Today, many of you are taking the plunge and getting VDI projects off the ground.  In fact, in 2010 we’ve seen a record number of VDI proof-of-concepts (POCs) started by clients. And, so far, most have had great success deploying VDI in LAN environments.

But what about deploying VDI to remote offices over a WAN?  If you’re considering VDI over a WAN for your enterprise, and based on all the potential benefits (cost, operational, security, etc.) you should, I recommend you first do some homework by answering the following questions:

1.     Does our LAN network protocol support WAN VDI deployment? 

2.     Will we be deploying thin-client terminals as the end-user devices on our WAN? 

3.     Will the network protocol I use handle the network latency of the WAN network link?

4.     How will the quality of my end-user experience change from LAN to WAN?

5.     Does our network protocol support multimedia across the WAN?

6.     Does my WAN have adequate bandwidth to support VDI at my remote offices?

Obviously, you want to pick to a VDI environment (VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, Sun/Oracle and etc.) that will support both a LAN and WAN deployment with little if any architecture redesign.  Based on my personal testing, the following protocols work well in both LANs and WANs:

There is not any network standard available today for deploying VDI over WAN, so the protocols mentioned above can only be used with the software and hardware supported by their respective vendors.  Each has its pros and cons for deploying in a WAN environment.  ALP, HDX and PC-over-IP have built-in WAN optimization capabilities.  ALP can be further optimized for WAN deployment – we’ve had excellent success using the Silver Peak WAN acceleration appliance for this purpose. Silver Peak uses de-duplication and compression to reduce bandwidth utilization by 20% to 30%.

The process of assembling a VDI environment to support your LAN and WAN users can be daunting.  My approach often begins with a proof-of-concept (POC) “bake off” between the VDI vendors that best fit my requirements.  You’ll want to establish requirements early in the process, before the POC is even started. Likewise, you’ll need evaluation criteria addressing end-user business issues, as well as technical requirements. Once you’re satisfied with the outcome of the POC, you can pilot the chosen solution and see if it can really live up to your expectations in a WAN scenario. 

At Systems Alliance, we use a four-step process for deploying VDI technology:

1.     Build the business case

2.     Design / architect the solution

3.     Deploy the POC/Pilot

4.     Production roll out

As a part of our process, we’ll hold a workshop to get details about a client’s environment, goals, high-level requirements, success criteria and risks. We sometimes conduct pre-POC assessments to better understand the environment and user patterns – Liquidware Labs Stratusphere is extremely useful for this purpose.  Taking these steps helps ensure the success of the POC /Pilot and accelerates the rollout of the production environment.

So the answer to the question, Is VDI Ready For WAN Use? is a definite, YES!

If you’re thinking VDI might be right for your remote offices, I encourage you to request a VDI assessment from Systems Alliance now.