WHITE PAPER Understanding the Business Value of Centralized Virtual Desktops

Transcription

1 WHITE PAPER Understanding the Business Value of Centralized Virtual Desktops Sponsored by: HP Michael Rose Randy Perry November 2009 Bob O'Donnell Global Headquarters: 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA USA P F IDC OPINION Deploying centralized virtual desktops (CVDs) in appropriate circumstances can allow organizations to create value for their businesses by improving their ability to manage their desktop environments, thereby improving desktop total cost of ownership (TCO), security, availability, and agility. To maximize the return on investment (ROI) associated with the deployment of CVDs, IT organizations need to: Focus on the agility and flexibility that centralized virtual desktops can enable. The most successful CVD deployments are used to improve the flexibility and agility with which IT can respond to the needs of the overall business and tend to be deployed in instances where traditional management platforms are less effective, such as call center environments and offshore locations. Have a proper understanding about the limitations of centralized virtual desktops. Centralized virtual desktops (and server-based computing as a whole) have specific limitations that will affect the ways in which the technology can be most effectively used. Those interested in leveraging CVD in their environments must fully understand those limitations in order to understand how and to whom an organization can best apply the technology. Provide sufficient time for piloting and testing. Organizations must set realistic expectations regarding the time it will take to deploy their environments because this will have an impact on the success of any project. Because CVDs are relatively new and lack best practices, pilots will need to be extensive in order to ensure that transitions to production environments occur smoothly. METHODOLOGY IDC's ROI model draws upon an aggregation of various surveys conducted of IT professionals as part of IDC's various research initiatives and is determined through the following three-step process: Measuring the savings from reduced operations costs (consolidation of hardware and software, avoided staff hired), increased operations efficiency, increased revenue, and improved user productivity

2 Ascertaining the investment made in deploying the solution and the associated training and support costs Projecting the costs and savings over a three-year period and calculating the ROI and payback for the deployed solution IDC uses the net present value (NPV) of the savings over three years in calculating the ROI and payback period for the deployment. The NPV of the savings is determined by subtracting the discounted three-year investments from the discounted three-year benefits. IDC uses a 12% discount factor to allow for the missed opportunity cost that could have been realized using that capital. IDC uses the following assumptions in its calculations: To quantify savings from IT efficiency, IDC multiplies time values by burdened salary (salary + 40% for benefits and overhead). Because the full benefits of the solution are not available during the deployment period, IDC prorates the benefits on a monthly basis and subtracts the appropriate amount for the deployment time from the first-year savings. The ROI and payback period estimates presented within this white paper represent IDC's estimate of the general business value realized with the successful tactical application of CVD technology in use cases that are described in this white paper and are not representative of any specific vendor platform. IN THIS WHITE PAPER This white paper provides a quantitative measurement of the business value associated with the use of a CVD computing architecture. This business value is defined as the expected ROI associated with the successful tactical application of the technology. SITUATION OVERVIEW Over the past 15 years, PCs have transformed from a single tool shared within an organizational department for data computation to an individually owned tool required to perform basic job functions. Because of this transition (which continues to occur as PDAs substitute for or extend PCs), IT has been challenged with managing a range of heterogeneous devices in an efficient manner that ensures the security of data and maximizes the availability of those devices. Requirements of the PC Environment To ensure that PCs continue to be operational, IT must perform a range of tasks. Although the extent to which these tasks pose challenges to IT varies significantly depending on the number of desktops in the environment and the regulatory requirements that must be met, the requirements for maintaining a desktop environment are fairly consistent and are often viewed in the framework of a PC life cycle. The PC life cycle includes the following tasks: 2 # IDC

3 Acquisition. PC hardware and software must first be acquired. Depending on the size of the organization, IT may have very high or very low levels of involvement. Deployment. After the acquisition of PC hardware and software, the IT department is responsible for maintaining an inventory of the PC's assets, preparing the PC for delivery to the user by installing applications and data, and then physically delivering the device to the user. Maintenance. After original delivery of the PC to a user, IT is responsible for maintaining the PC to ensure that it continues in its working state by providing software updates, keeping track of any hardware/software changes made to the PC, and servicing the PC in the event of failure. Retirement. Once a PC has reached the end of its useful life for a given user, IT is responsible for performing the tasks necessary to remove it from the environment or give it to another user. This process can involve various tasks, but typically includes deleting sensitive data, removing installed applications to harvest licenses, and disposing of the device. To simplify the tasks that make up the PC life cycle, technology vendors have developed a range of solutions that have been adopted in significant number, including configuration management databases (CMDBs), electronic software distribution (ESD) tools, asset management tools, and hypervisors, among many others. Simplifying PC Management Through Virtualization Of the technologies currently available, hypervisors represent the most recent addition to the set of tools that can be used to efficiently manage PC environments. After a tremendous amount of growth in the use of hypervisors within datacenters, the technology is now being applied to the desktop environment in various ways. In many cases, legacy hypervisor platforms are installed on physical PCs to provide users with the ability to run multiple isolated and unique desktops on one physical PC, enabling users to run a Windows OS and Mac OS side by side on the same PC, for example. More recently, IT organizations have been installing a more secure and efficient hypervisor type (known as type-1 hypervisors) on a server that then hosts multiple isolated and unique desktop environments, which end users access remotely from their desks through thin clients. This model is referred to by IDC as centralized virtual desktops (see Figure 1) IDC #

4 FIGURE 1 Centralized Virtual Desktops Data Application Op System Data Application Op System Virtualization Layer Server Hardware IP Network Desktop/Thin Client Source: IDC, 2009 The use of hypervisor technology as an infrastructure for desktops enables a far more flexible architecture. The elimination of the logical bond between physical PC hardware and the software that it runs can significantly simplify the many tasks necessary for the management of PCs throughout the enterprise PC life cycle. By using this new technology, IT organizations can more effectively and efficiently manage their desktop environments, particularly for users who are largely outside the lasso of existing desktop management tools. The Benefits of Centralized Virtual Desktops As has been experienced with the use of virtualization in support of traditional server workloads, the use of virtualization to support desktop workloads creates a range of significant benefits. These benefits include improved efficiency across the various components of the PC life cycle, improved price efficiencies, and improved functional capabilities. Examples of these benefits include: Enablement of thin clients. Because little execution occurs at the edge in a CVD environment, the computing architecture becomes less reliant upon the horsepower in endpoint devices. This creates an opportunity for IT to significantly drive down the cost of endpoint hardware by replacing aging PCs with a thin-client device. 4 # IDC

5 Some customers, looking for initial deployment savings, may even consider extending the life span of existing PCs. While converting legacy PCs to virtual clients using thinclient software can help lower the initial cost of deploying CVD, it is not generally considered cost avoidance or a cost reduction strategy over the long term. For example, the power consumption cost alone for a PC is greater than the cost of running a thin client. Furthermore an "old" PC is still an "old" PC no matter the software it s running. Unlike thin clients, PCs still have moving parts, such as a fan and hard disk drive, that can fail. Deploying thin clients as part of a managed infrastructure is a proven cost reduction strategy. Improved data security. The ability to move data from the edge of the IT environment into the datacenter can have very positive implications for the security risks of an IT organization. Centralization of data access can mitigate the risk of data leakage and theft. Simplified data backup. Because centralized virtual desktops reside entirely within the datacenter, it is easier to ensure full compliance with backup policies. Furthermore, depending on how the platform is architected, the use of consolidated images and delta files may further simplify the abstraction and collection of important data, thereby simplifying backup processes. Simplified disaster recovery. Virtual machines significantly simplify disaster recovery because virtual desktops can be easily reverted back to their last known good states. Time to deployment. In particular, when thin clients are used within a CVD architecture, the process around deployment is significantly simplified because nothing is installed on the endpoint device. Simplified PC maintenance. When used appropriately, virtual desktops can be far easier to maintain than traditional PCs. Because of the unique characteristics of virtual machines, it can become quite simple to patch applications, provision/deprovision users, migrate to new operating systems, and perform auditing duties. Challenges for Centralized Virtual Desktops Even when CVD environments are appropriately designed, there are still certain limitations inherent within the architecture that limit the applicability of centralized virtual desktops for a large percentage of the IT environment. These limitations include: Up-front capital expenditures. Compared with the up-front capital expenditures of deploying a traditionally distributed PC, the up-front capital expenditures associated with building a CVD environment can be significant. These expenditures include the cost of potentially increased Operating System licenses, storage infrastructure, server hardware, virtualization and virtualization management software, and network infrastructure. Scalability. Datacenter capacity constraints can significantly limit the extent to which an organization can support centralized virtual desktops internally. With the increasing scarcity of datacenter floor space and power, the capacity available to host desktops on hardware residing in the datacenter can ultimately limit the extent to which this architecture can be used IDC #

6 Performance. The performance limitations associated with centralized computing architectures are familiar to many IT managers given their experiences with other server-based computing platforms such as Microsoft's Terminal Services. Limitations in the areas of bandwidth, latency, and graphics capabilities act to limit the types of users to whom CVD technology can be deployed. IT contention. The requirement for desktop operations management to rely on server administrators within the datacenter can create a challenge for those looking to leverage CVD within their desktop environments. Network connectivity. Like all other centralized computing models, CVD is limited by the requirement for network connectivity. Comparing the capabilities and limitations of Centralized Virtual Desktop technology enables us to determine how IT organizations can most effectively make use of it. The Proper Application of Centralized Virtual Desktops Most organizations must deal with a diverse set of users with different requirements for mobility, performance, and customization. Because of characteristics of CVD technologies and the diversity of users across the organization, CVD technology is most effectively applied to the subset of users for which the move to thin clients and server-based computing can enable greater flexibility, agility, and simplified management. To determine where and when to deploy CVD, an IT organization would be best served to segment its end-user population in such a way as to eliminate the potential impact of the limitations associated with CVD. This means considering primarily the performance requirement of the applications (local and Web based) that end users access on both an occasional basis and a perpetual basis and any end-user mobility requirements. When an organization has properly segmented its user base, it can begin to determine appropriate ways to leverage CVD for given sets of users. Common use cases for centralized virtual desktops include: Call centers. Many IT organizations constructing new call centers seriously consider deploying, or actually deploy, centralized virtual desktops because of the shared PC nature of the environment, the speed with which CVD environments can be built compared with alternative options, and the stateless nature of user desktops, among other reasons. Remote software development. By leveraging CVD, particularly for offshore software development, organizations are able to ensure data security and provide a diverse test/development environment that is efficiently managed. Remote workers. An increasing number of employers are benefiting by allowing their employees to work from home for a various number of reasons. The geographical dispersion of employees and the support challenges it creates represent an excellent environment in which to leverage the benefits of centralized virtual desktops. 6 # IDC

7 Temporary contract workers. Most enterprise organizations have armies of short-term and contract employees that are difficult to cost-effectively manage and secure. CVD represents an excellent platform for these users because it allows IT to provision access to necessary applications easily while ensuring that upon dismissal, contract workers don't walk off with a treasure trove of corporate information. Quantifying the Business Value of Centralized Virtual Desktops Determining an accurate expected ROI is a critical part of the assessment phase for any IT organization considering the use of centralized virtual desktops. IDC has constructed a model that represents the ROI associated with the investment in a CVD environment for the types of use cases that have been outlined in this document. This model represents IDC's determination of a best-case scenario, in which a CVD environment is used tactically as a stateless desktop computing platform for task-based workers. These numbers should be used only as estimates of what an organization could experience in the best of all worlds. The ROI associated with CVD projects will vary for every organization, sometimes significantly, based upon each unique environment and use case. Figure 2 compares the cumulative annual costs associated with a traditional distributed desktop environment and a CVD environment. Our analysis assumes the use of desktop management software for management of the tasks associated with the maintenance of a desktop environment, such as inventory, change and configuration management, and provisioning/deprovisioning. Although many IT personnel may be surprised by the cost savings yielded by the tactical use of centralized virtual desktops, the data is less of a surprise to us. Many organizations overestimate the annualized cost of a CVD environment for two primary reasons: Hardware costs. Although the up-front acquisition costs associated with CVD environments are higher than those of distributed environments, there is a significant difference in the life span of the hardware. Whereas traditional PCs and their storage typically have useful lives of three years, thin-client hardware and datacenter storage typically have useful lives of six years. Administrative costs. When centralized virtual desktops are deployed tactically, the administrative costs associated with the technology can be very low largely because of the stateless nature of the environments and the 100% availability in terms of patch/maintenance compliance. However, when CVD environments provide user state and complete individuality, these cost savings often can become marginalized. As Figure 2 indicates, enabling computing through the use of CVD drops cost of client computing dramatically because of the savings realized through the use of less expensive thin clients and more efficient centralized servers, storage, and software IDC #

8 However, hardware and software represent less than 20% of the cost of keeping an employee client enabled. The IT labor associated with installing, administering, and supporting the client represents over 80% of the annual client cost per user. And CVD's effect on reducing that labor requirement (see Figure 3) offers compelling arguments. CVD/thin-client users require less than a third of the labor that users armed with traditional PCs require. Our studies showed that users enabled via CVD required 67% less support and administration labor than traditional PC-enabled users $425 per user per year in IT labor versus $1,298. FIGURE 2 Annualized Cumulative IT Costs per User Source: IDC's Business Value Research, 2009 Figure 3 offers a more detailed view of how CVD reduces the labor involved with specific aspects of IT client administration and support. For example, because IT can automate the process of backing up (and restoring) employees' client data, the process of data management for the client requires only 6% of the hours and effort that it required before centralization, a 94% savings. Likewise, the ability to address 8 # IDC

9 and control security issues centrally saves immense amounts of time and effort in remote support and management an 85% reduction. The 11 processes highlighted each demand less than 50% of the IT labor that traditional PC implementations would have required. FIGURE 3 IT Labor Reductions Data management/backup Addressing security issues Software deployment/patching Desktop setup and configuration Other Application management Asset management Threat assessment Desktop software installation User administration Image management (% reduction in labor) Source: IDC's Business Value Research, 2009 Figure 4 shows IDC's estimate of the ROI that an organization can anticipate from the tactical use of centralized virtual desktops. The benefits estimates reflect the savings in labor and other costs expected to accrue annually based on the research findings, while the investment line reflects the costs of maintaining, renewing, and supporting the CVD environment. Over a five-year period, these cost reductions can represent over $16,000 of cumulative cash flow benefits per user. Please note, however, that the ROI for a given project can vary significantly based on the use case for CVD and the efficiency with which any given distributed desktop is managed IDC #

10 FIGURE 4 Centralized Virtual Desktop Investment, Benefit Flow per User Source: IDC's Business Value Research, 2009 Architecting a Centralized Virtual Desktop Environment The creation of a CVD architecture requires the use of various technologies, including the following: Hypervisor This is an abstraction layer that enables the desegregation between desktop hardware and software. Virtualization Management Software This software is a collection of tools that enables an IT manager to control the virtual environment. 10 # IDC

11 Server Hardware Server hardware within the datacenter is the execution layer for the virtual desktop environment. Storage Storage architectures often vary significantly within CVD environments. Depending on their application, CVD environments may utilize direct-attached storage (DAS), network-attached storage (NAS), or storage area networks (SANs). Remote Display Protocol This protocol enables the graphical display to be viewed separately from the central execution layer. Appropriate Software Licensing Operating system licensing and application licensing must be compatible with a server-based computing architecture as well as the use of virtual machines. For example, CVD environments all but require the use of special Microsoft Windows licensing called VECD, which can increase the total cost of the environment. Furthermore, some applications are licensed per machine, which can create complications that must be worked out before CVD is adopted in those situations. Endpoint Devices Because execution occurs within the datacenter, the devices that exist at the edge do not require powerful configurations. This frees IT managers to provision thinner devices at the edge, typically in the form of thin clients or legacy or conservatively configured PCs. There is much discussion about the cost savings associated with thin-client devices, and many industry pundits argue that the savings are minimal given the small difference in cost (in most cases $ ) between thin clients and traditional PCs, especially considering the significantly higher levels of computing power that come with the latter. However, IDC's research shows that significant cost savings are associated with thin-client devices when they are deployed to users who use these devices with little to no impact on their desktop experience (such as task workers in a CVD environment). These savings come in the form of both hard costs and operational (soft) costs. Hard cost savings are largely experienced through much longer refresh cycles, with the useful lives of thin clients typically twice as long as those of traditional PCs. This means that for a given user, businesses must buy two PCs for every one thin client deployed. Soft cost savings are experienced through quantifiably fewer help desk requests and fewer hardware upgrades and repairs. It is important to note that the aforementioned soft cost savings are unique to thin clients, even when compared with traditional PCs that are used to access CVD environments IDC #

12 Integration Services Because the use of centralized virtual desktops is still a fairly recent occurrence, many IT managers unfamiliar with the technology must take into consideration, particularly during the planning process, many aspects they may not be aware of initially. Furthermore, because of the significant amount of marketing buzz and hype being generated in the marketplace for these technologies, the expectations of IT managers are often not in line with the realities of the technology. Being able to elicit the support and expertise of experienced IT professionals when deploying a CVD environment for the first time may ensure a much easier and less costly adoption. Client Automation Software Although CVD centralizes execution and storage of desktop software, simplifying desktop management by enabling the consolidation of images and ensuring desktop environments are always available, the technology does not entirely replace the value provided by traditional desktop management software. Depending on how the environment is designed, virtual desktops may still require application and OS patching, inventory, and policy management, among other things. HP's Portfolio of Centralized Virtual Desktop Technologies In building CVD environments, many organizations leverage a best-of-breed product strategy in which each component part is considered individually, and what is considered to be the best product, on an individual basis, is then purchased. Other organizations tend to standardize on a short list of vendors because of perceived value in interoperation, because they may have better leverage in negotiating pricing or because they prefer to deal only with a short list of firms for support. Regardless of an organization's product strategy, it is quite common for HP to exist somewhere in a CVD environment because of the sheer breadth of its product portfolio. HP has product offerings in the following product areas that may be a sensible part of a CVD environment, depending on the product strategy of the individual organization. These products include the following: Thin clients. HP's acquisition of Neoware in 2007 made it the largest thin-client vendor in terms of worldwide shipments and revenue. As a result, HP has a very diverse portfolio of thin-client devices that offers a diverse set of options in terms of processing power, memory, and I/O. Additionally, HP provides users with products in either desktop or notebook form factors. In particular, HP's notebook thin-client devices can allow a certain level of user mobility even within the context of serverbased computing. This can be particularly helpful in settings such as healthcare, where users often are highly mobile even within the corporate LAN. Remote display software. HP's Remote Graphics Software (RGS) protocol leverages a patented compression/decompression algorithm that can significantly improve user experience when running graphically intense applications or multiple screens within a CVD environment. RGS is used as an alternative to Microsoft's RDP to allow a user to interact with his or her virtual desktop located in the datacenter. 12 # IDC

13 Server hardware. HP's line of ProLiant servers includes various form factors, including blades. HP's server products also offer software features that can simplify the implementation and management of virtualized servers. Capabilities such as ivirtualization, Integrated Lights-Out (ilo), and HP Insight Control can streamline the deployment and management process that can sometimes be complicated with the use of virtualization. Storage hardware. HP's breadth of product offerings include both networkbased and direct-attach storage systems. HP's recent acquisition of LeftHand Networks with its iscsi blade technology enhanced the company's ability to implement fast and reliable storage without Fibre Channel investments. With these implementations HP aims to simplify storage administration, reduce storage costs, and enable storage scalability for the CVD implementation. Client automation software. A large number of IT organizations have used HP Client Automation software to manage the complex set of tasks associated with PC management with great success. For many organizations deploying CVD, this tool will prove to be equally valuable as they try to manage their virtual desktops throughout their life cycles. Integration services. HP's Desktop Infrastructure services are a robust range of offerings that can help IT organizations deploy a CVD environment. These solutions are fairly comprehensive and can provide guidance and expertise throughout the entire process of adopting a CVD environment, including strategy and planning, design, transition, operation, and continual improvements. FUTURE OUTLOOK IDC expects that in the next three to five years, the vast majority of enterprise IT organizations either will be deploying CVD in production or will have an extensive proof-of-concept (POC) project in place. In addition to the use of hypervisors on servers to enable centralized virtual desktops, another innovation in hypervisor technology has emerged more recently and, in IDC's opinion, has the potential to extend the applicability of desktop virtualization. This innovation involves the creation of a Type-1 hypervisor that is capable of running on a PC. Although Type-1 hypervisors have been used to host desktop environments on servers as mentioned earlier, until recently they had not been able to run on physical PCs. The advent of Type-1 PC hypervisors enables IT organizations to leverage virtualization across their entire desktop environment to maximize the benefits that thus far have been realized only for the small segments of the user population that can be supported by the use cases at the beginning of the document. The use of client hypervisors could eliminate many of the aforementioned limitations associated with CVD without sacrificing any of the benefits that organizations experience with the architecture. However, the future of Type-1 client hypervisors remains blurry as it is unclear whether PC OEMs would support them and integrate them into their product lineups. Furthermore, the use of these hypervisors introduces additional complexity into the infrastructure that must be managed, and they are unlikely to be able to be adopted in one fell swoop due to the nature of desktop hardware refreshes IDC #

14 Ultimately, we believe that centralized virtual desktop technology will continue to deliver value for organizations for a long while because of the agility and flexibility benefits that it can provide to IT, in addition to other benefits such as security and simplified endpoint hardware management. CHALLENGES IT organizations will find that testing and POCs take longer and cost more for CVD technology because the use of centralized virtual desktops is fairly new than for many other technologies that they deploy. For IT organizations to maximize ROI on these projects, it is essential that the testing phase be comprehensive so that there are no significant surprises when the technology is put into production. Furthermore, there are many potential "gotchas" associated with centralized virtual desktops that can be easy to miss unless POCs take into consideration all of the variables that exist in the production environment. CONCLUSION Centralized virtual desktops can provide significant value to IT organizations that are faced with managing desktops. However, because of limitations associated with the technology, IT organizations are strongly advised to apply it to sets of users for which the accrual of benefit is most clear. IDC makes the following recommendations to IT organizations considering the use of centralized virtual desktops: Adopt the technology slowly, starting with sophisticated POCs, and slowly deploy the architecture into production. When feasible, hire services organizations that can help to plan, architect, and deploy a CVD environment. First deploy the technology to users and use cases that can be considered "low-hanging fruit." This will ensure that ROI will be maximized and will provide valuable expertise in working with the technology. IT organizations that follow these three recommendations will likely find themselves leveraging CVD technology in a way that maximizes their total investment by providing hard and soft cost savings that will pave the way for further expansion of the architecture. Copyright Notice External Publication of IDC Information and Data Any IDC information that is to be used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval from the appropriate IDC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason. Copyright 2009 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden. 14 # IDC