Desktop Virtualization 101
Desktop Virtualization is simply accessing a “desktop” from another desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone. Desktop is in quotes because in this case it mostly means a Windows 7 desktop. It sometimes can refer to virtualized applications.
VDI stands for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Desktop Virtualization is like the verb. It’s the action. VDI is the whole solution including virtual desktops, servers, and the storage. It’s the noun.
Virtual Desktops reside on a server big and capable enough to run the “desktops” at the same time. These “desktops” are typically created and stored in the form of an image. Think of an image as the foundation of the desktop. In some cases, templates can be created from the image.
Templates are usually user group specific since they can be customized for their needs. In education, different templates can be used for students, teachers, and administrators. Computer Lab templates can also be used. In a company, finance, marketing, and sales can all have their own templates. In healthcare, nurses, billing folks, and doctors can all have their own different templates.
Images and templates are one of the core reasons desktop virtualization can make managing traditional desktops so easy. If a new application, printer, or update needs to be done to users’ “desktops”, the template and/or image only needs to be updated once. Everyone who uses that image can logoff/logon and will see the update. This is the premise for desktop virtualization saving operating expenses (OPEX). Rather than making individual changes on individual “desktops” changes only have to be done once per image or template.
Because the device accessing the virtual desktop becomes a conduit to the desktop, older PC’s can typically be used. Therefore, the life of the PC can be extended. Also, thin clients (sometimes termed dumb terminals or Wyse Terminals) can be used since all of the work is being done on the server. These thin clients cost less money than a full-fledged PC. This is why you will hear Desktop Virtualization as saving capital expenditures (CAPEX).
Storage enters the picture because the virtual desktop images need to be stored somewhere. Also, depending on how many failover and redundancy features you want, shared storage plays an important role. Shared storage as its name implies is shared. Typically, it’s shared between servers. Therefore if one of the physical servers (or networks) takes a powder the shared storage should still be accessible. Usually another server is configured to take over and can access this shared storage.
Virtual desktops can be hosted with your hardware (servers and storage) or by a service provider in the “cloud”. These providers are generally called Desktop as a Service (Daas) provider. The goal in both cases is to present users with a “desktop”. Depending on the size, scope, and needs of your organization cases can be made.
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