Government Technology - November 2008 - (Page 29)

James has many companies to choose from when he does finally take that virtual step. Think of any major server virtualization player and they’ll have desktop offerings too. VMware, a titan in the server world, is looking to do the same for desktops. Citrix, Microsoft and a number of other companies are also looking to become big names in desktop virtualization. Identifying the Need Before implementing desktop virtualization, agencies should ensure it’s best for what they need. “The benefits are usually cost savings, but I think of that in kind of a long-term scope. Obviously setting up a virtual desktop environment is going to cost you money out of the gate,” said Shawn McCarthy, research director of infrastructure optimization and vendor programs for Government Insights, an IDC company. IDC is a firm that researches trends in the IT market. Agencies considering desktop virtualization should do a return-on-investment analysis, he said. “Look and see what it’s going to cost you long term and anticipate what it’s going to save you by going in that direction.” Virtualization supports some applications better than others. Programs that demand a lot of processing power — like computeraided design and other engineering software — may not be the best fit. “They will work if you have enough network bandwidth and enough processing power on your server, so you can’t automatically say, ‘No, these don’t work.’ But is that the best place for you to start if you want to migrate to a virtual desktop? Probably not, simply because of the bandwidth issues and the processing issues,” McCarthy said. Virtualization can also be a hindrance to processing graphics. “You wouldn’t want to watch full-motion video and [play] games on a virtualized network because the screen refresh rates just aren’t what they are when you’re attached to a computer with a 256 MB video card and a digital DVI input as opposed to an analog input,” said Brian Thomas, information systems network management specialist for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. “You only want to virtualize people who are office-based. They do word processing, spreadsheets, databases, Web access — that kind of stuff,” he said. “A normal business application, you’d be fine with that.” Thomas works in the southwest district of his department’s jurisdiction, which has 21 offices. He has deployed desktop virtualization in numerous places for corrections personnel for various office functions, including accessing Oklahoma’s offender management system. He chose a solution by NComputing that takes a computer’s unused hardware resources and spreads them to other clients. He installed the company’s hardware and software on Dell PCs, transforming them into serverlike units to support the thin clients they’re connected to. In some offices, one Dell supports seven thin clients; in others, the ratio is 1-to-1; and in still other cases, the relationship is somewhere between those two extremes. “I’m saving about $400 per seat on every thin client I set up because they already had a monitor; they already had a keyboard and mouse,” he said. “All I’m doing is replacing an old CPU with a thin client, attaching it to a pretty decent Dell computer, and I’m up and running.” Brian Thomas, information systems network management specialist, Oklahoma Department of Corrections A Virtual Alternative Desktop virtualization can also help public-sector departments offer citizens more cost-effective and manageable computing solutions. Harper Apted did just that for the Warsaw Community Public Library in Indiana. He’s currently the network administrator there and in 2004, he had a problem. The library was experiencing more foot traffic, so staff added more computers to accommodate the public — more places for people to access card catalogs and use the Internet. “Basically we wanted something to replace our aging computers. We had gotten all of our public Internet computers about the same time — all Windows 2000 boxes, Gateways, old gigahertz boxes — and they were just breaking down,” he said. “At any given time, there was between two and five of them down.” And they were plagued by malware and spyware. Apted installed add-ons like antivirus software to mitigate the problem, but it wasn’t enough. He abandoned Windows for Linux and went to desktop virtualization to standardize the experience and streamline the management of various workstations. He found a library-specific option called DiscoverStation from Canada-based company Userful. DiscoverStation has since been rebranded as Userful Desktop. “The way it works, you can have between two and 10 stations connected to one PC. They just put in multiple video cards, extra USB slots, and you plug everything in and it sends a different output to each station. You literally have that many stations directly plugged into one computer,” he said. “We currently have five boxes with four each, so we have four people working off one box.” Apted said the transition from Windows, which everyone is familiar with, to Linux, was virtually a nonissue for users, except for one patron who filed a complaint. And there was one huge benefit to virtualization — cost savings. “The Microsoft platform is ridiculously expensive, at least compared to what we have for a budget; it’s just not viable,” he said. On the other hand, the current Linux Userful environment is affordable. “Not only does it fit within our budget; personally [I think] it’s more secure.” Apted would like to deploy more virtual desktops for the staff, but budgetary constraints have forced him to wait. 29 http://www.Govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - November 2008

Government Technology - November 2008 Contents Point of View On the Scene Big Picture Four Questions for … Forward Thinkers Taking Tech Home Virtual Frontier Hidden Costs Uncovered Seeing Red For the Record In the Loop Benign Dictatorship Home-Field Advantage A Better Way to Park New Tools for Fighting Crime How It Works Spectrum Products Two Cents signal:noise

Government Technology - November 2008

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