 5
Future-Proof Against Evolving Needs The core value of client-hosted desktop virtualization is that it delivers the operational benefits of desktop virtualization while preserving the current PC model. This eliminates costs and complexity obstacles to considering desktop virtualization while also eliminating potential user adoption challenges. While solutions like NxTop start with a deployment that is closely related to today s PC-centric computing approach, you are not locked out from emerging approaches such as server-based computing on browserbased cloud applications. One of the core strengths of NxTop s client hypervisor technology is that it can act as a Swiss army knife of sorts. In addition to running full local copies of Microsoft Windows, it could, for example, also run a lightweight Linux virtual appliance hosting a web browser or remote display client for server-based computing. Whether you need a local operating system, thin-client functionality, a lightweight cloud OS, or any combination of the three, a NxTop provides the required base platform. Getting Started One of the major benefits of a client-hosted virtual desktop approach is that it is very easy to get started and allows quick assessment of whether it can provide benefits to your organization. The complete NxTop product can be downloaded for free at www.virtualcomputer.com. Using this free introductory license, you will likely find that you already have everything you need to get a proof of concept running in hours. At the end of the trial period, you will have the option to convert to a full NxTop Enterprise license or request a free NxTop Express license that will allow you to continue using NxTop on up to 5 PCs free of charge. 2011 Virtual Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 6