- by Ian Selway
It’s been a few weeks now since VMworld Europe and I have to say, that as shows go, it may have been one of the most tiring yet rewarding shows I've recently attended. HP's booth was extremely busy for each of the three days, maybe it was the magician, maybe it was the impressive displays of hardware or maybe it was because we had our new EVA4400 an MSA2000 arrays on display for their first public outings. It really was a great show and a great platform to launch our new products.
But that's an aside; what I really wanted to comment on was what seemed to be one of the two hottest technology topics for customers visiting VMworld Europe, namely Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). The VDI discussions certainly opened my eyes to what is going to be a really exciting topic over the next few years. That said, what really raised my attention was the various messaging out there on this topic from some of the other storage vendors. I recently read a really interesting blog around storage for VDI and it got me thinking that maybe, just maybe some of the storage vendors out there aren't being quite as upfront with customers about what’s required in selecting the storage requirements for a successful VDI deployment as they might be.
From an HP perspective one of the strengths we have, over a pure play storage vendor, is the ability to scope, design and implement a total end to end solution from the thin client, through to the server and associated storage. With one of the broadest portfolios of any storage vendor, we’re able to make recommendations based on expected workloads, customer technology preferences and future scalability. There’s certainly a need to carefully evaluate how you connect your storage. iSCSI, Fibre Channel and NAS are all choices. A lot of customers are still in the proof of concept stage, but already we’ve seen instances where, depending on customer needs, applications deployed and performance requirements, one offering may be more suitable than the other. Technologies such as de-duplication and Thin Provisioning do have a role to play, but as pointed out in the vinternals article, there are upsides and downsides to these technologies, beyond what you may see presented by vendor videos on YouTube.
We’re certainly working hard at the moment to take this knowledge, our experience with our customers, to develop the complete solution and determine the right server, storage and thin client technology based on actual customer needs. This information will help drive product requirements, as well as enabling us to publish more material to help customers make informed choices across all aspects of their VDI deployments.
One thing is clear; VDI is going to drive the demand for a lot of storage, so it's no surprise that there are storage vendors out there touting their wares for VDI. It's my belief however, that when considering VDI, customers should carefully consider the total cost of the infrastructure including the storage solutions proposed. They need to figure out what's right for their business and to weigh up these costs versus alternatives available, as well as the performance of the solution
We've all seen this before, carefully crafted vendor markitecture pitches and neat storage demos that make it all seem so easy to figure out and deploy. I saw a recent Dilbert cartoon where the manager read a whitepaper and then announced to Dilbert that he’d done his bit, why was the rest taking so long? Following this approach, customers can find themselves taken down a road that leads to lock-in, less than stellar performance or complex hard to manage installations. VDI is a great solution for specific industries and can radically change the dynamics around the way organizations deploy desktop clients. I think that customers, when selecting a VDI solution need to understand what the total cost of ownership will actually be. It seems to make sense to me, that what's required is the need to work with a vendor with experience and a broad offering across the total solution, not just single components of the solution. PowerPoint, demos and whitepapers, are great tools, but they shouldn't replace knowledge and thorough research. Whichever approach customers decide to take, HP is here to help and advise on a total VDI offering.
Ian |
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