The Workspace Concept
At Foundation IT we are passionate about end user computing. Across all types of business it’s clear to see how end user productivity and happiness affect overall company performance. The term ‘Workspace’ refers to the environment a user is presented with when they access a system, regardless of their physical location. The concept seems simple; when a user logs into their corporate environment they hope for a seamless experience, with the ability to easily access their required software & information. However, the perception of a Workspace environment is highly subjective. Some companies require a tightly managed environment whilst others prefer an open environment in which users are free to customise their systems. In most organisations, the reality lies somewhere between the two.
Desktop environments are composed of multiple components, and as a system grows in complexity these elements can begin to negatively impact the user experience leading to higher operational support costs. This can lead to users becoming frustrated by the multiple layers of security & complexity within their corporate network to simply gain access to their applications and data. Logon delays, missing desktop icons, and misconfigured user policies can all lead to an unwieldy and difficult corporate environment.
Foundation IT provide a mature desktop and profile management solution that will simplify the support and delivery of an end user workspace environment, regardless of whether it’s a laptop, desktop or thin client (VDI) environment. In addition, the advent of Windows 7 provides us with a perfect opportunity to introduce a change. Through a process of desktop sampling we are able to harvest user settings and preferences (such as those in Outlook), and provide a seamless transformation to the new environment. We also provide the facility for administrators to reclaim control of their networks, feel confident in their infrastructure management, and achieve real savings through systems consolidation and management centralisation.
Traditionally, the user workspace has often been tied to a physical desktop or laptop, which an individual user logs into. As the log in process runs, policies are applied to the user to give them controlled access to the network, and optionally a profile is loaded, giving the user a familiar working environment (regardless of which machine in the organisation they use). User profile & policy growth can over time cause the Workspace to gradually become less efficient, and leave the user base increasingly frustrated - this problem is compounded when a new OS or computer is deployed. If a user takes a laptop home, it is generally accepted that they will experience a slow logon as the device hunts for the network, and the user may receive error messages relating to unavailable content.
It does not have to be this way…
Foundation IT offers a proven range of technologies to segment out all aspects of the Workspace environment to address many of the issues faced in traditional desktop environments. By separating the Operating System, Applications and User Environment into discrete components, its possible to provide a truly dynamic, context aware desktop experience.
Through a carefully chosen suite of technologies designed to work in concert, Foundation IT can help your organisation transition from the traditional desktop environment into a dynamic desktop environment where a number of opportunities can be realized, including:
OS maintenance & reinstall tasks no longer requiring an engineer to visit the device.
Virtual Desktop delivery to a variety of devices across multiple platforms.
Applications targeted to the users that require them.
Automated software deployment requested via user self-service consoles.
Centralised console-based configuration and deployment, including printer assignment, network drive access, and start menu access.
Reduction in logon time for users through centralised management of environment and group policy.
Context aware Workspaces where the provision of applications is based on who, where, when, what time, what device.
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Hypervisor Layer - VMware vSphere
VMware vSphere provides the base virtualisation hypervisor platform on which to run virtual desktops.
As the defacto standard for virtualised server workloads, vSphere also has specific optimisations to deal with the challenges of virtualising desktop workloads, such as security, performance and management.
Storage Layer - Atlantis ILIO
When the Microsoft Windows operating system and applications send IO traffic to storage, Atlantis ILIO intercepts and intelligently deduplicates all traffic before it reaches storage, locally processing up to 90% of all Windows IO requests in RAM.
The result is a VDI environment requires up to 90% less storage to deliver better desktop performance than a physical PC.
Connection Broker Layer - VMware View
VMware View has a range of leading features to deliver a centralised secure enterprise virtual desktop. The ability to easily deploy and manage a single gold master image that can rapidly be delivered through the use of a single management console makes VMware View 4.6 the leading VDI broker.
Using Teradici’s ‘PCoIP’ remote display protocol to truly replicate a physical desktop PC experience, virtual desktop environments can be scaled to support a wide variety of requirements for users within the corporate LAN/WAN, to users across the internet via a secure connection.
Application Virtualisation Layer - VMware ThinApp
Traditional application deployment whereby an application is installed directly to a specific PC is not only time consuming but assumes that each user accesses that same PC. VMware ThinApp allows us to control and assign applications to individual users, whilst avoiding application conflicts due to each application being contained in its own isolated ‘bubble’.
ThinApp is a very lightweight application that outputs a single .EXE file to be delivered to any user. Application packages can be deployed to different Windows platforms, eliminating costly recoding and regression testing so applications can be easily migrated to Windows 7.
Profile Virtualisation Layer – RES Dynamic Desktop Studio
Profile virtualisation delivers total control of your desktops including profile management, persistent personalization, user environment management, IT task automation, printer management, virtual desktop management, desktop security, and overall user workspace management.
By using profile virtualisation, organisations can begin to move away from the use of roaming profiles, and the inherent issues associated with them, such as long logon times, storage growth and profile corruption.
Endpoint Layer – Presentation Devices
Whether you choose to repurpose existing PC’s (commonly referred to as ‘fat clients’), deploy zero/thin clients or iPads to your users, there are a wide variety of devices available to connect a user to their virtualised desktop.
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