IT Briefcase Exclusive Interview: Steps for Successful VDI Implementation

VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) is increasing in popularity thanks to BYOD: BringYour Own Device. Users bring in their Apple or Android tablets into work – non-Windows-compatible – and expect to be able to interface with all the usual tools, apps and software of the Windows environment. This requires a remote desktop experience, which means either using traditional RDS / Terminal Services, or creating a VDI infrastructure.

Now that desktops are virtual, organizations want the user experience to be optimal and keep them from taking actions that will initiate a help desk call that cost organizations time and money.

In this interview, Jeremy Moskowitz, founder and CEO of PolicyPak, speaks with IT Briefcase on the challenges and opportunities of using a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI.)

• Q. How do the differences between physical and virtual machines come into play with BYOD?

A. The primary difference is that in addition to the “user experience” we have another element we have to consider: the image. With VDI, everyone is sharing the same hypervisor and storage via the same image. One bad egg makes the whole cart rotten. This means that in order to ensure that the user has an optimal experience, we have to ensure that the image itself is working optimally. Fortunately, the same tools you utilize to optimize the user experience can be used for the image as well. It’s about educating our customers on the issues that VDI brings to the user’s desktop experience and how to ensure that users get the same virtual desktop on their non-Windows computing device, that it works predictably and efficiently every time.

• Q. Why do IT Admins use VDI if it brings another level of complexity?

A. VDI has been around for quite a while in various forms. But it’s receiving new momentum as users start bringing their own laptops and tablets into the work network – especially Apple or Android variants which don’t run Windows. VDI offers a way of generating and controlling the desktop image of these BYOD users.

It’s a great tool for offering access to non-Windows-compatible devices. Unfortunately, VDI can be implemented without sufficient attention to the level and kind of control that the administrator has over the VDI image, and the user settings in it. There are specific actions that need to be taken to take to ensure a safe, secure and flexible VDI implementation.

The VDI world is not that different than what IT admins already know. But there are some key differences:

For example, in a non-VDI setup, a user could be doing something which makes their

own machine slower without anyone else being bothered by it, because that slowdown only affects one user. In a VDI shared image environment, that isn’t the case: an individual using a VDI image can affect all the other users of that image by the actions they take. It’s also important to make the footprint for our VDI image as small as possible, consuming as few resources as possible. Keeping disk activity to a minimum is paramount in a VDI environment. This will ensure that the user gets a high performing fluid experience.

• Q. What are some of those critical steps that need to be taken for a successful VDI implementation?

A. There are a bunch of unnecessary services that your system uses, which would make sense if it was a real desktop or laptop, but doesn’t if it’s a VDI machine. To that end, to save memory and disk operations, turn off (or not install) items like: Anti-virus scans, Windows Search Indexing, Defragmentation tasks, and Windows Update.

IT departments should certainly fully update machines when they update or modify the image. You just don’t want these desktops to constantly download and install Microsoft patches and such at the start of every session—only to throw them away at the end of each session.

• Q. Any closing remarks?

A. There are more commonalities between VDI and the traditional physical computer world than there are differences. However, the key is to make certain your virtual desktops run more safely, more predictably and more efficiently. With the upsurge of BYOD, particularly with non-Windows devices, VDI is finally becoming prominent with the enterprise and Group Policy and other application management configuration tools are working in collaboration, to ensure that your BYOD implementation is a successful one.

Jeremy Moskowitz founded PolicyPak Software after working with hundreds of customers with the same problem: they couldn’t manage their applications using the technology they already had.

Jeremy also founded GPanswers.com, a community portal for all things Group Policy. Jeremy’s best-selling Group Policy books are on the desks of happy administrators everywhere. Jeremy holds a Computer Science degree from the University of Delaware, was one of the first MCSEs in the world, and has been designated an MVP in Group Policy by Microsoft for the last several years running.