Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/4636
ILTA White Paper Infrastructure Technologies 20 and Citrix and Microsoft both offer the ability to stream the applications to a standard Windows PC as well as a virtualized one, while ThinApp is only used within VMware's VDI offering. THE BIG THREE IN VDI VMware View consists of the vSphere (formerly VI3) platform, which is the VMware virtualization back end that most people have heard of. VMware View Manager is the actual VDI broker responsible for provisioning, management and more, while VMware View Composer is the thin provisioning piece that uses linked clones technology to create virtual disks from the master image. ThinApp provides the application streaming mentioned above. The last piece of the VMware View solution is the Offline Desktop feature, which is now fully supported in vSphere. What this feature offers is the ability to give a VDI image to mobile users who are frequently off network. While this is a supported solution, it works, in essence, by copying the virtual desktop image file (VMDK) to and from a server at logon and logoff. You can imagine the delay while you wait for a 25GB file to copy up or down. It's also important here to point out that VMware View will only run on VMware's back end, so it is a single vendor solution. Regarding costs, you can expect to pay about US$130 per year for VMware View Composer in addition to the VECD cost. The Citrix XenDesktop solution consists of the Desktop Delivery Controller, the Virtual Desktop Agent that directs connections between the client and desktop, and the Desktop Receiver that is installed on the client and enables high-speed connections to the virtual desktop. All of this is coupled with the XenApp application streaming as well as a few optional components for SSL VPN, performance monitoring and WAN optimization to complete the package. XenDesktop is not dependent upon any particular back end server system and can run on VMware, XenServer or Microsoft's Hyper-V. You can expect to pay about US$110 per year for XenDesktop in addition to the VECD cost, but be aware that this includes XenApp to the VDI world only. XenApp streaming to standard PCs is available, but for an additional cost. The Microsoft VDI solution has four core components with a few subcomponents thrown in. The heart and soul of Microsoft virtualization is Hyper-V, which is the virtualization built into Windows Server 2008. System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 is the management piece, while VECD is the licensing core. The final core piece is the Dynamic Virtual Desktop, comprising App-V and 2008 Terminal Services RemoteApp. The main difference between these two items is that App-V can silo or segregate applications so you can stream multiple versions of Internet Explorer or Adobe Reader. To use RemoteApp, you would need to install those apps on separate Terminal Services servers. App-V is also a part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), which is a suite of technologies designed to enhance MS VDI. MDOP does require Microsoft Software Assurance (SA), and, in addition to App-V, it contains tools for asset inventory, diagnostics, advanced group policy object management and error reporting. The final piece of MDOP is the Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization component which enhances the deployment and management of virtual PC images. You can expect to pay about US$70 per year for SA with MDOP on Vista in addition to the VECD cost. This only includes App-V for the VDI world as there is a different license for MDOP, which