TechAgility

So last week I managed to get RemoteFX up and running from a Windows 7 VDI from a Hyper-V Host – initially I was a little perturbed as it didn’t look that good, and appeared to have a certain amount of stutter to it, I then realised that I had at some point unplugged the ethernet cable from my Docking Station and as a result I was actually connecting via WiFi – once I replaced the ethernet cable all was fine and the experience was very good indeed.

It’s possibly worth noting here two immutable facts regarding Desktop Virtualization (in my opinion):

• You need to be able to provide a User Experience that is as good as, or better, than a PC today otherwise your project will definitely struggle and may even be doomed to failure before getting to the Pilot stage
• The User Experience cannot be simply defined or quantified – it is extremely subjective, and as such it is very much a “movable target” and subject to the whims of those being asked at any given time of day, etc…    (my advice is to aim high )

So while it was running on the WiFi I tried checking for any latency? None – all 1ms or less – and yet there was some noticeable stutter in the replay of a Flash vide from YouTube.

This brings up another point regarding testing the User Experience – find yourself something that you would consider to be a good representation of what the users would normally use and then continue to use that as a reference model against which all solutions can effectively be measured? – I am currently using a High Definition video clip from YouTube from BBC2 that is an underwater shot of Surfing. This can be found here:

The reasons for using this clip as my reference piece is:

Regardless of who I am showing this to – they will instinctively know what it should look like, even if they have never seen the clip before.

Because of the Slow Motion video it will show up any stutter or frame drop quite dramatically

It is available in a number of resolutions – 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p and 1080p.

It is also quite a good clip and will naturally draw peoples attention

Now after replacing the WiFi with the ethernet cable all seemed to go well at the standard 360p so I thought I’d simply push it higher and all should be OK? Well 480p wasn’t too bad, but anything above that started to suffer, so after doing some checking I noticed that the VDI instance was flat lining the CPU at 100%. So I stopped the VM, added another vCPU and restarted, and then tried again – now it could be run at 720p and only when it was run at 1080p was there some very slight (almost negligible) stutter.

Now this should not be considered as anything like a definitive guide to the performance you might get from RemoteFX – I have had very little time to do any further testing, and next on my list is to get vWorkspace running on this rig so that I can see what difference EOP Xtream makes to these same observations – but in the meantime I’m just sharing my 2 cents worth in the vain hope that it might be useful to someone else?

written by dcaddick

So the other day I realised that there was something very unusual happening to my HP 2540p – it has been blindingly fast, but just recently it seemed that it was on strike – I also found that it would effectively hang when trying to suspend.

So it seemed that this was around the Power Management side of things and I couldn’t find anything in the Event Viewer to isolate what was causing it – in the past I have found that this sort of issue can be sometimes caused by BIOS related issues – and while this does not explain why the symptom suddenly appeared, I can report that my original BIOS was F.02 and upgrading this to the latest version does seem to have resolved this.

This is certainly good news – as I was starting to think that I might need to rebuild to clear this (mind you that was going to be a good excuse to rebuild with the new SP1 )

HP Notebook System BIOS Update (ROM Family 68CSU)

written by dcaddick

After doing some serious digging it appears that there was well over 400 sessions at MS TechEd 2010 – to be honest I ended up giving up as I figured I’d found way more material than I will be able to get through in quite a long time.

MS are to be commended for being quite open about sharing the content? It would also seem that most of the sessions have been captured on Video as well and are available in HD and MP4.

Here’s my pick of what might be topical and somewhat related to Client and/or Desktop Virtualization?

• ARC307 – Top 10 Hidden IT Costs and How to Avoid Them
• COS306 – The Economics of Cloud Computing
• VIR204 – Understanding How Microsoft Virtualization Compares to VMware
• VIR206 – Virtualization 360: Microsoft Virtualization Strategy, Products, and Solutions for the New Economy
• VIR209 – Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6 and Microsoft Office 2010
• VIR304 – Hyper-V and Dynamic Memory in Depth
• VIR305 – Microsoft RemoteFX: Rich Windows Desktop Experience for VDI and Session Virtualization
• VIR310 – Networking and Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V: Deployment Considerations
• VIR311 – Planning and Deploying Microsoft VDI with Management Technologies
• VIR313 – VDI from Microsoft and Citrix: What is it? How do I manage it? What benefits does it provide?
• VIR315 – Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Performance Analysis: How You Can Get the Most out of Hyper-V
• VIR316 – Remote Desktop Session Host vs. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Smackdown
• VIR317 – Desktop Virtualization: You Have a Choice
• VIR320 – Sequencing Deep Dive: Efficiently Making Your Applications Virtual
• VIR321 – Effectively Debugging Complex Application Sequencings
• VIR304 – Hyper-V and Dynamic Memory in Depth
• VIR403 – Virtualization FAQ, Tips, and Tricks
• WCL314 – Windows Sysinternals Primer: Process Explorer, Process Monitor, and More
• WCL318 – Using Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE) 3.0 to Troubleshoot and Fix Problems, and to Capture and Deploy WIM Images
• WCL402 – Pushing the Limits of Windows with Mark Russinovich
• WEM301 – Deploying Windows Embedded Standard 7 with Style
• WEM302 – Explore the Multimedia Potential of Windows Embedded Standard 7
• WSV205 – Remote Desktop Services: Virtual and Session-Based Desktops and Applications Architecture with Partners
• WSV301 – Administrators’ Idol: Windows and Active Directory Best Practices
• WSV303 – Death of a Network: Identify the Hidden Causes of Lousy Network Performance
• WEM305 – How to Choose a Windows Embedded Operating System
• WEM308 – Windows Embedded Overview: Demos of the Latest and Upcoming Releases
• WSV309 – Microsoft RemoteFX: USB and Device Support
• WSV316 – Hyper-V and Storage: Maximizing Performance and Deployment Best Practices in Windows Server 2008 R2
• SIA333 – Useful Hacker Techniques: Which Part of Hackers’ Knowledge Will Help You in Efficient IT Administration?
• SIA334 – The Secrets of Effective Technical Talks: How to Explain Tech without Tucking Them In!
• SIA335 – Death of Security: Breached Hosts/Stolen Data/IP Espionage

written by dcaddick

I was recently looking for info regarding how to manage or integrate Windows Thin Clients (XPe/WES) with SCCM.

To the best of my knowledge the formal stance has always been “we supply the Macro components to support SCCM Agents in the build – the rest is up to the Customer” and my understanding is that this was mainly around the concern that this solution was never able to support “bare metal imaging” to be able to reimage the devices?

Please be aware that I have not attempted to get this working myself, this is merely the research that I have done just in case I was asked to implement it, and although some may see it as hugely beneficial to have both Thin Clients and PC’s being managed from a single console – the flip side to this is that the SCCM console and management structure does NOT know how to handle or treat devices that have a Write Filter

• Or if it was possible to image but this was still in a grey area of being un-supported?
• It seems that it might actually be possible to image with WES 2009 onwards as indicated in this article?
• Embedded OS Deployment with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM)
  One of the new features in Windows Embedded Standard 2009 is the support of SCCM operating system deployment. This means, any Standard image can be deployed the same way images for desktop or server machines are deployed within an SCCM infrastructure. Previously, it was not possible to deploy XP embedded images, because XPe did not support the Sysprep utility.
  • More at source ….

Looking a bit further ahead towards the end of the year with WES 7 however it looks like this imaging issue will be overcome as MS will then support imaging? BUT only to WES 7 devices as it will then be able to be imaged using the ImageX based process?

Other than that I have collated some details below that seems to pretty much map it out that it shouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish – but it would appear that it would be a better idea to go with FBWF to have more flexibility with coping with the SCCM Agent side of things

Creating SCCM software update packages

There is no fundamental difference between creating software deployment packages for a normal Windows XP Professional or a Windows Embedded Standard system. If you are new to this, Microsoft Technet, with its documentation and whitepapers, is a very valuable resource to get things started. However, especially when Embedded Enabling Features (EEF’s) or the limitations of embedded devices come into play, deployment packages for embedded devices need to be created with a slightly different mind set than those for enterprise scenarios.

More at source….

Advanced System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) Software Deployment Scenarios
Change management scenarios of embedded devices are sometimes much harder to handle than those of corporate desktops. This is especially true when you consider the way users interact with devices. System Center offers a control panel applet users and administrators can use for local interaction with the Configuration Manager infrastructure. This works fine for Windows Embedded Standard Devices as long as they run explorer shell the same way corporate desktops do. If embedded devices run their own shell these options are gone, because no access to the applets can be provided.

More at source….

Write Filters Support for Mass Deployment in Windows Embedded Standard 7

Mass deployment is the process of creating a master Windows Embedded Standard 7 runtime image on a reference system and then deploying this image to multiple target systems. The deployment process typically uses specific tools such as System Preparation tool (sysprep.exe) and Imagex.exe as well as Windows PE Environment to perform the following tasks:

• Generalize the master system by removing machine specific information
• Capture the system into a Windows image (wim) file
• Apply the image (wim) to the target system
• Specialize the image to the target machine.

Write Filters (EWF and FBWF) in WES7 are delivering sysprep providers to enable seamless settings transfer during mass deployment scenarios. These providers are part of the regular write filter (EWF or FBWF) packages. They are also invoked automatically when users run sysprep command, i.e. they do not require any user interaction. So, if a user is deploying a master image with FBWF protecting the system volume (C:) and having a folder (Documents) in the exclusion list, all target systems will end up protecting the system volume (C:) and having (Documents) folder in the exclusion list. Similarly, if EWF is protecting the system volume (Disk 0, Partition 1) of the master image, all target systems will end up protecting the system volume (Disk 0, Partition 1).
More at source…

Beta SCCM R2 – How to get a Quick Test Lab for SCCM R2
This is not going to be a depth post… but just a post to say how to get yourself rapidly into a good place with SCCM R2. I have been asked a number of times how to gain access to or even build an SCCM R2 environment. As much fun as it is….. and it is fun! It does take a considerable amount of time!
I was chatting to Marco Cibis (PFE Germany) when we were on a training course together in Prague…. Marco is one of our SCCM guru/jedi knights …..

Anyway he sent me a great link for downloading a pre-configured VHD for SCCM
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=469af3b8-849d-4400-bded-9024c3db759f&DisplayLang=en
So that was stage one!!! download SCCM RTM for an eval….. saved me 10 hours

Some additional references:

=========

How to Manage Windows XP Embedded Write Filters Using Configuration Manager 2007

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb932175.aspx

Known Limitations in Configuration Manager Support for Windows XP Embedded

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb932123.aspx

I have also discovered this regarding getting T5720’s working with SCCM – but again the main issue will be no ability to image:

SCCM General – Generate a new GUID for the SCCM Client

It was not until I started working on getting our HP Thin Clients to work with SCCM imaging that I had to worry about generating a new GUID for the SCCM client without doing a repair or reinstallation.  You see the HP t5720 is really the thorn in my side.  The HP t5720 devices we have are 80% of our thin client population and only have 512MB of flash disk and 512MB of RAM.  In order to get the SCCM client to really work well with Windows XP Embedded 2002 it is ideal to have Service Pack 3 (SP3) for the OS.  What really hurts with that is there is not much free space left – even after removing the HP preload utilities that we do not use.  In fact there is not enough space to install the SCCM client.

Keep in mind that we are not joining these devices to the domain, patching them, or doing much more than a few configuration changes and enabling reporting and remote tools.  We use the HP Enhanced Write Filter (EWF) to lock the devices down and purge unwanted changes.

More at source…

written by dcaddick

So this should certainly fire up peoples plans about adopting Thin Clients and I guess MS will be more than happy that folks will be queuing up to try new devices on their RDS via Windows Server 2008?

And more here:  Microsoft launches Windows 7-based embedded OS

So why will this be a big deal? If you want more details I’d strongly suggest reviewing this post regarding the Capabilities, Connectivity and Experience Features that vary with RDS depending on the OS and Patch level of the Client device : Remote Desktop Connection 7 for Windows 7, Windows XP & Windows Vista

And don’t underestimate the selling power of eye candy? Thin Clients with a nice new clean Windows 7 look and feel will definitely help sell more Thin Clients

Windows Embedded Standard 7 RTM has Shipped!

After several years of development by 70 of the best software engineers at Microsoft, and buckets upon buckets of sweat and tears, I’m so happy to announce that Windows Embedded Standard 7 has finally shipped!

The launch of the product officially occurred at the Embedded Systems Conference today when our General Manager, Kevin Dallas, announced the product in the conference keynote address. This product demonstrates Microsoft’s further commitment to the embedded business and Windows 7 technologies in specialized consumer and enterprise devices.

Focusing on consumer related devices is something new to the team that delivers Windows Embedded Standard because we’ve historically focused mostly on enterprise scenarios. But with Standard 7 we’re finally making available to you the Media Center component. With the Media Center feature we’re anticipating a new focus on consumer related devices in the household based on this embedded operating system such as Set Top Boxes and Televisions.

If you’ve never installed the Standard 7 product before during the many months it was available as a public download, you may be interested in checking out the Standard 7 FAQ.

For a deeper dive into what this release means for the embedded community, I encourage you to read the press release.

Before I head off to uncork the champagne, here’s a video showcasing some close partners and their devices running Windows Embedded Standard 7.

-Andy

Windows Embedded Standard (WES7, WES2009, XPe, NT4e) : Windows Embedded Standard 7 RTM has Shipped!

written by dcaddick

Some while back I was really wishing it was possible to boot to a USB Stick from within a VM – and now it is possible – great news because it just adds that little bit extra in the way of functionality

Great tip how-to boot from USB stick inside of VMware Workstation

A tip pointed by Ivo Beerens. By using my RSS Reader to stay updated on blogs in the Virtualization Sphere I checked this post from Ivo. It’s a great tip. What’s about?

Basically when you want to test ESXi 4 installation to the USB Stick (or this Video post too…) you’ll want to follow my post, which I’ve done in the past and that’s it.

But if you want to test unattended installation of ESXi 4 on USB stick then you would want to boot your VM which is executed in your VMware Workstation, from an USB stick too.Well you can’t. Even the version 7 of VMware Workstation does not support that.

Here comes the help tip from Ivo. Basically what do you have to do is a work around.

01. Download boot manager from PLoP
02. Use the Iso in the boot manager as a boot device to boot your VM
03. Add an USB adapter to your VM (if not already done).

03. Insert your USB stick with ESXi 4 installed in it.
03. When your VM boots from that ISO, just select USB from the menu.

Well not all the credit goes to IVO, because the original help provided was from Ulli Hankeln from sanbarrow.com. -:)

Great tip how-to boot from USB stick inside of VMware Workstation

written by dcaddick

Just a brief update as to some of the changes that I have discovered in WES 2011 CTP2 (as opposed to the original CTP) – this was simply built on a default VM Template based on Windows 7.

Also some useful reference links:

• Windows Embedded Standard 2011 CTP2 New Features and Changes
• Discovering Windows Embedded Standard 2011 – What is different to WES 2009? – Part 1
• Choose the Right Windows Embedded Operating System
• HORM in Windows Embedded Standard 2011 CTP

Please review the screenshots below (sorry about the quality, I’ll redo them this week)

• There are additional Templates (including Thin Client) that seem to have most of what people would need to get themselves started
• The Summary page then indicates anything that’s not there – in this case the VMware Drivers were missing – I just ignored this and moved on, once completed it appears to have managed to find it and installed it
• Disk Footprint
  • This is a huge improvement on the first CTP – Minimal install used to be 650Mb, and just adding Explorer ONLY saw it jump to 2.6Gb
  • Estimated OS footprint was listed as 1946Mb for the Thin Client template
  • After installation it appeared (at least in the VM as only 1.57Gb)
  • To be fair – there does not appear to be too much installed by default though?
• It looks just like Windows 7 – seriously
• So without even telling it what HW I have just check out the listing from Device Manager – only two items were not sorted!!
• No drivers were installed or referenced by me – I just let the wizard do its thing and here it is with the Internet working
• One curious thing I noted was that there is no RUN command, or Search function in the Start Menu, not that this is a bad thing on an intended Thin Client?
• I was able to check that both FBWF and EWF is installed by default
• As things stand I’d say this is a huge leap forward by Microsoft from the disk space point of view as it now looks quite likely that with some judicious pruning then a relatively useful Image can be created to simply act as the dedicated Client Device for Citrix, VMware VDI instances
• If you’d like to get your own copy of the Image Builder Wizard (IBW) then log on to connect.microsoft.com to download

So after thinking on this some more I had the following thoughts?

• This is essentially Windows 7 “super lite” and appears to be pretty much compatible with everything
• It’s so easy to build a new runtime it no longer needs a developer to create bespoke instances?
• Comes with the choice of enabling either Enhanced Write Filter (EWF) or File Based Write Filter (FBWF) to protect the base image
• A “Thin Client” install is only 1.5G in size – well down from the standard Windows 7 with Office reaching more like 20Gb
• Sure – the terms of the EULA specifically prohibit the *install* of Full MS Office Products
• But that doesn’t preclude any Application Streaming or Virtualization efforts?
• At only USD$90 a runtime version, and only 1.5Gb – will this be *THE* VDI base OS of choice?  
• It’s small, light, cheap AND it is non-persistent straight out of the box – it’s certainly worthy of some consideration?

written by dcaddick

***UPDATE***
If you would like to follow this – check the discussion at XDA Developers

I recently purchased an LG GM730f as a new mobile – specifically because I thought the form factor was quite good, it also used a microUSB as a connector AND it was being advertised as being able to be updated to WM 6.5 in the New Year. So I sent an email to LG Australia in the first week of Jan asking when they might be releasing it and I got a reply back at the start of the week saying it was ready.

So this is my experience and hopefully it will save you from wasting some time? And if someone from LG would like to contact me I’d be glad to get things resolved?

But it appears that in some cases that the Web Site doesn’t work accurately?

This was sent from LG after I discussed with them that the web page they first sent me to failed to work correctly:

Dear David Caddick,

Thank you for emailing LG Electronics Australia.

We apologise for the problem you have experience with trying to access our website, please try the following website address:

http://au.lgmobile.com/web/web.support.laf?q=201011412401

I hope this has been of some assistance.

So this should bring you to this location at http://au.lgmobile.com/web/web.support.retrieveSoftwareDownload.laf:

So by clicking on Download you should get this tool:

If you have already installed this it will be shown as a desktop Icon like this:

And when up and running it looks like this:

So I started clicking on the “Start Updating for Smartphone (Windows Mobile)” as this seemed to be the most appropriate place to start? J This then pops up with:

Click on Next get you a reminder to save your data:

So at this point the phone changes to a black screen with:

                   !

Emergency Download

And on the computer you see:

So clearly at this point – even though ActiveSync was working fine before this there is some need/requirement for LG’s “process” to use a specific driver to communicate with the Phone when it is placed in “bootloader” mode? So at this point I clicked on OK, and then tried to install the USB Driver

So then at this stage you’d think you should be able to go back and check that the Modem Driver is installed:

And then I should now be able to Start the Update?

But as you can see by the screenshot above this first checks comms with the mobile – and as a consequence it initiates another install sequence of the USB Modem Driver:

So now we are completely in a loop – I could remove the USB Modem Driver, but then regardless of whether it’s installed or not – the process ALLWAYS tries to install the Driver before starting the update.

I can cancel, but this doesn’t help in trying to get anywhere.

Why can’t LG just do this like all other WM Vendors?

• Download a ROM update
• Plug phone into PC
• Start ActiveSync
• Run ROM update executable

I have been using Windows Mobile devices since 2003 and this would have to be one of the *worst* Update mechanisms I have ever experienced

Anyway, if you keep at it long enough and manage to get it in to the “Bootloader” mode then you can try using “Start Updating” without the Smartphone side of things (I know, but by this stage I was willing to try anything?) and it does appear to get going

It also looks like It does download a 107Mb ROM image and that would be about consistent with my experience?

And then goes ahead and flashed the phone

So eventually this gets to 91% or better and the phone starts booting to WM 6.1….. <sigh>

So I have now tried this 6 times or so, from Windows 7 and XP Pro and even though the Web Site clearly indicates that there is a new Update available, and that’s what I was told from LG, it’s clear that they still need to do some work to get this out? I for one am sick and tired of reflashing my Mobile Phone only to find it *STILL* on WM 6.1…………..

If I hear any news I’ll update at the top of this post

written by dcaddick

Now I don’t always figure that the local Newspaper is going to be a good place to pick up this sort of info, but in this case I think Simon from the Sydney Morning Herald has done more than just a decent job – so for what it’s worth I’m reposting but add my 2 cents worth if and when I have something to add  

Top 10 business technology trends for 2010
SIMON SHARWOOD

December 15, 2009

Technology never stops moving, but what are the technologies that CIOs and IT managers really need to consider in 2010?

We sampled opinions among analysts, vendors, users, IT professionals, system integrators and pundits and came up with the following 10 to watch:

1. Cloud computing

Cloud computing now comes in at least three flavours: on-demand applications (software-as-a-service), clouds as a source of computing infrastructure (Amazon web services and its ilk), and as a paradigm for delivering services within an organisation (internal clouds). This means almost every CIO has one type of cloud computing to consider. All three are disruptive forces, with analyst firm Gartner ranking the cloud as the most strategic technology for 2010 because it “does not eliminate the costs of IT solutions, but does re-arrange some and reduce others.”

This will run and run for a wee while yet – but we are still at the peak of the Gartner’s Hype Cycle Report for 2009?

2. Four big Microsoft upgrades

2010 will see the emergence of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. Throw in the late 2009 debut of Exchange 2010 and IT managers on long-term licensing deals with Microsoft have three big upgrades to consider. Office 2010 looks like another incremental update but the new SharePoint and Exchange will only ship in 64-bit versions, putting a server upgrade on many users’ roadmaps. And let’s not forget Windows 7, which many CIOs must surely be considering as XP runs out of puff.

Is this starting to emerge as a possible “Perfect Storm” type scenario? XP is going EOL on Support, so we have to upgrade ASAP. Do we want to do Office 2010 while we are at it? We don’t have the budget – but if we leave till later then it adds additional cost – best do it together then! Oh wait, we’re still on Exchange 2003? Look there’s just no way we have budget for that – yes I know that we need to consider 2008 R2 – but there is just no….  what do you mean? Direct Access? it’s like a VPN but comes free with Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7….  really? OK, well let’s just look at this project list for next year and see what we can do?  WHAT!! Direct Access needs IPv6? Pass me the Panadol…      (I can see plenty of scope for future Dilbert episodes?)

3. Virtualisation

Virtualisation has hogged headlines in recent years but continues to evolve at an impressive pace. In 2010, Gartner says virtualisation will become a standard disaster recovery and availability technique, as the practice of moving virtual machines from one location to another matures. The idea of desktop virtualisation is also powering a new round of thinking about whether thin clients are a cheaper alternative to PCs.

Yes I see Server Virtualization becoming more entrenched, however with Desktop Virtualization – it’s getting there – but there are still some potential roadblocks? see Musings on VDI performance?

4. Biometric authentication

2009 saw National Australia Bank adopt voiceprints as its preferred method of authenticating its customers for phone banking and general customer service inquiries because it improves security and customer service. Many call centres have noted this experience and this technology is ready for wider deployment in 2010.

One can only hope it is a better experience for the Public than the Voice Automated response systems? “Agent”, Auto: I’m sorry I did not understand you, can you please repeat?

5. Next-generation firewalls

Most organisations tend to operate a fleet of security appliances, with firewalls, intrusion protection devices and unified threat management devices all helping to build a layered defence. Firewalls, however, have grown up and can now take over some of the functions of other security appliances. CIOs wishing to consolidate their security infrastructure may welcome this evolution.

Not my area at all

6. Employee-owned IT

Traditionally, IT departments decide what kind of computers and software employees use and they take responsibility for all maintenance chores. Younger workers, however, have grown up choosing their own computers and applications and want to keep their personalised computing styles. Enter employee-owned IT, which sees workers bringing their own computers to work so that IT can lock them down with virtualisation or multiple operating systems that deliver security. IT departments save as maintenance devolves to computer vendors, while employees swear they are more productive using a machine of their choice.

So this is effectively an extension of the Desktop Virtualization concept where it is possible already today to run a Type 1 Client Hypervisor on a Laptop or Desktop and host one or more VM’s running on it with very little performance overhead – this means that it will quite likely be possible (with sufficient HW resources) to run Windows 7, along with a dedicated VM acting as the FireWall keeping it all secure provided by IT, and XP for your Games. All of this will be managed by Policies driven by IT and the various components will be updated on the fly by being provided by Delta changes that are smart enough to recognize what bandwidth you have available and know if they can proceed or wait until you’re connected via LAN? Virtual Computer and Neocleus are doing this now, Citrix and VMware have products in development.     

7. Loyalty schemes

Analyst firm Frost & Sullivan’s Industry Director Andrew Milroy believes loyalty schemes will go mainstream in 2010. Citing their mainstream acceptance in retail and aviation, Milroy notes their absence from telecommunications and other industries and expects newly mature loyalty software will be something many CIOs are asked to consider in 2010.

I’m not too big a fan of these unless there are substantial benefits to the Customer – there is way too much detail out there on me already – I don’t want to add to another CRM database all my personal details…

8. Solid state disks

Storage may not be fashionable but it remains a colossal industry, and right now that industry is shifting towards solid state disks – a technology that sees storage assigned to flash memory instead of magnetic spinning disks. Solid state disks are smaller, faster, cooler and use less power than conventional disks, which means they can speed up applications without the need for new servers while keeping electricity costs low – an irresistible combination. While we are on storage, note the 2010 release of LTO-5, a new standard tape format packing 3.6 terbaytes of data onto each tape.

For an example of how SSD’s make a difference see these comments –
Runcore SSD’s – promises to boost computer performance vs. the traditional 1.8" HDD by more than 400% with read/write speeds up to 75/40MB/sec. Experience with 128GB 1.8" ZIF in HP 2710p – Read/write performance for 4K random files has improved over 500% (even under Bitlocker). it just became the fastest computer I ever used… Word and Excel launch in one or two seconds (compared to 30-60 before)…

9. Smart grids

Smart grids are an emergent technology that imagines sensors embedded in devices to monitor electricity consumption so that they can “decide” to operate when power is cheaper. This in turn allows power companies to predict demand more precisely, reducing waste. The idea is a favourite of green IT boosters and is also seen as a likely source of traffic for the National Broadband Network.

This may take 3 – 5 years to be common place, but it will be coming as soon as possible, this is one way we can all be green. What it also means is that we will be charged for our power consumption much more accurately, which in itself is no bad thing, and as a consequence over time we will develop better habits with regarding conserving power. The real kicker is that in the process we will be able to “get away” with not having to build that new powerstation for a further 5 – 7 years, etc.. which will be further savings to the environment.

I see this as very similar to the “User Pays” model in Car Insurance today – you can now pay for your Car Insurance based on a max number of Klick’s a year, the less mileage you do the less you pay. DO NOT be surprised if/when this also applies to Car Registration? Here in NSW we pay an extortionate amount of money in Tolls already – and DON’T even get me started on the NSW Govt?

10. Hybrid servers

The big IT transaction of 2009 was Oracle’s acquisition of Sun. The former has been experimenting with all-in-ones that pack a server, storage and other goodies needed to run business applications into a single box, and is said to be keen on extending Sun’s work in the same space. HP is going down the same path, working to make its storage arrays more similar to its servers to make them cheaper to manufacture. If this trend continues, data centre hardware will start to look similar.

So this is not normally my area of expertise – so I can only guess this might be referring to the LH Storage side of things? As far as I am aware there is already a 30 day trial LH Virtual SAN Appliance available for download at VMware Appliance web site – I’m sure we’ll see more of this in the future?

Top 10 business technology trends for 2010

written by dcaddick

So as things slowdown in the lead up to the break I have had some time to get back and review some twitter posts and other blog articles that I have been meaning to catch up on. I must admit that I tend not to use Twitter that much but do find it quite useful as pointers to additional material for research and recently posted material on the topics that I’m interested in.

So one article that really caught my eye was this from Ruben Spruijt’s post at Brian Madden, because for a number of years now it is the Hard Drive that has not kept pace with advancements in technology for the rest of the PC/Laptop components, and in particular I have noted a number of people getting very enthusiastic about the performance improvements they have actually noticed when using Laptops with SSD’s

Runcore SSD’s – promises to boost computer performance vs. the traditional 1.8" HDD by more than 400% with read/write speeds up to 75/40MB/sec.
Experience with 128GB 1.8" ZIF in HP 2710p – Read/write performance for 4K random files has improved over 500% (even under Bitlocker). it just became the fastest computer I ever used… Word and Excel launch in one or two seconds (compared to 30-60 before)…

Just how fast does the storage component of VDI have to be?
So it stands to reason that if you are going to Virtualize your Desktops (and by definition centralize?) then you are going to need to give some serious throughput for the Disk I/O or IOPS? So for anyone who is embarking on this then I would seriously recommend giving this article a through read? Understanding how storage design has a big impact on your VDI!

Possibly the most interesting point that Ruben did bring to my attention with this is that in VDI implementation the Disk I/O is predominately Writes and not Reads – I know this sounds contradictory in some respects, but do review this for yourself – in particular is a good comment from Claudio Rodrigues regarding the nature of how the O/S’s deal with this, as well as confirmation from Dan Feller at Citrix who confirms that most of the numbers and math are in sync with his findings. Ruben has also supplied a Sizing Tool to get a good idea of what might be needed?

So it also starts to make sense that you make sure that you focus very sharply on the XP or Windows 7 Template VM’s in the first place to reduce the I/O required as much as possible?
Citrix has some great tips in this document - Best Practices – Citrix XenDesktop with Citrix Provisioning Server

So as this brought up some interesting thoughts I also found this article relating to sizing and best practices, VMware View sizing & best practices
which followed on from this original article Virtual Infrastructure best practices and in essence this confirms that the storage requirements will need to focused somewhere around an 20/80 split on the Read/Write (20% read and 80% write)

While this table gives a quick representation of what sort of sizing requirements are out there please make sure you research this subject thoroughly, and read the post in full? J

In all fairness I must also confess at this point that my weakest area in IT is storage, and as yet I have not had a functioning Lab running either Citrix’s XenDesktop or Vmware’s View to be able to play around with this and get my hands dirty with either Provisioning Server or Composer. From what I can see (based on Marketing so far J) both of these products have the ability to drastically minimize the storage needed for VDI and as a consequence I am assuming that this may indeed have a flow on effect to mitigating the IOPS issue? (Can anyone comment or set me straight on this?)

I then went on to find some more details around the costing and financial side of VDI implementations and found this article of Doug Brown’s regarding Cost Savings of VDI: Is It Possible? as the diagram below points out, it is complex, and as such it could be that the regular ROT/TCO calculations are not highlighting all the potential benefits and savings?

Changing the ROI/TCO Calculation?
So this then brings me to another update in my Twitter was from Tyler at LiquidwareLabs.com with a new addition to the ROI/TCO debate,
COP – Coefficient of Productivity in VDI the New Math , in which he points out that you should also factor in any additional productivity gains and use this to dilute the true cost of the CAPEX.

Now I wonder how many VDI proposals are brave enough to start assigning values to what has traditionally been seen as "additional" benefits related to an architectural change? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against it, but I can see the debate might start to get a bit heated in the boardroom? and in some respects maybe that’s exactly what’s needed – by assigning values and assumptions and then extrapolating them across an enterprise the resultant *potential* savings become too hard for the board to ignore?

Sure there will be debate, and rightly so, but in following this sort of process it should quickly become apparent that there is a technological shift under way where the concept of "My Desktop" still being something that can be pointed to in the Office sitting on a desk somewhere is rapidly becoming redundant?

Now having said all that – it’s interesting to note that Gartner’s Hype Cycle Report for 2009 seems not to have VDI listed? Maybe it’s hiding under something else here?

So will VDI make it to "mainstream"? AMD seems to think so, Taking Desktop Virtualization Mainstream, but also a lot of it will depend on a number of factors.

My main thoughts on this are:

To truly succeed VDI needs to be able to deliver a *High Fidelity* User experience equal to or better than what users have today – if what you are designing is unable to provide this then you should stop and re-evaluate now

If you can build a system that is able to provide this then users will want (no, Demand!) that they have it ASAP – you will know that you have succeeded when demand outstrips supply

To provide this *High Fidelity* User experience I’d suggest focusing on two key areas that may/or may not apply depending on your particular focus and what is considered in or out of scope for your project?

• Graphics
  
  • Bottom line – Graphics performance in this design CANNOT be measured, it has no metrics, or Best Practices. One persons "that’s fine" is another persons "there is absolutely no way I’ll put up with that", etc. This will always be a completely subjective assessment based on whoever is rendering the judgement.
  • You may think that you don’t need to focus too much on Graphics because "there isn’t much need or requirement for Video from the business" but I can almost bet that you would be wrong – if you are operating on this assumption be sure that you double-check with Stakeholders and get their agreement in writing?
  • So much content on the Internet is done in Flash today, it’s not just watching a CEO or Analyst briefing via YouTube, a lot of Web Based Training modules use the same or similar technologies, so even if you currently block YouTube and Facebook today it’s still quite likely that you need to factor this in to your design
  • Is RDP good enough? Check this assumption by giving targeted business users a Thin Client and removing their desktop to the lab and forcing them to access via the Thin Client – this is a simple but effective test that validates whether they truly need/demand High Fidelity, or will OK Fidelity do?
  • Do you need Citrix HDX? PCoIP? RGS? While I’m making the point about Remote Protocols – don’t forget to gather details of connecting accessories? Do you need to support serial or parallel?
• HDD or IOPS
  
  • Make sure the VM performs as well as possible while measuring the I/O on the VM itself? Check the disk queue, and ensure that it’s not the disk performance that’s holding this back – and make sure you have enough throughput to allow for Login’s etc.

So where does that leave us?
In the Graphics space there is already a number of solutions for VDI that have been out for some time (Citrix’s HDX) or have recently been released (Teradici’s software version of PCoIP). In addition to that there are other approaches if you need to support High Fidelity Users at the top end with HDX-3D taking advantage of Nvidias GPU’s that almost bring TeraFLOP performance to the Desktop.

A good introduction to CUDA – Just how powerful can GPU’s be? Back in mid-2008 the GT200 was able to deliver 1 TeraFLOP performance, the G80 supports 768 Threads per Core – on 128 Cores… Want a Personal Supercomputer? What would you use it for?

So I suspect that we are not far away from seeing vGPU’s being available to VM’s that will be able to deliver the performance on demand – the main thing is that you make sure you are either using a Remote Protocol stack that can provide this functionality – OR make sure you are using a Broker that supports a shift to one?

At the HDD level I’d suspect that as SSD prices come down and SSD longevity increases, along with improved methods of utilising this in some kind of shared caching mechanism in a VDI deployment we may well see some serious advances that enable VDI to overcome this IOPS roadblock?

With the monotonous regularity of Moore’s Law driving CPU performance up it should be possible to provide way more CPU power to users than they really need to enable this – but again – it’s quite possible that the Disk I/O that has the potential to spoil this party?

Please feel free to correct any of my ramblings?

written by dcaddick