Microsoft recently made a few announcements that made many believe that desktop virtualization is now ready for prime time. I suppose many Windows admins have not yet bothered with desktop virtualization despite the buzz about Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) in the media lately. With Windows Server 2008 R2 Microsoft finally entered the VDI market, so it can’t hurt to inform yourself about the topic even if you have no plans to introduce VDI at this time.

In a series of articles I will give an overview of all the essential concepts of Microsoft’s VDI products. In this first post, I will introduce Microsoft key terms with regard to desktop virtualization. You have to know these terms in order to be able to follow the next articles in this series.

(more…)

In the last post in this VDI series I outlined Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Virtualization terminology. Today I will give an overview of Microsoft’s three VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) solutions.

Microsoft “In-Box” VDI

With In-Box VDI Microsoft refers to the VDI technology that is delivered with Windows Server 2008 R2. I have already introduced some of the In-Box VDI components in my previous article:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V 2.0
• RD Virtualization Host: Supports personal virtual desktops (PVD, each virtual machine has its own OS image) and virtual desktop pools (users/virtual machines share one OS image)
• RD Connection Broker: Supports load balancing and reconnection to existing sessions
• RD Gateway: Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) over HTTPS (SSL)
• Remote Desktop Web Access: Users access their virtual desktops through a web page

(more…)

In the last post of my series about Microsoft VDI I discussed the VDI software that Microsoft already offers today. In this article, I will give a short overview of two new technologies that might turn out to be vital for the adoption of VDI in Microsoft environments: RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory for Hyper-V.

RemoteFX

RemoteFX is a technology that Microsoft acquired two years ago with Calista Technologies. It is an enhancement of RDS (Remote Desktop Services) that will be delivered with Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (no official release date yet, probably not earlier than Q4 2010). Essentially, RemoteFX will offer support for the following technologies in a Remote Desktop environment (session host and VDI):

• Windows Aero
• Full-motion video
• Silverlight animations
• 3D applications

Obviously RemoteFX could be essential for VDI because one of the major drawbacks of desktop virtualization is that the user experience of Remote Desktop is usually worse than on local PCs when it comes to graphics virtualization.

(more…)

Now, as you know more about Microsoft’s VDI products and technology, I will tell you a little about Microsoft’s VDI licensing. I will explain the old VECD licensing and the new VDA licensing. The question of whether you can reduce costs with VDI will be the topic of my next post.

The most interesting part of Microsoft’s recent announcements about desktop virtualization were the changes regarding VDI licensing.

VECD licensing

At the moment, you need the Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) license if you run Windows desktops in a VDI environment. VECD licensing applies not only to Microsoft products but also to third-party VDI solutions such as VMware View or Citrix XenDesktop.

(more…)

In the last post of my VDI series, I discussed the Microsoft’s VDI licensing. Since VDI is licensed per year, it will get more expensive than traditional desktop licensing in the long run. However, we all know that licensing costs are more or less negligible when it comes to calculating the TCO (Total Costs of Ownership).

People often think that desktop virtualization, like server virtualization, is a way to reduce costs in IT. I think, this is a misunderstanding, which I will try to clear up in this post. I will also say a few words about the so-called Microsoft VDI tax debate.

VDI hardware costs

The typical thin client argument that your client hardware can be less powerful and, therefore, cheaper doesn’t count when it comes to VDI because you need expensive additional server hardware for VDI. Obviously, your server infrastructure needs a lot more horsepower than with session virtualization (Terminal Server) because each user runs a virtual machine with a full-blown operating system on the server.

(more…)

Michael is a Senior Technical Product Manager for VDI and Remote Desktop Services with Microsoft, based in Redmond. In this interview he discusses the advantages which RemoteFX will bring to Microsoft’s RDS and VDI solutions and compares the two technologies, looking at their relative advantages and disadvantages and what benefits they bring to business, while clearing up some common misunderstandings about VDI.

Michael’s blog can be found here.

JB: There’s been a quite consistent look and feel about Microsoft’s remote desktop/VDI technology to date, which has meant that the user is generally aware that they’re not using locally-installed software. The latest advances in the remote application user experience now seems to be at a point where the distinction between local and remote clients is blurring to the point of disappearing

(more…)

Jeff is an IT Pro Evangelist with Microsoft Australia, based in Sydney. In this interview he explains how Microsoft’s virtualization solutions integrate and how multiple solutions can be brought to bear to assist IT professionals manage their environments, mitigate compatibility issues and accelerate deployments.

Jeff’s blog can be found here.

JB: The large range of virtualization options available to customers means that there’s pretty much a solution to fit every usage scenario.

JA: There’s certainly been a lot of confusion in the local market with businesses and IT pros, simply because Microsoft has so much happening in the virtualization space, and sometimes it’s not clear how it all fits together. That’s why May 2010 is Virtualization Month for Microsoft Australia, where we’re running lots of Live Meetings to give IT pros a comprehensive overview of the key solutions. We’re following that up with free virtualization workshops across Australia throughout June.

(more…)

I promise, this will be my last article about Microsoft VDI for a while. During my research for the Microsoft VDI series, I stumbled across quite a few interesting articles about the topic which I want to share. If you want to dig deeper, you will find additional valuable information.

Microsoft Desktop Virtualization

Microsoft Virtualization Product Portfolio

This page is link list from Microsoft about their virtualization products, quite a few white papers and other resources.

What’s New in Remote Desktop Services

This TechNet article gives detailed overview of the changes in Remote Desktop Services (formerly Terminal Services).

Operating system virtualization

Microsoft product homepage for desktop virtualization

Microsoft Accelerates Desktop Virtualization

The press release that caused the stir about VDI recently.

Competitive Comparison Between Microsoft and VMware Desktop Virtualization (PDF)

This paper is mostly about Microsoft’s desktop virtualization solutions and says only little about VMware.

(more…)