#worlddesk

Desktop virtualization refers to technologies that separate the monolithic personal computer desktop environment. This environment comprising of hardware, operating system, applications, data, and personal settings. Currently, there are two primary approaches to desktop virtualization, server-side and client-side, respectively.

Adoption to server-side desktop virtualization, which is also referred to as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), has been slow due to its installation complexity and exorbitant system integration costs in addition to other growing concerns over scalability, performance, and anytime (offline) access.

On the other hand WorldDesk employs client-side desktop virtualization technology to offer an optimized and high performance dynamic virtual desktop by combining the best of centralized IT management and client computing together to deliver truly anywhere, anytime personalized desktop execution on any device resulting in significant cost savings and uncompromised user experience.

In addition WorldDesk can be leveraged to complement VDI deployments to address the inherent limitations such as performance, desktop image management, scalability and offline computing.

In the first post of the 'My WorldDesk Setup' series we looked at how WorldDesk for You (WDFY) is used as a fully mobile, personal computing environment. For this blog I want to share a WorldDesk for Enterprise (WDFE) deployment which helped ease the problems of the students and faculty at the G.Pulla Reddy Engineering College (GPREC) here in India.

The undergraduate students studying at GPREC rely heavily on computers to complete their work but frequently applications fail on specific machines. When this occurs, students would have to contact IT support staff who would typically “solve” this problem by reinstalling the applications afresh. Given staffing and timing constraints this can result in up to a day's worth of work being lost by a student. It was clear that the staff and students of GPREC would benefit greatly from a WDFE setup.

The rollout procedure was as follows:

Server Side:

Firstly, I made use of GPREC’s existing Microsoft Windows 2008 Active Directory Controller, which had all the student’s accounts. Recorded Time: 0 minutes.

Then I checked, and were necessary installed, the software prerequisites for "WorldDesk for Enterprise" before installing the WDFE package. Recorded Time:  30 minutes.

Using the WorldDesk Management Console I created a template for a Microsoft Windows 7 Client. As part of this process I specified the required policies and permissions for this template. Recorded Time:  Recorded Time: 5 minutes.

To finish the server side setup I created Desktops for 25 sample users on the WorldDesk Management Console. Recorded Time: 5 minutes.

Client Side:

After logging into a pristine machine with WorldDesk Portal Administrator, I accessed the template that was earlier created on the server and installed the Microsoft Office 2007 Suite. Recorded Time:  15 minutes.

Finally, as a quick test I logged into the machine as one of the sample users from the active directory and invoked their personalized WorldDesk Desktop. Recorded Time:  15 Seconds.

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The full procedure of installation, configuration and deployment took less than 2 hours to complete for 25 users, though using WorldDesk template technology I could add additional users quickly with ease.

With no dependency on the client machine for application installation natively, it is now very easy for the IT support staff to maintain all the machines in network and quickly respond to student problems.

With WorldDesk for Enterprise all the client machines in lab now only require an operating system. Students are served their state-full personalised desktop from a centralized server which is all managed via a web based Management Console and accessible by the entire IT support team.

That is, My WorldDesk Setup.

- Amruth Kumar Sala (Director of Operations)

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Some small print…

Server Configuration Details:

HP ProLiant ML 350G6 / (1) Intel® Xeon® Processor E5620 (2.40 GHz, 12MB L3 Cache, 80W, DDR3-1066, HT enabled / 8GB (4 x 2GB) PC3-10600R (DDR3-1333) / Embedded NC326i PCI Express Dual Port Gigabit Server Adapter / Embedded HP Smart Array P410i/256MB Controller / 300 GB SAS HDD

Client Configuration Details:

VDI

ˈvərCHo͞oəl / ˈdeskˌtäp / ˈinfrəˌstrəkCHər

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is the practice of hosting a desktop operating system within a virtual machine (VM) running on a centralized server. VDI is a variation on the client/server computing model, sometimes referred to as server-based computing (SBC).

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Whenever I tell people about WorldDesk I often get asked “how is this any different to VDI?” The question has come up so frequently I thought it best to compile a brief blog on the key differences…

Let’s first look at the architecture of a standard computer. This broadly consists of three components: your hardware (the physical machine itself) the operating system (typically Windows) and everything you add to your computer (we call this your Workspace – it’s the apps you install, the files you save and your personal settings).

The overview looks a little like this:

In this standard computer model the apps and settings are intrinsically linked to the operating system, which itself is intrinsically linked to the hardware. As a result, only the files are portable.

A VDI solution aims to free up the entire machine by allowing a user to have access from multiple computers (end-clients) using an internet connection. Each user’s Workspace (apps, files, settings) is tied to a specific virtual machine (VM) on the server and a graphical representation of this is delivered to the end-client. This is made possible by a program, known as a Hypervisor or Virtual Machine Manager, which allows multiple operating systems to share the same hardware host.

The diagram for the VDI server is as below:

The VDI model takes up a significant amount of server space as each VM requires its own operating system and the applications are tied to this OS like they are on a standard computer.

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What Makes WorldDesk Different?

WorldDesk provides a home for your apps, files and settings in a self-contained virtual environment. This is a separate environment that is not attached to any particular piece of hardware or operating system.

The graphic for the WorldDesk Workspace (to try a version of this download WorldDesk for You) is as below:

As WorldDesk is solely made up of data, that we know to be fully portable, the entire Workspace can be directly delivered to all end-clients from a centralized server. The server is only used for data storage and the server operating system is only used for profile management. Unlike VDI, no processing is done on the server side.

Below is a diagram of the WorldDesk Workspace being delivered from a server to a client:

This is the core setup of WorldDesk for Enterprise (WDFE) and it has a number of important advantages over a standard VDI solution:

As the entire Workspace is delivered, all the processing is done on the end-client. This is the most efficient use of the client operating system and machine resources (CPU & RAM). Unlike a VDI solution, this allows for processor-intensive applications, like AutoCAD and Photoshop, to be used by any computer on the network.

WDFE also increases efficiency on the server. As WorldDesk utilizes the client operating system, there is no need to store multiple OSs on the server. This means WorldDesk takes up a lot less space on the server. In addition, each user’s profile is derived from an application template meaning only one copy of each application is installed on the server. This again is a highly efficient use of a server’s resources.

In our next blog we’ll take a look at how this model was applied in enterprise and the advantages it brought.

It’s been a busy start to the year for WorldDesk. We launched our first downloadable product in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show, showed WorldDesk running on a non-Windows OS in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress and part of our team have just returned from South by Southwest (SXSW) in Texas where we gave an early peek of our new 64-bit release.

SXSW is a unique conference that combines original music, independent films and emerging technologies. This made for a diverse week socializing, (I should call this networking since I was there for work!) attending events and panel discussions.

One such panel was delivered by students from the MIT Media Lab. This was not a group I was overly familiar with but part of the charm of SXSW is that curiosity is both encouraged and rewarded. The MIT Media Lab is made-up of self-described outliers: academics that, despite their brilliance, don’t seem to naturally fit into any other faculty at MIT. Unconstrained by traditional assessment boundaries, this group of designers, engineers, artists and scientists work on specific projects that they believe might provide a technological breakthrough to impact on everyday life.

While each panelist in turn outlined details of their own, individual project, it was telling that they all, without fail, referenced what is the unofficial Mantra of the Media Labs: Demo or Die. No matter how brilliant, no matter how innovative, each project would be judged on the ability to bring it to demo.

The belief that building a demo was the only real way to validate a particular idea is something that is instilled with the team at WorldDesk. There are two distinct parts of any demo: build and show. For any project we’ve undertaken it starts of with that first build of the demo. Version 1 is mostly a mishmash of different third-party apps that are easily and immediately available. This “home brew” lacks any of the gleam of a final product but, most importantly, validates the core idea. WorldDesk for You  (that ran with the internal demo name Project Kickstarter) began life like this. It had none of the polish of our beta product (simple installation package, WorldDesk branding, automation, Dropbox integration etc.) but it made the crucial jump from “I can” to “I have”.

Of course there is no point in having a great demo (which I believe we have!) unless you get out there and show it to someone! The day after the MIT Panel I had a chance to put part of this theory into practice. Through a competitive application process WorldDesk was selected, as one of only twenty companies, to take part in the UK Demo day. This was an official SXSW event hosted by UK Trade & Investment and Thomson Reuters. After three hours of non-stop presenting to capital providers, media, industry contacts and potential clients, I left with a little better understanding on how best to communicate the WorldDesk offering. Practice does make perfect.

And that completes one demo cycle but is only one cycle. We’re already building our next demo, which we hope to be able to show you soon, because like all MIT Media Lab students we too have a motto: Demo or die.

We thought we'd kick off a series of blogs called My WorldDesk Setup, just to share how we're using WorldDesk every day and the tips 'n tricks we're finding along the way! My primary machine is a Samsung Ultrabook, it's well spec'd, solidly built and very light. At home I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop that is poorly spec'd, pretty flimsy and weighs slightly more than a desktop!  I also regularly use a couple of HP Pavilion laptops we have setup in meeting rooms for presentations.

80% of the time I’m on the Samsung but my use of these other machines is increasing and while the HPs are in our office I do consider them “unsecure”.   So WorldDesk is ideal in letting me move my whole workspace easily between these devices.  I opt for the USB deployment for 2 reasons:

It’s ultra-portable and pocket-sized, compared to an external hard drive.

While I do use Dropbox (a lot!) I don’t want to setup my Dropbox account on the unsecure HPs.

So, I picked up a Kingston DT Ultimate G2 16GB USB drive, which is robust and very fast (supporting USB 3.0 and backward compatible with USB 2.0). 

Security and backup is a major concern (what happens if I lost that USB drive!) so before I begin I grab three very useful and free utilities:

1. TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt – lets me create a very secure military grade encrypted partition on my USB drive.  I use 12Gb of the available 16Gb, leaving 4Gb free as an unencrypted space to easily share files, etc.  I also carry TrueCrypt’s Traveller Disk Setup in this unencrypted space so I don’t need to install TrueCrypt on all the machines I’m going to use my WorldDesk on.

2. SyncToy

A very simple app for backing up my entire WorldDesk from the USB drive to my main machine (the Samsung). 

3. USB Disk Ejector – Not really required, but a handy tool to quickly and safely eject the USB drive when I want to unplug it.  While generally I agree that life’s too short to remove USB safely it is a pretty good idea when the drive is NTFS formatted.

I only have these apps installed on my primary machine; in fact it’s all I have installed on that machine, and of course I don’t need to worry about installing them on any other machine I use.

So now I’m good to go, I grabbed the latest version of WorldDesk (at time of writing this is a pre-release version for Win-7 64-bit) and installed it in the encrypted partition on the USB drive.

The first set of apps I usually install are:

 Dropbox

 MS Office 2010

 Foxit Reader

VLC Media Player

Rainmeter

Note, installing Dropbox inside WorldDesk is a massive plus for me, as my Dropbox folder is now portable, secure and anything I work on I can view on the go with my iPad/iPhone.

The last one, Rainmeter, is a cool desktop customization tool that plays nice with WorldDesk and adds a host of useful “skins” to my desktop. 

It transforms my desktop from this:

… to this:

So that’s my WorldDesk: safe, secure, portable and looks pretty cool too!  What’s yours?

My last blog post introduced the engineering objective when we founded WorldDesk: 

"Quite simply, the initial design goal for WorldDesk was to make recovering or setting up a PC as simple as connecting a replacement iPhone to iTunes and re-syncing the setup."

I've long been a believer that engineering excellence sees complexity under the hood reduced to simplicity for the user. Steve Jobs based the design philosophy of Apple on the simplicity he learned at Atari, where the user manual simply read "Insert coin, avoid Klingons". Job's infatuation with ease of use reflects that of the great consumer companies through the ages, the principle was pervasive in the early days of the Ford Motor Company between 1905 and 1930, and the Singer Sewing Machine company in the 1850s. Historians remind us that there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to human society; in this respect zealous pursuit of usability was core to the greatest consumer companies through the ages. 

One view is that Microsoft's PC both embodies this rule and violates it. 

On the one hand the Windows user interface and experience was truly revolutionary and very reminiscent of the "Jobs" approach. Similarly based Office applications like Excel are utility personified, have defined a raft of business use cases for two decades, and will most likely continue to do so for the next thirty years. 

That said Windows has some real baggage. Installation of applications is a nightmare (in relative terms) - relative both to other platforms today, and also how things used to be. It is nigh on impossible to migrate setups between different physical machines, and a drama just to migrate applications and setups between different OS releases. 

The Enterprise IT costs associated with large Microsoft infrastructure runs into hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Whole industries (including the virtualisation business) have sprung up in response to basic design flaws in the underlying Windows solution. The limitations in the platform are becoming ever more acute with the accelerating move towards portability and mobility. 

In this context, we believe we're close to delivering the Holy Grail with the Dropbox beta. Our design goal was to deliver a solution as simple as iTunes. If anything, it is simpler. A users entire WorldDesk workspace is replicated automatically to any machine where the user has a Dropbox folder. Once the workspace is stored to Dropbox it can be replicated across dozens of end devices if need be, and Dropbox's underlying file syncing keeps them all on the same page. 

So, why do I think we're close to delivering the Holy Grail?

The actual Holy Grail would involve having a common (& shared) applications folder for all the users in an enterprise. This shared team folder in Dropbox would effectively provide a standard WorldDesk and Microsoft install to a new team member, simply by inviting them into the team. Not only will the full install take no effort whatsoever from the user or admin; everyone in the team will be using exactly the same version of all applications, updates, with only a naked OS installed on any physical device. 

Insert coin, avoid Klingons...