Financial firms’ IP is safe with VDI

As with many other new technologies, financial organisations have been among the most keen to embrace desktop virtualisation. The main reason this particular technology is being largely adopted by the sector is because it suits the need for easier mobility: thanks to VDI, users can access their desktop from any PC with an internet connection, making it easy to access large amounts of data and heavy applications from a light mini netbook while travelling and even making it unnecessary to carry a laptop around when visiting another office.

But although for many this is a good enough reason alone to adopt this technology, there is another advantage that makes desktop virtualisation even more attractive for the financial sector: it allows centralisation of all Intellectual Property, which is not owned and managed at end user level but centrally by the IT department. It is extremely important for this particular sector to have control over data and IP, as these are vital to a firm creating competitive advantage in the market – to financial firms, IP is an important asset and therefore needs to be protected. With this solution, all data will be processed and saved in a central hub rather than at user level, so that it is less difficult for users to take information to competitors or to copy it on an external device and lose it, therefore protecting the company from breaches of the Data Protection Act.

Centralisation also means that individuals will not be able to freely download random software onto their desktop that may contain viruses or create a window for hacking, with all the extra security benefits that this entails. Due to the sensitivity and importance of the information a financial firm deals with, being able to minimise the occurrence of these kinds of data security breaches is a great advantage – it increases public and regulatory confidence and credibility, which can add value to the company. Data leakage, loss or theft may in fact lead not only to costly fines, but there is also a likelihood, due to the obligation to inform clients and make an incident public, that  this would create a loss of reputation and, therefore, business – both with current and potential customers who might choose to opt for the competition. A safe environment is more attractive, hence a correctly managed VDI solution can help retain clients and perhaps also win new business.

Sure, desktop virtualisation has a cost and is not particularly convenient financially for companies that have just upgraded their hardware. It is instead a wise investment when PCs are in need of a refresh, as an alternative choice. The ROI in this case is immediate, but in any case the short and medium-term benefits are not confined to reduced hardware costs. It also enables the IT department to reach some important cost-efficiencies. Benefits include: enabling IT support personnel to carry out maintenance more easily and quickly; speeding up simple operations such as patching and applying new application upgrades; a smaller number of technicians needed to deal with support to remote users, especially the more expensive desk-side engineers.

Desktop virtualisation also allows for cost savings in the long run by extending the PC lifecycle and applying a concurrent-usage software licensing model. The pooling of flexible server hardware will extend its lifecycle and the simplified infrastructure will enable zero downtime.

The advantages of VDI are evidently numerous, but being in control of data, IP and the way each individual desktop is managed by end users represents a major benefit for financial organisations in particular. If implemented and managed correctly, in fact, this technology can allow them to gain competitive advantage, minimise losses, increase their security and return on investment, ultimately improving business success.

Sharron Deakin, Principal Consultant

This article was written for Director of Finance Online: http://www.dofonline.co.uk/content/view/5270/118/

Desktop Virtualisation: Still not a perfect View

The latest version of VMware’s VDI product, View 4.6, was released several weeks ago with a few new features, most notably PCoIP tunnelling – or more accurately View security servers that actually understand and accept the PCoIP protocol. This is a feature that was sorely lacking in the last revision and will help bolster the PCoIP vs ICA argument in favour of PCoIP, helping to ensure those environments that rely more heavily on their WAN infrastructure. It also guarantees a much better (although still not perfect) end user experience, especially for CAD users and those using graphic design software, who often prefer to run their applications on the PC rather than the Virtual Desktop for a better visual impact.

However, there is still the issue of profile management technology – the lack of a suitable integrated application that can deal efficiently with virtual profiles has not yet been addressed. Without this feature, users have to rely on third party software to separate desktop from profile and gain the ability to access and personalise the same profile from different machines and devices.

VMware have actually been working on the issue, purchasing the profile management solution originally developed by RTO Software to use as an integrated feature, and since then we have all been waiting to see when it would be ready. Those in the know had already slated this for release with View 4.5 and those same insiders placed the reason for the delay down to compatibility issues with the software; then, as rumours of View 4.6 grew, we all asked again what the likelihood of an integrated profile management solution would be. Has VMware bought a “dead parrot” or will they manage to iron out the issues with Windows 7? Unfortunately, it seems we are going to have to wait a little longer for the answers – perhaps they will come with View 5?

In the meantime, having to rely on third parties for profile management software adds some costs and hassle to the process, although some people actually believe it is a worthy investment and, because of the additional features that some alternatives provide, investing in this may bring more benefit than waiting for the integrated solution.

VMware’s archenemy Citrix, on the other hand, already features a basic profile management application in XenDesktop, User Profile Manager, making it somehow more appealing in particular to companies looking to do large-scale deployments, which incidentally are the ones who see a real ROI in virtualising their desktop at the moment.

In fact, it is not the maturity of VDI technology that is holding back organisations from adopting it – the upfront costs are still a major problem for many companies. Organisations struggle to get budgetary sign off for VDI as the overall upfront costs are still compared to those of a traditional PC purchase. What many forget is what VDI stands for “Virtual Desktop Infrastructure”, the Infrastructure being the most important word in the title: you cannot perform a like for like comparison and expect VDI to stack up against a PC purchase.

VDI must be “Viewed” <pardon the pun> as a set of technologies that combine to simplify, secure and streamline the deployment of desktops whilst increasing the supportability, therefore reducing the overall support costs of the desktop support service. However, many organisations need to see an immediate or short-term ROI as they are trying to cut costs fast, but the ROI of VDI, although evident and not confined to financial benefits, extending to management and flexibility as well, can only be seen in the long term – 5 years at least – and at the moment seems only convenient for large and global deployments.

Although it is true that the larger the scale of the project the greater the ROI will be, that does not mean that a smaller client, say 200 seats, cannot dramatically benefit from implementing a VDI solution. After all, not everybody uses VMware or Citrix – there are a plethora of VDI vendors whose solutions can be combined together to create a very custom, yet far cheaper solution that those of the big players.

Will Rodbard, Senior Consultant

Best Practice and Virtualisation: essential tools in Business Resilience and Continuity planning

Life in Venice doesn’t stop every time it floods. People roll up their trousers, pull on their wellies and still walk to the grocer’s, go to work, grab a vino with friends. And when it’s all over they mop the floor, dry the furniture, and go back to their pre-flood life. How do they do it? They choose not to have carpet or wooden flooring, keep updated on water level and have a spare pair of boots right next to the door. This is called prevention.

When it comes to faults in IT systems, both common and rare just like flooding can be, prevention is not better than cure – it is the cure, the only one to allow business continuity and resilience.

Complicated machinery and analysis are a thing of the past: nowadays planning is extraordinarily easy thanks to the expertise given by Best Practice processes, and new technologies such as virtualisation that can bring user downtime close to zero.

First of all, it must be noted that virtualising servers, desktop, data centre is not something that can be done overnight. Planning is needed to avoid choosing the wrong solution, perhaps based on what the latest product on the market is and on media talk rather than what works best for the specific needs of one’s business, and to shun possible inefficiencies, interruption of business services, or even data loss during the process. Best Practice, then, comes across as the essential framework in which all operations should be carried out in order for them to be successful.

Any change made to the system, in fact, needs a mature level of Best Practice processes such as world-renowned ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) in place, to guide organisations in planning the best route in dealing with all operations and incidents, and are a key tool for avoiding inefficiencies in money and time, and improving the performance of the IT department and of the business as a whole.

Once this is sorted, you can think about going virtual. From a technical point of view, virtualisation is gaining importance in business resilience and continuity planning thanks to the progress made by new technologies. Products such as VMware’s Vsphere, for example, allow what is called “live migration”: capacity and speed of the virtual machines are seen as an aggregate rather than individually, and as a consequence not only the load is more evenly distributed, for faster, smoother operations, but whenever a machine crashes resources are immediately accessible from another connected device, without the user even noticing and without interrupting the procedure.

Moreover, data is stored on a virtual central storage so that it is accessible from different source and does not get lost during system malfunctions, making business resilience faster and easier.

Guided by the expertise of Best Practice and with the help of virtualisation products that suit individual needs and goals, business resilience and continuity planning will not only come easier, but also make results more effective, allowing organisations to deliver their services and carry out their operations without fear of interruptions, inefficiencies or data loss.

 

Pete Canavan, Head of Service Transition

 

This article is in April’s issue of Contingency Today, and is also online at: http://www.contingencytoday.com/online_article/Best-Practice-and-Virtualisation/2242