VDI Rolling Review: MokaFive Makes Offline Virtual Desktops A Reality

Posted by Randy George on February 2, 2010

Tags: MokaFive,  VDI,  VDI Rolling Review,  virtual desktops,  virtualization

Channel: Data Center, Virtualization

VDI startup MokaFive launched in 2005. Its founders are industry veterans and Stanford Computer Science PhDs, some of whom contributed original research to the efficacy of using virtual appliances in the enterprise. While those are impressive credentials, it takes vision and execution to survive outside the walls of academia. To see if MokaFive has real-world chops, we took version 2.1 for a  spin in the InformationWeek labs.

VDI detractors cite two glaring weaknesses of the technology. The first is the need for a continuous network connection to access your virtual desktop. It's a valid concern, particularly for business people on the road. The second is the amount of back-end processing and storage resources required to host a VDI solution on an enterprise scale. Generally speaking, you'll want a dedicated 8-way server packed with RAM just to host 25-50 virtual desktops simultaneously. Those servers will start to pile up as you transition more and more users to a virtual desktop.

MokaFive addresses both issues with its approach to VDI. Instead of a virtual desktop that connects to a beefy backend server, MokaFive creates a portable virtual machine that can run independently on any laptop or PC. IT has multiple options for issuing VMs to end users: the VM can be downloaded via a Web front end from MokaFive, burned to a DVD, or loaded onto a USB stick and handed out to employees.

The MokaFive server was delivered to us as a virtual appliance for demo purposes, but it is typically packaged as a standalone installer for customers. You don't need much horsepower to run the MokaFive server, as it's really just a Web-enabled management shim that controls access, authentication and virtual desktop master image management, among other system and reporting features.

Administrators create master images using the MokaFive Creator, an authoring tool. Users launch their virtual desktops via the MokaFive Player, which is a customized version of VMware Player. In fact, the entire MokaFive Suite is a management layer piled on top of the VMware Player, but it's an impressive layer. Once administrators build their master images, they can be uploaded as PCs that aren't joined to a domain. During the image creation process, administrators use the Creator tool to create what MokaFive calls "Domain Join Packets. " These are the actual bits and bytes responsible for joining a virtual machine to a domain, and they can be created in bulk based on the amount of machines that will be deployed.