Our business is filled with acronyms. And it's important to look beyond the alphabet soup to understand just how important these letters can be when simplifying our organizations' operations.
VDI is another new one. In this world of virtualizing everything, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure -- a.k.a. VDI -- allows a single server to host many virtual desktop sessions, thus enabling any web-based machine to use a controlled desktop environment.
Enterprises are considering implementing VDI for the following main reasons:
Reduced cost
Better manageability
Enhanced security
Centralized license management
Ability to deploy browser-based thin clients
Worldwide access to enterprise applications with excellent performance.
While commercial solutions such as Citrix have been around for a while, the academic community has been deploying a free open-source solution called Virtual Computing Lab, developed at North Carolina State University (NCSU) for several years.
The solution was initially developed to solve the problem of providing students remote access to a virtual lab with the following goals in mind:
Eliminate the need to build expensive computing labs for students with high maintenance costs and only a single configuration on a given machine
Provide a dedicated compute environment for a limited time
Allow reservations to use an environment at a preferred time
World-wide access from any type of browser from any platform
Let faculty control the operating system type, version, patch level as well as all the loaded software in the environment
Ability for the user to perform anything within the virtual environment without affecting anyone else
Enable all users to get a fresh and configuration at login
Centralized license management
Better security
The solution developed at NCSU addresses all these goals and much more remarkably well. Notice how similar these goals are to the VDI goals. It is a mature and well-supported product that has been deployed in many large academic institutions. The hardware deployed centrally in a VCL environment would be similar to the hardware needs of a VDI environment. However, VCL could be an excellent software alternative to a commercial VDI software for enterprises -- at a much lower cost. Check out how VCL works by visiting the NCSU website.
Organizations planning to implement VDI should take a look at the NCSU solution and evaluate if it would be an appropriate solution for them. The academic community is rich with many similar innovations, which could be applicable to the business environment.
The open-source Kuali Financial System is another excellent example. In many cases, it is advisable to talk to a few major universities to see how they have approached a particular problem. The additional information can help make a more comprehensive decision and save money. There could be a partnership opportunity with a local major university to even help build a solution. In addition, support for open-source can be challenging for many businesses -- this is another area where businesses may consider partnering with a local major university to solve a business problem.
— Mansur Hasib has served in CIO/CISO and other leadership roles in the public, private, and education sectors.
@swijeyakumar - yes there are many excellent companies that will help organizations implement open source solutions. To achieve success the project leaders and executives have to have a clear vision, scope and a business objective that has demand and solves a problem. Disasters happen when people think vendors will do everything for them - even define the requirements. Vendor management and contract negotiation has to be done by strong internal people. Sometimes people go after implementing a product rather than a solution.
@Nicole - yes I think partnerships between industry and academia could also provide incredible opportunities for collaborative research in these types of environments.
@Mr Roques - yes that is how universities are using this. Labs/libraries could provide general purpose computer access for students but the expensive maintenance of a wide variety of labs and constant maintenance is gone. These virtual environments also allow a student to make any changes to the system because once you finish it reverts back to the original configuration. It is just not savings alone but also a far more flexible system that allows a student a lot more capabillity while sitting in a dorm room or on the road somewhere. As for bringing systems in, it has been happening for quite sometime. Hence this model also accomodates that.
I remember first seeing those types of solutions in a Internet2 Meeting back in 2009. Anyone could get access to specific super-computer needs for a limited time, based on a reservation system.
Are they planning to leave computer labs empty, and make students bring their own PCs? How are the approaching this in order to increment cost-savings?
Quite a few developers work closely with universities and colleges, both in helping to shape the curriculum and on hiring interns who quite often become full-time employees or have business-related experience and references. Some vendors set-up labs using their equipment on campuses; this way, students have access to new technology and, as you say Nicole, they are best-prepared for life as a full-time employee in IT.
That makes a lot of sense, @jaballo, in terms of the tremendous increase in productivity that end-users would see. Can you imagine having the power of a high-end server across all desktops? Awesome!
It sounds like it can be a win win situation for both enterprises and academic institutions if they partner together to deploy VDI. Not sure if it would be a conflict of interest but I would think enterprises can hire these students as interns as long as they are in school and potentially hire them permanently upon graduation. That way, enterprises know they are hiring qualified, knowledgeable people in VDI.
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