VDI: An Example Of Service Delivery

Any migration to the cloud should have a focus on the services required and the best way to deliver those services. Business enablement should hold as much, or more, weight than ROI. The same holds true when discussing virtual desktops.

Joe Onisick

July 5, 2011

3 Min Read

For most companies looking to begin a journey into private cloud, the process won't be like flipping a light switch. Instead, it will be a migration over time, typically beginning with a green-field data center or application deployment. One commonly successful starting point is a virtualization project--more specifically, desktops, as many customers are well into server virtualization at this point.

Using a new virtualization project as a starting point for a private cloud build out offers several advantages:

Virtualized workloads as the focus from the outset, easing service transition
Building a private cloud architecture as a pod design without the difficulty of integrating with legacy systems
Ability to assess new infrastructure (storage, network, compute, software) as a whole for its capabilities of delivering a cloud infrastructure

Focusing on desktops rather than servers specifically in the context of a private cloud will help to push the concept of service delivery to the forefront of the discussion. Any migration to the cloud should have a focus on the services required and the best way to deliver those services. Business enablement should hold as much, or more, weight than ROI. The same holds true when discussing virtual desktops.

Most virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) discussions start with a list of value propositions and then focus on ROI. The reality is typically far from that. ROI can be hard to show or can require long terms to mature with VDI. VDI and the technologies that surround it offer business enablement and benefits such as flexibility, security, portability and recovery, all of which typically far exceed the ROI. In many cases, a VDI architecture will cost more but provide enhancements above and beyond what traditional desktop environment provides.In a similar fashion to private cloud deployments, if a VDI rollout is looked at from the perspective of service delivery, many organizations will find additional value that may have otherwise been lost. Rather than building cloud or desktop services in the way traditional IT services are built, advancements can be made by redesigning the way the service is delivered.

With this mindset, organizations will find that rather than building out traditional desktops in a virtualized format, there are ways to utilize cloud-based service delivery, thin applications and other technologies to advance beyond traditional silos, thus unleashing the power of VDI.

The focus on service delivery is critical to properly rolling out a private cloud and getting the most from the time and capital investment through business enablement and ROI. Making a migration to any cloud environment requires a change in thinking about application and service delivery. The change in thought process tends to be the most difficult. By focusing on a single application, service or project, the on-ramp to cloud will reduce the friction of the migration.

Using server virtualization or, better, desktop virtualization as a green-field deployment to begin a private cloud journey offers a fresh infrastructure in which to develop the correct thinking and skill sets for cloud success. Building out the new virtual infrastructure in an isolated, repeatable pod design organizations allows staging of new services in a fashion that offers predictable cost and performance along with a more seamless integration.