Virtual Desktop (VDI)

HC3 with VDI

Desktop virtualization offers a number of benefits from improved security to easier image management and mobile device support. Traditional infrastructure and VDI solutions have managed to deliver on some of these benefits but not without high cost and complexity making the solution nearly inaccessible for small and midsize IT departments. With HC3 hyperconvergence and virtualization, VDI is not only achievable for any size IT department, but available without complexity or prohibitive cost.

• Simple web-based management interface accessible anywhere
• Non-disruptive rolling infrastructure updates
• Highly integrated architecture with pre-built provisioning, configuration, and management integration between the Scale and Workspot management consoles, requires only IT generalists, not VDI specialists
• Workspot cloud service is always up to date; requires no maintenance
• High availability, thin cloning, VM snapshots, live migration
• Extensive device support: iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, thin and zero clients

HC3 with Remote Desktop Services

Remotely accessed desktops provide many advantages over traditional, physical, “on the desk” desktops for workers especially around support consolidation, security and management. Terminal server is a remote desktop approach that has been used for decades to provide remote desktops to users.

By and large, smaller organizations have needs that strongly favor  the terminal server approach. This approach is typically simpler to manage, less resource intensive and more cost effective; especially on a smaller scale. The two key players in the terminal services space are Microsoft with RDS (Remote Desktop Services) and Citrix with XenApp. These two products represent nearly all terminal server deployments.

For small and midsize organizations, Microsoft RDS is the most commonly chosen and appropriate solution. Typical SMB organizations lack the necessary scale to justify the additional cost of the XenApp solution, plus the additional management overhead necessary for initial installation.  Microsoft RDS does not have a need for a specific scale to justify its usage and so can be effective even for just a handful of users but can scale up as needed to very large, enterprise class deployments.

RDS fits well with modern infrastructure like HC3 hyperconvergence that scales to support IT departments from the smallest to the enterprise. Like HC3, RDS keeps costs low while delivering a simple, scalable solution. RDS heavily benefits from being a native component of Windows Server and as such can be managed using standard, well known tools without any additional software investment.

While RDS provides the remote desktop experience that users are looking for, HC3 provides the stable architecture that provides high availability, scalability, and simplicity to keep the solution running.

"Think Simple VDI" Webinar with Workspot and Scale Computing

Here's an on-demand version of the joint "Think Simple VDI" webinar with Scale Computing and Workspot.