In IT, there is such a thing as End User Computing - calculations for end users. How, where and in what ways can such solutions help, what should they be? With today's demands, employees want to be able to work securely from any device, anywhere. Technological aspects account for up to 30% of incentives for engaged employees, according to a Forrester (Employee Index) report. This is a significant factor in attracting and retaining qualified personnel.
Computer systems, collectively known as EUC, help reduce costs and simplify the management of desktop PCs.
For example, you can centrally install new applications, manage updates, and grant rights to users. And this applies not only to PCs, but also to other devices of users, with the help of which they can access corporate applications and data anywhere. In particular, the concept of BYOD can be implemented.
Employees are becoming more and more mobile these days. They work remotely, on different projects, from different countries, time zones and organizations. Services created by vendors are designed to provide flexibility in responding to the changing needs of employees.
PC: disadvantages of the traditional model.
Ideally, such services allow you to provide users with the necessary resources, including without deploying and operating your own IT infrastructure (in the case of a cloud model), increase or decrease their volume on demand, connect new users with a few clicks or using APIs, or remove them . Administrators can manage users, applications, images, and policies much more easily.
Company data is not stored on user devices, and access to it can be granularly controlled. Companies with stringent regulatory requirements choose EUC to comply with legal requirements for the financial industry, retail, healthcare, government organizations, and more.
In the traditional model, managing desktops is usually quite a challenge. In addition, it is inefficient and expensive. Adding new client systems can take a long time. Not to mention, managing and maintaining such an environment is becoming more and more difficult as the PC fleet grows. Another problem is the renewal of this park. 67% of respondents plan to replace corporate PCs at least every three years, according to a Forrester report (Analytics Global Business Technographics Infrastructure). In the meantime, users, wherever they are, need access to their applications and files.
To meet this challenge, IT organizations are increasingly thinking about EUC, a set of technologies used to deliver desktops, manage and secure desktops, applications, and data.
As show , the main users of the EUC are healthcare, the financial industry and the public sector.
How to eliminate unnecessary complexity when deploying EUC? Today, vendors offer ready-to-deploy EUC solutions, in particular, hardware and software systems for VDI infrastructure (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) based on Citrix and VMware software. As an alternative, a DaaS (Desktop as a Service) cloud service is also offered.
VDI
Over the past decade, in rethinking their approach to EUC, many organizations have turned to a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environment.
Why do companies choose VDI?
Ease of maintenance.
VDI simplifies tasks for administrators, allows you to quickly deploy typical workplaces with the right set of applications and settings. Facilitates the administration of workplaces and accounting for the use of licenses.
Security.
You can centrally assign and apply security policies, manage access.
Corporate data protection.
Data is not stored on user devices, but in corporate infrastructure or data centers.
Performance.
The user receives dedicated resources (processors, memory) and stable performance of the workplace.
Initially, the incentives for the introduction of VDI were the reduction in the cost of a workplace in large organizations and the requirements of information security. IT departments also had to ensure that end users experienced no performance issues when migrating from physical workstations to virtual workstations. Balancing cost and performance has become one of the biggest challenges in delivering efficient VDI platforms to users.
Meanwhile, software unification of virtual workstations means savings in maintenance, preventing unauthorized downloads of applications or malware thanks to controlled boot images. In addition, such a solution can be scaled to support several hundred or even thousands of users. It is suitable for a wide range of VDI deployment scenarios and workforces, from typical office users to 3D renderers.
Maximize Market Research predicts that the global VDI market will grow at a CAGR of over 11% over the coming years and reach $2024 billion by 14,6.
As one of the most efficient and easy to operate platforms for VDI deployment, the industry offers hyperconverged systems. In particular, such a solution for VDI was developed by Nutanix and Lenovo.
Hyper Converged Infrastructure for VDI
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) has become the next stage in the evolution of data center equipment. This modular solution combines servers, storage, networking, and virtualization software for resource pooling and distribution, while a software-defined approach gives hyperconverged systems the flexibility and scalability of enterprise IT infrastructure. VDI is one of the main use cases for HCI.
IDC estimates that investments in hyperconverged infrastructure will grow by more than 70% over the next five years.
Benefits of HCI Solutions:
Quick start.
Deployment of infrastructure in 2-3 hours.
Horizontal scaling.
Easy scaling with universal blocks (nodes) in 15-20 minutes.
Efficient use of the storage system.
No need to buy a separate storage system, usually chosen with a margin of capacity and performance.
Downtime reduction
All functions are fully distributed among the platform components, ensuring high availability.
HCI platforms have become a worthy alternative to server, virtualization platform and storage solutions, especially for high-performance configurations.
Almost all major software and hardware vendors offer their HCI solutions, including Lenovo, Microsoft, Oracle and a number of niche players. In Russia, the developments of IBS and Kraftway based on the software of the Rosplatform company are known.
HCI market by target applications. Source: KBV Research.
Nutanix has developed a scalable HCI solution for building virtual data centers that integrates server resources, storage and virtualization in a single appliance and hardware, with unlimited addition of nodes to increase system power / capacity.
According to IDC, Nutanix's cost of ownership over five years is 60% less than a classic IT architecture.
The Nutanix solution has received several prestigious global awards and industry awards in the field of virtualization and cloud computing. According to IDC, Nutanix ranked second in the global HCI systems market in 2019 with a share of over 20% and in the HCI software market with a share of over 30%.
Gartner's 2019 Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure shows the balance of power among providers of end-to-end IT infrastructure management solutions based on storage, network and server virtualization technologies. Nutanix and VMware go head to head.
Validated Architectures on the Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Platform for VMware and Citrix Software
Lenovo offers two EUC solution options based on its Lenovo ThinkAgile HX hyperconverged platform and Nutanix software: a validated architecture for VMware and Citrix solutions.
EUC from Nutanix and Citrix based on hyperconverged infrastructure.
Solution advantages:
- simplification of the data center infrastructure through the use of software solutions that are compatible with the Lenovo platform;
- improving the efficiency of IT processes;
- the ability to transition from a legacy, legacy IT infrastructure by leveraging Nutanix's scalable technology on a high-performance Lenovo platform.
Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series are integrated, tested, and tuned solutions based on Intel Xeon processors. They:
- Speed ββup deployment (up to 80%).
- Reduce administration effort through highly automated networking.
- Reduce operating costs by 23% compared to traditional solutions.
Lenovo's ThinkAgile HX systems are linearly scalable and can support up to tens of thousands of users.
Lenovo solution Consolidates compute, storage, and virtualization software into units suitable for building scale-out clusters managed through a single interface.
Virtualization is a powerful solution for providing flexibility and availability of computing resources while controlling data security and compliance on mobile devices. It helps solve the problems of organizations that use a large number of PCs, laptops and mobile devices deployed in branch offices and remote offices.
Lenovo's Client Virtualization Solution for VMware Horizon is designed to do just that. VMware Horizon allows you to centrally manage Windows and Linux virtual workstation images. Users have secure access to data and applications anywhere and anytime from any device, including tablets and smartphones.
Lenovo's client virtualization solution for delivering Citrix Virtual Apps and Virtual Desktops (formerly XenApp and XenDesktop) is designed to provide a more flexible environment for mobile workers, while taking into account compliance, security, cost control, and support for a BYOD environment.
Lenovo ThinkAgile HX series nodes are used to create scale-out compute clusters that are easy to manage and deploy. They combine Nutanix software with Lenovo servers. Deploying tested and configured nodes with end-to-end integration increases profitability and reduces the time and cost of infrastructure maintenance.
Arguments and Facts
So, let's sum up. Where is the solution currently applied? ?
- based on it, the VDI environment has been deployed by a large number of clients for tens of thousands of users, including US government organizations and Fortune 500 financial sector companies;
- large telecom companies reduced the time of registration in the system by 56% for 15 thousand Citrix users;
- a major airline company reduced the time it takes to deliver virtual desktops from months to hours;
- a company in the energy sector reduced the provisioning time for a virtual workstation from hours to minutes;
- according to the result of the VDI ROI study in the USA, the ROI is 595%, and the payback is 7,4 months;
- 45% reduction in TCO (study among healthcare companies);
- according to the results of the VDI ROI study among US cities, the ROI is 450%, and the payback is 6,3 months.
According to media reports, the Russian bank VTB is ready to spend 4,32 billion rubles. on Dell and Lenovo appliances using Nutanix virtualization software. In particular, it is planned to purchase Lenovo Nutanix complexes with a starting lot price of 1,5 billion rubles. The purchased equipment will be used to expand VTB's existing infrastructure based on Dell Nutanix and Lenovo Nutanix. The Lenovo-Nutanix ThinkAgile HX-series platform with Nutanix software includes deployment services.
Lenovo HX series systems pre-installed with Nutanix software are suitable not only for deploying virtual workstations, but also for organizing and building software-defined environments, public and private clouds, working with DBMS and big data. They reduce capital and operating expenses, simplify the deployment and management of IT infrastructure while increasing the reliability of the finished solution. Lenovo offers several models of ThinkAgile HX Series appliances, each optimized to support specific workloads.
Source: habr.com