Realize the Potential of Desktop Virtualization With Hitachi Data Systems

Transcription

1 SOLUTION PROFILE Realize the Potential of Desktop Virtualization With Hitachi Data Systems Transform Your VDI Environment With more smartphones and tablets in the workplace, organizations are turning to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to provide secure access to corporate information from any device anytime and anywhere. To be effective, these solutions must address regulatory and compliance challenges and reduce security risks through a centrally managed IT environment. Until recently, traditional desktops and laptops were the only options available for client computing architecture. However, the emergence of cloud services and IT-as-a-service (ITaaS) technologies over the past few years allows users to access desktop services from central IT resources without requiring a PC for running locally provisioned applications. This change offers a number of unique advantages, including the use of alternative hardware choices like tablets, smartphones and other employee-owned devices, better security, as well as governance and compliance capabilities all while returning higher value at lower cost. With 88% of today s workforce using personal productivity devices for business purposes, IT organizations are looking for ways to provide access to information from multiple devices, including devices brought by employees. However, this access to corporate data must be both secure and responsive. Hitachi virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions offer secure and responsive access to corporate information from any device, anytime and from anywhere. These solutions: Extend agility and flexibility to users and enable IT to respond more quickly to changing business needs.

2 SOLUTION PROFILE Address regulatory and compliance challenges faced by sectors like financial, healthcare and government, where mobile devices can pose a threat to critical information. Centralizing user data in the data center improves backup and disaster recovery, making it easier to ensure full compliance. Reduce security risks through a centrally managed and monitored IT environment while easily provisioning resources and creating chargeback for usage. Businesses can leverage a lab-validated, optimized VDI platform that delivers services uniformly, simplifying migration to new desktop OS and reducing costs. Lower total cost of ownership by reducing capital expenses and enabling IT to address problems more efficiently. In partnership with VMware and Citrix, Hitachi delivers a VDI solution stack specifically designed to meet the needs of a wide spectrum of VDI users. You can transform Microsoft Windows desktops and applications into an on-demand ITaaS available to any user, anywhere, on any device. The solution also securely delivers individual Windows OS, applications, or full virtual desktops, to PCs, Macs, tablets, smartphones and thin clients all with a high-definition user experience while meeting critical availability, scalability and data protection mandates. Eliminate VDI Deployment Headaches Deploying a successful VDI implementation that meets or exceeds user performance and availability expectations is no easy task. VDI requirements are more stringent than most applications because users have set expectations for acceptable desktop application performance. And because performance can vary greatly between peak-time (boot and login storms) and steady-state performance, maintaining a high level of performance is a key to eliminating VDI headaches. In addition to performance issues, VDI systems can also present significant availability challenges. In some cases, these systems may support tens of thousands of users, which places a huge burden on IT to ensure availability, especially when the core With Hitachi Unified Compute Platform Select for VMware Horizon View and Hitachi Unified Compute Platform Select for Citrix XenDesktop, organizations can quickly deploy a certified VDI solution stack that delivers predictable performance, security, and data protection. business depends on anytime, anywhere responsiveness. VDI system management introduces additional challenges. For example, IT staff must have the ability to scale VDI environments quickly. Adding new users, integrating employees from acquired companies, and personalizing the virtual desktop look and feel are increasingly becoming critical requirements. Some users require customized applications, images and access protection. Meeting the stringent requirements of VDI calls for an integrated, high-performance solution one optimized from the storage architecture to the compute blade, from the hypervisor to the VDI delivery platform. Hitachi Data Systems Meets the VDI Challenge To solve organizations VDI challenges, Hitachi developed Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) solutions for virtual desktop infrastructure, a family of pre-tested reference architectures that combine server, storage, network and management elements. UCP Select for VMware Horizon View and UCP Select for Citrix XenDesktop deliver converged infrastructures that enable IT to deploy VDI solutions faster and with more confidence. UCP Select solutions for VDI provide a simplified approach to delivering scalable, preconfigured and validated infrastructure architectures for VDI implementations. To enable cost-efficient scalability, the cell-based design of Hitachi reference architectures defines a set of custom building blocks for VDI, with each building block serving a specific function. For example, there are application cells for VMware Horizon View, as well as cells for compute resources, storage resources and other VDI components. IT can use these cells to build a more efficient, scalable VDI architecture. With control over data and operations, your IT staff can dynamically personalize, compose and deploy hundreds or even thousands of desktops in minutes instead of hours, or even days all from a single platform. Faster Deployment Rich features and flexibility make VDI easy to deploy. Meet set performance and TCO requirements with pre-tested, optimized user configurations. Simplify VDI deployment with a cellbased architecture designed to support a defined user workload. Roll out applications and easily scale new desktops while eliminating the need to purchase or provision extra equipment. Figure 1. Hitachi cell-based design defines custom VDI building blocks that can simplify the implementation of scalable VDI solutions.

3 3 Reduce Risk Validated configurations allow you to deploy with confidence. Achieve a high-performance infrastructure that delivers predictable, reliable and repeatable results with a certified solution stack. Efficiently scale from a pilot project to thousands of desktops. Enable resource deployment as needs increase, and upgrade in phases with predictable results with UCP cell architecture. and migration and support services that enable customers to efficiently manage and maintain their critical business applications and meet both current and future growth requirements. Technology Overview VMware Horizon View VMware Horizon View delivers virtual desktops as a managed service. Using Horizon View, IT can create images of approved desktops and then deploy them automatically, as needed. Innovation is the engine of change, and information is its fuel. Innovate intelligently to lead your market, grow your company, and change the world. Manage your information with Hitachi Data Systems. Accelerate Value Predictability, scalability and availability accelerate time to value. Win faster time to market with template-based VDI deployment and automation in a seamlessly scalable architecture that delivers accelerated value. Reduce IT workload and OPEX with centralized VDI monitoring and management. Improve availability to deliver VDI anytime, anywhere for you and your customers. Lower capital expenses and enable IT to operate with greater efficiency and reduced TCO. Why UCP Select Solutions for Virtual Desktops? With UCP Select for VMware Horizon View and UCP Select for Citrix XenDesktop, you can quickly deploy VDI environments with predictable results and create an avenue for further automation tuned to your unique business needs. Your organization can use the benefits of VDI solutions from Hitachi to improve agility, achieve predictability and optimize the performance of your desktop environment. Hitachi Services Hitachi Data Systems Global Services organization has a comprehensive portfolio of consulting, transition, managed and support services to help customers successfully adopt new technologies with lower costs and risk. With an arsenal of best practices and proven methodologies, Global Services offers audit, planning and design, software and hardware implementation, integration Workload Type Desktop Virtualization UCP Select for VMware Horizon View Microsoft Windows 7 32-bit desktop with a knowledgebased workload: Adobe Acrobat Reader Microsoft Excel Microsoft Internet Explorer Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Outlook Microsoft PowerPoint Media Player Microsoft Word VMware View Table 1. UCP Select-Validated VDI Reference Architectures UCP Select for Citrix XenDesktop Microsoft Windows 7, 64-Bit desktop running a task-based workload: Microsoft Internet Explorer Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Microsoft Outlook Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 Citrix Provisioning Services 5.6 SP2 Hypervisor VMware vsphere 5.0 Hitachi Compute Hitachi Compute Blade 500 Blade Hitachi Storage Hitachi Unified Storage VM Hitachi Unified Storage 150 Hitachi Network 128GB cache 64PB capacity Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning Automated provisioning Up to 60TB Brocade 6510 enterprise fabric switches Brocade VDX-6720 Ethernet switches 16GB cache 8 x 8GB/sec FC 4 x 1GB/sec iscsi Brocade GB SAN switch for Hitachi Compute Blade 500 Brocade 6510 Brocade VDX 6720 Brocade VDX 6746

4 SOLUTION PROFILE Offload commonly read blocks into hypervisor host memory, reducing the I/O seen at the back-end storage subsystem. Reduce the time to completion for read-intensive operations in the environment such as boot storms, login storms and antivirus storms. VMware vsphere VMware vsphere is a virtualization hypervisor platform that provides the core data center infrastructure. ESXi Hypervisor core that loads directly on a physical server and partitions 1 physical machine into many virtual machines that share hardware resources. vcenter Server Provides centralized management of the vsphere environment through a single user interface. Flexibility to mix and match IT tools such as vmotion, Storage vmotion, high availability and fault tolerance for ultimate virtualization management and control. Citrix XenDesktop Citrix XenDesktop is a desktop virtualization solution that transforms Microsoft Windows desktops and applications into an on-demand service available to any user, anywhere, on any device. Pre-tested reference architectures. Increase efficiency by streaming a single Unified, VDI-optimized storage. desktop image to create multiple virtual desktops on 1 or more servers in your data center with Citrix Provisioning Services. Significantly reduce the amount of stor- age required when compared to other methods of creating virtual desktops. Fast, flexible virtual desktop delivery helps you adapt quickly and cost-effectively to business changes, user workload changes and strategies like work-shifting and offshoring. Tailored for VDI workloads. Predictable, multitenant platform. Continuous availability. Centralized management. Hitachi Storage Storage is one of the most critical elements of effective VDI implementation. Boot storms and login storms can cause severe performance degradation, which is directly related to storage capabilities. Storage configuration elements must take into account full image vs. differentiated disks for the OS image, user data and persistent data storage, folder redirection, applications and patches.

5 5 Hitachi Unified Storage VM Hitachi Unified Storage VM is an entry-level enterprise storage platform that combines storage virtualization services with unified block, file and object data management. This versatile, scalable platform offers a storage virtualization system to provide central storage services to existing storage assets. Its centralized end-to-end storage management for all virtualized internal and external storage also simplifies IT tasks and improves overall VDI orchestration: Uses a unique, hardware-accelerated, object-based file system to support intelligent file tiering and migration, as well as virtual NAS functionality, without compromising performance or scalability. Enables the move to a new storage platform with less effort and cost. Increases performance and lowers OPEX with automated data placement. Supports scalable management for growing a complex storage environment while using fewer resources. Lowers operational risk and data loss exposure with data resilience solutions. Hitachi Unified Storage 150 Hitachi Unified Storage 150 is a midrange storage platform that enables businesses to meet stringent service level agreements for availability, performance and data protection. By delivering performance that is reliable, scalable, and available for both block and file data, Hitachi Unified Storage simplifies operations and management and improves efficiency. Grow storage as needed to meet expanding requirements and service level agreements, and build a VDI environment at your own pace. Streamline operations with integrated setup and management for a quicker time to value, and enable extensive cost savings through file and block consolidation. Simplify provisioning data to applications, streamlines path management and reduce OPEX with reliable, flexible, scalable and cost-effective modular storage delivered through symmetric active/active controllers. Optimize workflows and reduce CAPEX and OPEX with dynamic load balancing between dual controllers to avoid bottlenecks. Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning Today s 24/7 VDI operations simply cannot afford the staff time or the downtime required to configure and deploy new storage systems to address data growth. Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning takes the guesswork out of manual provisioning by providing a tiering technology that uses virtualization and data mobility tools to nondisruptively move data volumes. By providing both wide striping and thin provisioning, Dynamic Provisioning allows scaling of both the performance and capacity available to VMs. Specify only the storage that you need for a given virtual machine, eliminating the chance of over-allocating or under-allocating storage. Save disk space and disk purchases while reducing energy and rack space requirements. Efficiently deploy and use existing storage while reducing both CAPEX and OPEX. Hitachi Compute Blade Hitachi Compute Blade 500 combines highend features with the high compute density and adaptable architecture you need to lower costs and protect your VDI investment. Safely mix a wide variety of application workloads on a highly reliable, scalable, and flexible platform. Hitachi Compute Blade presents a unique combination of virtualization support, massive I/O bandwidth, large memory capacity, and configuration flexibility. This combination allows you to configure your systems to provide optimal performance, I/O throughput, scalability and cost to match any virtualized application: 6U flexibility supports up to eight 2-socket blade servers for midrange enterprise workloads. Enables massive system consolidation with different I/O configurations to provide a balanced system architecture. Pushes VDI performance and efficiency to new heights. Brocade Switches Brocade Ethernet and SAN fabric products have been designed into UCP pre-validated solutions, which are built with Hitachi worldclass storage and servers. Brocade VDX standalone and embedded Ethernet fabric switches deliver a radically simplified data center network for UCP converged infrastructure solutions. Brocade s VCS fabric technology, designed for highly virtualized environments, accelerates application deployment and virtual machine migrations. Enables IT administrators to manage dozens of switches as a single logical device, dramatically reducing OPEX. Saves installation time as new switches self-provision when they first connect to the fabric. Summary UCP Select for VMware Horizon View and UCP Select for Citrix XenDesktop create the ultimate foundation for the transition to VDI. Organizations gain a predictable, low-risk VDI deployment that provides industry-leading performance, availability, management, data resilience and scalability. By addressing the most demanding server virtualization and storage challenges, Hitachi Data Systems reference architectures and high-performance storage solutions address extensive data growth and highly transactional, input/output-intensive VDI applications.

6 Corporate Headquarters 2845 Lafayette Street Santa Clara, CA USA Regional Contact Information Americas: or Europe, Middle East and Africa: +44 (0) or Asia Pacific: or Hitachi Data Systems Corporation All rights reserved. HITACHI is a trademark or registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd. Innovate With Information is a trademark or registered trademark of Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. Microsoft, Windows, Excel, Internet Explorer, Outlook, and PowerPoint are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks, service marks, and company names are properties of their respective owners. Notice: This document is for informational purposes only, and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerning any equipment or service offered or to be offered by Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. SP-143-A DG March 2013