Intel has been working with multiple ISVs to implement Dynamic Virtual Clients. Implementing netBoot/i™ solutions from Double-Take software simplifies desktop management, and provides IT providers and end-users with the right mix of management capabilities (centralized storage, recoverability) without compromising user-experience even for the most demanding applications. Central management of operating system and applications reduces management complexity of patching multiple desktops and offers cost reduction and security by eliminating hard drives from desktops.

Building and maintaining computer systems is no easy task and information technology managers are constantly looking for better tools to reduce the total cost of managing their data centers and infrastructure. Storing both operating system state and data within the computer can cause management challenges such as storage over provisioning, data duplication as well as expensive and ineffective backup solutions. Shifting data storage to Storage Area Networks (SAN) provided numerous advantages in both hard and soft dollar cost savings. The final evolution of storage management is to separate the boot disks from systems and turn them into stateless compute devices. The netBoot/i™ technology separates state from compute devices and allows them to run from iSCSI SAN.

Check this technology out in the attached case study.

The Duchess of Windsor once famously quipped, “You can never be too rich or too thin.” If she was a modern day IT director, however, she might be lamenting that neither is satisfactory. End-users want their PCs rich, powerful and mobile, and most IT managers would like to give them what they want. However, given budget constraints, nightmares of lost laptops brimming with customer records and the job of keeping applications uniform across an entire fleet of PCs, many IT managers might, albeit with regret, conclude, “Make mine thin, manageable and secure.” To many IT professionals, this may seem the best answer: equip as many end-users as possible with thin clients, and store the images and data on a central server where they can be maintained and guarded. As we know, that works fine in some instances, but today’s end-users are too mobile, too performance oriented and too stubborn to part with their high-powered, go-anywhere-anytime PCs. My Aunt Ruth, a duchess to me, used to tell me, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” As Intel’s PR guy for business PCs, that’s what I’ve also been learning from Mike Ferron-Jones about client computing. Mike heads up Intel’s research into a number of different models for client computing or what he calls “dynamic virtual clients.” The idea is to give IT managers what they want – the efficiency and security of managing client applications, data and even OSs on a server, but without a large datacenter buildout – while at the same time offering in-kind benefits to end-users – the performance and mobility they’re accustomed to. Simply put, the best of rich and thin. Mike accomplishes this with various combinations of virtualization, streaming and storage, all with a financial objective commensurate with IT’s dwindling budgets. If you’re interested in learning more, Mike has been asked to talk about “Dynamic Virtual Clients – How To Be Rich and Thin” at BrightTALK’s Virtualization Webcast, which airs here at 3:45 p.m. PST, Tue. Nov. 4.

If you can’t make that, there’s plenty to be learned on the Intel Emerging Compute Model Forum. Check them both out. As Mike likes to say (yeah, there’s one more) about dynamic virtual clients, “You can have your cake and eat it too.”

After much talking with end users and industry thought leaders, a group of us developed this utility the help people decide which compute model is best for a specific user segment. There are many items to consider when trying determining which compute model is best for your users. I believe this utility does a decent job at calling out the most common questions that help to determine the ones that would be well suited and lists the ones that may not be appropriate.

In this application, you walk through a compute model decision by answering a series of questions for a specific user segment (the user segment you enter is a free form text field and does not change the output). You are presented with a summary screen that will give you recommendations and concern areas based on your inputs. When you mouse over the compute model name, reasons why that model is or is not recommended are in the notes section.

I welcome any feedback.

-Jason A. Davidson

p.s. For compute model reference, please refer to this document: http://communities.intel.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/1518-102-1-1802/Public%20compute%20model%20discussion%20deck%204-17-08.pdf

If you are like me, when you travel, computers break at home - and being a computer person, you are the tech support...your house is most likely your personal lab, in a constant state of flux. If not, I salute you. To make matters worse, I am often the one who messed things up before I leave - luckily, my wife patiently waits for me to get into my hotel and work with her to fix it remotely. She already does a great job at tolerating the wires, keyboards, mice, monitors, and various other computer parts in every corner of our house - so having to wait for me to fix these, is a hassle for her I would like to reduce.

I have a real life scenario from my current trip that is worth sharing with this community. First let me explain a bit about the way I have my house setup. Network wise, I have a standard DSL connection to the house which plugs into a slim & quite desktop that I has 2 network cards on it and runs the http://ipcop.org/ firewall solution, which I have added http://openvpn.net/ onto and use the OpenVPN GUI application on my mobile computer. From the 2^nd network connection I serve up my wireless and wired infrastructures and have gigabyte connections to all rooms in the house as well as a great wireless solution, even the printers and TV are networked. I have more than one vPro clients in the house that I have enabled in small business mode. I also have a RAID solution on one of my computers that handles all the file shares - including running various emerging solutions that we talk about on this site (I mentioned I view my home network as a lab, right?).

Now the scenario - while on this trip one of the PC's who is up to date with virus protection and patches developed a virus, and as much as I would like to spend the time looking into how the virus got there - doing this over the phone would not be feasible. Therefore, I did what any modern day geek would do - I VPN'd into my home from my hotel, I took control of the computer over a remote desktop session and started fixing. I found the virus engrained into the system, and to keep my home running until I return, I set the machine to boot to the network instead of the local hard disk using IDE-R (a feature in vPro). Then I rebooted the machine and it booted Ubuntu Linux over my network, and the files that my family uses are accessible over the file shares.

Problem patched - until I return home. Keeping my fingers crossed...

-Jason

p.s. If you have any questions on how to configure your house this way - fire away.

Intel partnered with ArsTechnica to create an ongoing web based conference / symposium with Intel as the presenting sponsor - and this week the topic is all about emerging compute models!

Please take a few minutes and go check out the conversations on their site and join in the discussion.

-Jason

The application & desktop virtualization forums for Atlanta (March 20) and Washington DC (April 3) went off well. Here is my recap.

Atlanta:

When we arrived in Atlanta, the town had just survived a tornado on March 14^th and was in repair mode (the hotel that many of us were staying at had extensive damage and was doing everything it could to get back in working order). We had a few interesting times as passage to & from the hotel was often stopped due to the amount of falling glass (we passed the time in the nearby malls and downtown businesses). One person checked into their room to find that moments later a crack in the window gave way to a breezy view. The round the clock crews that were repairing the hotel made for some less than desired sleep patterns (3 am hammering in the room next to you is bound to wake the heaviest of sleeper). The people in Atlanta were as hospitable as ever, confirming that Atlanta is big city with small-town hospitality - even in the aftermath of a tornado!

We held the event at the 755 club at Turner Field (the Atlanta Braves stadium); the venue was awesome! The day of the event, started at 8:30 for attendees with a very enjoyable southern breakfast. At 9 am, Ketan Sampat of Intel gave the opening address, followed by presentations from Citrix, #, and Microsoft. During the lunch time, there were demos and deep dives with experts from Intel, AppStream, Citrix, Dell, Microsoft, and Symantec. As the attendees left the event, they received a USB thumb drive with all the presentations and collateral here:

• Principled Technology Report

• Intel Opening remarks

• Microsoft Softgrid Flash Tour

• Alternative Computer Models Brief

• Citrix Presentation

• #

• Microsoft Presentation

• http://communities.intel.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/1487-102-1-1702/IT@Intel%20Benchmarking%20Study%20Results%20%20Summary.pdf[IT@Intel]

I personally had several great discussions with the Atlanta attendees, and found that the attendees are definitely looking at various compute models to deliver the needs of their business and are eager to see which ones will emerge as the best complete solution - great perspectives and insight received from these talks. In addition, the team was happy to see the city recover quickly, and as we all left, we look forward to a return visit to a restored Atlanta, and the continued contact with the attendees from the event as they move forward exploring these topics.

Washington DC:

We arrived in Washington DC during cherry blossom season, a fantastic time of year. The venue for the event was the Marriott Hotel in Bethesda Maryland. The hotel staff was very helpful, the hotel was enjoyable, and the event went off without any major issues. The agenda was very similar to Atlanta with breakfast/registration time at 8:30 am, and at 9 am Chuck Brown of Intel giving the opening address. This was followed by presentations from Citrix, #, and Microsoft. During the lunch time, there were demos and deep dives with experts from Intel, AppStream, Citrix, Dell, Microsoft, and Symantec. As the attendees left the event, they received a USB thumb drive with all the presentations and collateral here:

• Principled Technology Report

• Intel Opening remarks

• Microsoft Softgrid Flash Tour

• Alternative Computer Models Brief

• Citrix Presentation

• #

• Microsoft Presentation

• IT@Intel%20Benchmarking%20Study[IT@Intel]

Many great talks with the attendees in DC as well, confirming a similar message that was received in Atlanta. We are definitely on the edge of something big in this space - as can be seen by the various acquisitions that have occurred in the past year. A fantastic first two events for 2008, if you have not been able to attend either of these, see if one of these matches your location.

Hope to see you at one (or more) of these events in the near future.

-Jason Davidson

Recently, Mike Ferron-Jones did an interview with Scott Smith from Intel's feed room. Mike did a great job at explaining the views he expressed in his blog.

Intel employee's Scott Smith & Mike Ferron-Jones recent podcast around the various models for computing. The video is embedded in this blog, and can be viewed here.

The performance studies he references in the video are: Check out some studies on emerging compute models and http://communities.intel.com/openport/blogs/ecmf/2008/01/25/streaming-impact-on-the-server-and-network

This is of course the Intel perspective - does it align with what you see?