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Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) or the ability to deliver desktops as a managed service is an attractive and cost effective solution to mange a corporate desktop environment. The success of virtual desktop deployments hinges on the user experience, availability and performance, security and IT's ability to reduce desktop operating expenses.
VDI deployments virtualizes user desktops by delivering them to distinctive end point devices over the network from a central location. Since the user's primary work tool is now located in a data center rather than their own local machine, VDI can put a strain on network resources while the user experience can be less than desired. This is due to the large amounts of data required to deliver a graphical user interface (GUI) based virtual desktop. For users who want to access their desktops and applications from anywhere in the world, network latency can be especially noticeable when the virtual desktop is delivered over a WAN. Organizations might have to provision more bandwidth to account for the additional network traffic which in turn, reduces any cost savings realized with VDI. In addition, VMware has introduced the PCoIP (PC over IP) communications display protocol which makes more efficient use of the network by encapsulating video display packets in UDP instead of TCP. Many remote access devices are incapable of correctly handling this distinctive protocol and this can deteriorate the user experience.
Keeping mobile users connected to their own unique, individual environments can also pose a challenge. When a user is moving from one network to another, their session could be dropped, requiring them to re-connect, re-authenticate, and navigate to where they were prior to the interruption. Session-persistence can maintain the stateful desktop information helping users reconnect quickly without the need to re-authenticate. Secure access and access control are always concerns when deploying any system and virtual desktops are no different. Users are still accessing sensitive corporate information so enforcing strong authentication, security policies, and ensuring that the client is compliant all still apply to VDI deployments.
Lastly, IT must make sure that the virtual systems themselves are available and can scale when needed to realize all the benefits from both a virtual server and virtual desktop deployment.
The BIG-IP provides important load balancing, health monitoring and SSL Offload for VMware View deployments for greater system availability and scalability. Network and protocol optimizations help organizations mange bandwidth efficiently and in some cases, reduces the bandwidth requirements while maintaining and improving the user experience. BIG-IP APM for LTM VE also opens the possibility of making virtual server load balancing decisions based on user’s identity, ensuring the user is connected to the optimal virtual instance based their needs. F5 also overcomes the PCoIP challenge with our Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) feature. This transport protocol is uniquely capable of providing all the desired security for transporting PCoIP communications but without the degradation in performance. In addition, F5 supports View’s automatic fallback to TCP if a high performance UDP tunnel cannot be established. Users no longer have to RDP to their virtual desktops but can now connect directly with PCoIP or organizations can plan a phased migration to PCoIP.
The BIG-IP APM for LTM VE comes with powerful security controls to keep the entire environment secure. Pre-login host checks will inspect the requesting client and determine if it meets certain access criteria like OS patch level, Anti-virus/Firewall state or if a certificate is present. BIG-IP APM for LTM VE offers a wide range of authentication mechanisms, including two-factor, to protect corporate resources from unauthorized access. BIG-IP APM enables authentication pass-through for convenient single sign on and once a session is established, all traffic, including PCoIP, is encrypted to protect the data and session-persistence helps users reconnect quickly without having to re-authenticate. BIG-IP APM for LTM VE simplifies deployment of authentication and session management for VMware View enterprise virtual desktop management.
ps
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Technorati Tags: F5, BIG-IP, VMWare, Optimization, Pete Silva, F5, vmview,virtualization,mobile applications,access control,security,context-aware,strategic point of control
There has been a lot of press already about OpenStack’s announcement yesterday about their new open source cloud computing software. OpenStack says that the goal is, ‘to allow any organization to create and offer cloud computing capabilities using open source software running on standard hardware.’ The software is intended to to allow companies to automatically create and manage large deployments of virtual private servers and remove the concern of vendor lock-in since the software will allow customers to span multiple cloud providers. Customers and service providers alike can use their own physical hardware to create large cloud environments, public or private, across the globe. It is also positioned to give customers more choice in how they want their specific cloud environment designed and deployed. Almost 30 companies are participating with the folks at Rackspace and NASA (Nebula cloud computing platform) leading the charge.
Certainly, there are several attractive pieces to this, including the notion of cloud-standards, but will it finally open the flood gates for mass adoption of Cloud deployments? Maybe not for the enterprise, at least initially. Openstack honestly admits, ‘OpenStack is probably not something that the average business would consider deploying themselves yet. The big news for end customers is the potential for a halo effect of providers adopting an open and standard cloud: easy migration, cloud-bursting, better security audits, and a large ecosystem of compatible tools and services that work across cloud providers.’ This means that Openstack is really aimed at *very* technical enterprises (very large with lots of resources) and service providers. Thus, the play for the enterprise does not exist (yet) here, *except* for management layer players who could leverage it to build something they could sell to enterprises to “make it easy” for them. (thanks Lori!)
In addition, as Ted Julian of the Yankee Group points out in this story, security is still the great unknown since there doesn’t seem to be a security vendor on the list of Openstack participants. I’m sure that list will grow over time, especially with the press that it’s getting, and the ever present cloud security concerns will eventually be addressed. This project is in the very early stages and will continue to evolve as folks pick up the code, test it and decide how it might work for them. Maybe it’ll also help push along and enable the whole Inter-Cloud notion.
And one from Confucius: The cautious seldom err.
ps
The CloudFucius Series: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
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Technorati Tags: F5, infrastructure 2.0, integration, cloud connect, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, cloud, context-aware, web, internet, openstack
twitter: @psilvas
One of the pillars of the Virtual Data Center is virtual platform infrastructure, or the virtual machine; however virtual platforms are dependent on many other, oft forgotten components of both the physical and virtual data center.
The full white paper can be downloaded from here
ps
twitter: @psilvas
Technorati Tags: F5, infrastructure 2.0, integration, cloud connect, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, intercloud, cloud, context-aware, infrastructure 2.0, automation, web, internet
F5 pioneered the concept of breaking up data center virtualization technologies into eight unique categories within the data center. Any virtualization products or technologies implemented in the data center will fall into one of these eight categories. With this paper, F5 discusses how it has implemented these same technologies within its own product line, helping enterprises get closer to achieving their goal of a implementing a complete Virtual Data Center with F5’s Application Delivery Networking products.
ps
twitter: @psilvas
Technorati Tags: F5, infrastructure 2.0, integration, cloud connect, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, intercloud, cloud, context-aware, infrastructure 2.0, automation, web, internet,
The virtualization of network and application network infrastructure is the second wave of the virtualization tsunami to hit the shores of the data center. Unlike server virtualization, because of its unique role in the data center, Application Delivery Controller (ADC) virtualization brings with it architectural implications that make a simple virtual-for-physical replacement strategy unacceptable. But there are appropriate places across the data center and organization where virtualized ADCs can be leveraged as stand-alone solutions, as well as in conjunction with its physical predecessor, to enable a more dynamic data center without compromising reliability, scalability, and performance.
You can download the full white paper from f5.com here: hybrid-adn-architecture.pdf
twitter: @psilvas
The concept of spending money to make money—often referred to as "investing" outside of the technology industry—is something just about every marketing campaign promises, but few deliver. The ROI calculations to prove how quickly an investment will reap return often come with a lot of conditions. But solutions that provide a quick ROI along with significant technological benefits do exist. The trick is finding these solutions and proving that the ROI model is valid for almost every case. It's not magic. It's simple math. In the following pages we won't show you how to determine if there is a compelling ROI case for Application Delivery Controllers, but how to determine how much of a compelling case there really is.
You can download the whitepaper here: http://info.f5.com/g/?OPFLU4KDTS=clicksrc:523923
ps
twitter: @psilvas
First, I want to stake a claim here that CloudFucius (TM) is mine and I have started the copyright process. :-) I googled and did a copyright search for 'Cloudfucius' and absolutely nothing gets returned, which actually surprised me. 'Cloud-fucius' returns a bunch of 'fucius' stuff so I figured it’s good to take. If you do have any rights, speak up now. While I am well versed with the security stories, I can admit I'm no cloud super-expert; knowledgeable but certainly not to the level of MacVittie, Ness and the rest. While weaving in what I do know, I was thinking of investigating a bunch of cloud topics that I’m not an expert on, learn along the way and report on it. Education for all and playing off the fact that Confucius=wisdom. Hopefully CloudFucius will teach us something along the way. He’ll start next week with some easy doctrines like, CloudFucius Says: AAA Important to Cloud and in later weeks move into other areas like, CloudFucius Says: Secure Cloud is Possible. I’m looking forward to what we uncover and CloudFucius is excited to spread some cloud knowledge to the masses and someday getting a Hasbro toy and game named after him.
下 周 见 - 下 for Next; 周 for week; 见 for see/meet.
ps
Technorati Tags: MacVittie, F5, infrastructure 2.0, integration, collaboration, standards, cloud connect, Pete Silva, F5, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, intercloud, cloud, greg Ness, context-aware, infrastructure 2.0, automation, web, internet, blog
Whether it be due to cloud computing, last year’s economic mess, or just the general cyclical nature of the Tech Industry, Consolidation has been a huge focus of IT departments of late. Data Center consolidation, hardware consolidation, staff consolidation and tech sector consolidation to name a few. I remember the days of single purpose boxes that did one thing well. In fact, a decade ago at Exodus, that was one of my positioning points for BIG-IP over such LB units as Alteon, ArrowPoint and LocalDirector since they were switched/hardware-based appliances. I’d say something like, ‘It’s a Floor Wax and a Dessert Topping while the BIG-IP is software based, focused only on Load Balancing.’ Boy, times have changed.
Single purpose appliances, while still big business for their particular specialty, are becoming fewer and fewer – just look at the handheld your using. The printer was one of the first to go that route becoming printer/copier/fax/scanner in an effort to make them more useful and appealing to the customer. Ads tout, ‘No more bulky equipment to buy – it’s all here in this great new thing that you must have!! All for the incredibly low price of…..’ IDS graduated to IPS and now we have IDPS units and UTM (Unified Threat Management) systems or the Next-Gen Firewalls. They have firewall, anti-virus, spam controls, web filter, IDS and more. We are in a multi-task society and expect our devices to behave the same. For a while, adding more and more functionality to a piece of IT equipment would either slow it to a crawl or make it very difficult to troubleshoot. The processing power available today allows multi-function appliances to dedicate resources to ensure all the functions run smoothly.
As consolidation continues, and more functionality is added to these multi-dedicated appliances, management of such an infrastructure especially if it’s part of a cloud, will continue to be an important driver for IT. So, as you consolidate and are able to dedicate, that will enable you to eradicate costs, multiple management interfaces, multiple point products and with the right device, eradicate many of the threats that appear every day, the CDE way!
ps
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Technorati Tags: F5,BIG-IP,v10.1,Edge Gateway,WOM,application delivery,Pete Silva,F5,security,application security,network security
