In March 2013, the Dell software group announced the release of Dell vWorkspace 8.0, a new version of its desktop virtualization software from the acquisition of Quest Software. With this release, Dell confirmed its commitment to support existing vWorkspace customers.
Last Friday in advance of TechEd 2013, Dell announced it has qualified vWorkspace 8.0 software on Dell datacenter hardware, available in the form of a reference architecture (RA) called Dell Desktop Virtualization Solutions (DVS) Enterprise for vWorkspace. For customers eager to deploy desktop virtualization on vWorkspace 8.0, this release brings the peace of mind that it has been sized correctly and is guaranteed to work on high performance Dell hardware for a combination of RDSH and VDI deployments and different user profiles. It eliminates the guesswork associated with selecting the right amount of memory, the right type of hard disks and the most appropriate CPU. It also provides assurances that the servers, storage, networking hardware units and endpoints are all compatible to bring a highly satisfying end user experience based on RemoteFX.
At TechEd, DVS Enterprise for vWorkspace has been selected as a Best of TechEd finalist by Windows®IT Pro.
On the technical side, Dell DVS Enterprise for vWorkspace is an end-to-end, mid-market RA, running on Microsoft Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V hypervisor and supporting RemoteFX. It has been qualified on Dell PowerEdge™ 12G R720 rack servers, Dell EqualLogic™ iSCSI storage hardware, Dell Force10 S55 ToR networking switch and RemoteFX-enabled Dell Wyse model D10D, D90D, Z90D and X90m7 thin clients. The RA supports up to 5,060 virtual desktops, deployed either as Windows 8 pooled VMs or/and as Remote Desktop Sessions Hosts (RDSH). Seamless Windows also allows individual published applications to appear as an icon on the user’s screen. From the IT manager’s perspective, all of this can easily be done from a single management console, greatly simplifying setup and VM management.
DVS Enterprise for vWorkspace is ideal for organizations with a preference for Microsoft desktop virtualization (Hyper-V, Enterprise Agreement, Software Assurance) and Microsoft tools, that want to have the flexibility to do a VDI/RDSH mixed deployment in the range of about 500 to 5,000 users and do so at a low cost per seat. Key verticals and customer size include: mid-market, education, healthcare, managed/cloud services providers, manufacturing and retail. One particular use case and differentiator is support for Linux VMs, a niche in higher education.
The reference architecture leverages the following unique features brought by vWorkspace 8.0:
- Using intelligent in-memory caching of virtual desktops and RDSH, HyperCache brings significantly reduced storage costs and a much faster access to VMs, thus creating a great user experience.
- HyperDeploy allows for near instantaneous deployment of VMs, as VMs are created at the same time that a golden image is being copied on a server.
- Experience Optimized Protocol (EOP) enhances RDP support for audio, graphics, multimedia, multi-monitoring, print and USB on WAN.
- Available with vWorkspace Premier edition, Foglight for Virtual Desktops brings integrated User Experience Monitoring for RDSH and VDI, including real-time VM diagnostics, management and reporting, also with session history. It identifies issues before they impact the end user and thus also shortens time to problem resolution.
- Support for Multi-Tenancy reduces infrastructure costs as less hardware and software are required to support complex environments across multiple domains. It also means increased security for Managed Services Providers or large enterprise customers.
- It is ideal for BYOD initiatives as it supports client OS with Windows, WES, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Java and Dell Wyse ThinOS. It is also possible to repurpose older PCs into thin clients using ThinShell.
- vWorkspace 8.0 can be installed on Windows Server 2003/2008/2012, allowing customers to migrate at their own pace, with no forklift conversion to Windows Server 2012 needed.
- Several more including: desktop clouds (advanced load balancing), support for voice applications, optimization over high latency and low bandwidth networks, advanced targets, URL redirection, anonymous user login/support.
Learn more about Dell’s portfolio of Desktop Virtualization Solutions at www.dell.com/desktopvirtualization in general, and at www.dell.com/dvsforvworkspace in particular.
