Say Cheers to Vblock
It’s nearly a year since I first published the VDI iceberg and 20-layer model: time for an update.
The original idea behind the iceberg/20-layer model was to inject some humour into a difficult subject, being: VDI is hard, really hard. There are so many moving parts that it’s not IF but WHEN and WHAT problems you will have with your project. The size and complexity of the problem seemed to fit an iceberg…
Above the surface is all the End User Computing stuff – the users, the apps, the OSs.
Under the surface is all the unglamorous stuff that is either too hard or too boring or too complex or Somebody Else’s Problem, but most likely all four. There are multiple worlds colliding (end users, desktop admins, network guys, ITIL thingies, storage, server, virtualization, engineering, operations…).
What if some of that pain could melt away if you buy a Vblock for VDI? What if the VDI End User Computing experts could rely on the underlying platform to such an extent they could focus on what they are really good at – ie. virtual desktops, the apps in them, and how to manage the Desktop as a Service (perhaps!)?
Here’s the updated iceberg, and I think you’ll agree it’s much less daunting to an EUC/VDI expert. If you disagree, click here for the original!
VDI Iceberg with a Vblock
So if you bought a Vblock to run VDI, did your iceberg just became a few ice cubes?
- one slightly submerged for managing the apps as desktop as a service, and
- another one for the end user computing stuff (end points, user virtualization etc).
- a solid foundation, called a Vblock, to run VDI in the datacenter that was application aware and made it easy to bolt on VDI technologies like firewalls, load balancers and accelerators?
Still want to roll your own backend infra for VDI? Anyone who thinks that’s a one-time engineering effort is sadly mistaken, but not alone, but I’ll indulge that and STILL we see that VDI projects are sensitive to Time and Visibility…
- The VDI projects I’ve worked on all had a common thread in their business case: a compelling event that drove the VDI adoption. Whether it was an office closure, or relocation, or new office without enough power: they all had short time limits:
IT Exec “We aint got all the time nor all the money in the world to do this”.
- Under such pressure, with such visibility on end user computing, do you have time, say six-to-twelve months to evaluate, test, design, blueprint, procure, engineer, build, test again, go live, migrate, load up, support and operate a custom built infrastructure back end?
IT Exec: “VDI is the biggest career limiting decision an IT exec can make”?
Now here’s a crazy thought: what if VCE isn’t (just) about Vblocks. What if a Vblock is not the end, but a means to the end? What if VCE cares about Vblocks only because they let people and organizations focus on the consumption of IT, not the provisioning?
In case you’re in any doubt, let me leave you with a statement of fact: Infrastructure only costs money, it doesn’t make it.
You know and I know that the business only benefits when those applications are up and running and performing within the SLA, hopefully protected from the entropy that will ensue when the “solution” is thrown over the wall from engineering to operations.
That three month evaluation period to compare This Array to That Array, the five hundred engineering hours spent comparing PowerPath to native ESX path sharing: Really? Are these people serious?
Well? Am I Right? Am I Wrong? Comments please 
And whilst you’re noodling on it, why not read this from my personal sponsor, VCE
Check out VDI FastPath from VCE is the next evolution of converged infrastructure from putting Compute+Network+Storage in one configurable container that has known qualities (very helpful in the fight against IT Entropy – more on that later), to now making those containers application optimized.
Now your iceberg is really a new solid foundation to run VDI on top of, because with FastPath Vblock you get:
- a converged infrastructure product, not a PDF/CVD/DIG document
- modular growth
- simplified scaling
- trusted multi-tenancy
- deployment anywhere in the world through VCE and partners
- seamless support
- rapid provisioning/decommissioning of desktops
- resilient architecture due to engineering and QA
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