The View From NCS Technologies

Shift to VDI Can Be Easy, Turnkey & Rapid

Posted by John Callahan on Jun 25, 2015 4:06:00 PM

In our ongoing discussions with customers, both individually and at trade shows, we find that IT administrators consider a transition to VDI for many reasons, including improving the reliability and scalability of their investments in storage and compute resources in the data center, better network performance, reduced complexity and administrative costs and improved security at the end points (desktop and mobile). VDI-image

But it's fair to say that many IT managers are often concerned about over-all effort required to transition and the potential TCO realized once the implementation is complete.

That's why leading end-to-end VDI vendors like NCS Technologies are making significant investments in research and development, engineering and training to assure IT managers that an implementation will be both easy and beneficial.

Key Attributes of a Top Level VDI Vendor

When considering potential VDI vendors, focus on key attributes they should possess to ensure a successful implementation.

These attributes include having available trained and certified professionals in the software virtualization platform (VMware), deep experience and understanding of the hardware elements, a proven record of integrating hardware and software and a track record for innovation and customer service.

Your vendor should be able to offer, if desired, a turnkey installation. All key elements of the VDI installation should be available from your vendor, including these elements: (storage, compute & network), software and services and endpoints. The solution offered must be scalable, flexible and ultimately cost effective.

In summary, the preferred vendor should take the guesswork and stress out of your VDI deployment.

Hardware & Software Building Blocks

IT managers may opt for the hyper-converged or modular VDI path. If opting for hyper-converged hardware in the data center, vendors like NCS will offer an appliance platform with high performance storage,networking and graphics virtualization. For instance, NCS offers the NexServ XRG Series in both a 1U rackmount and 2U rackmount server configurations for "best in class" performance. If a customer chooses to go modular, compute and storage resources will reside in different appliances.

Your preferred vendor should partner with industry leading software providers. For instance, NCS relies on VMware, Microsoft and Maxta.

Don't Forget Services

NCS provides highly trained professionals certified to deploy, maintain and support all the software platforms necessary to manage the VDI deployment. We work closely with hardware engineers who specialize in configuring and supporting the server platforms that are the backbone of each VDI deployment. Services include requirement analysis, design consultation, solution implementation, installation and technical support.

Zero Client Endpoints

Finally, make sure your VDI vendor can deliver the latest innovation in endpoint technologies. End users need to access data from a variety of devices and locations. Super secure zero clients enable the "anyone, anywhere" scenario because there is no persistent user data on the device.  Anyone can grab any zero client and log in to their virtual environment from any location. Zero clients offer a consistent user experience no matter which device they use. NCS offers the industry's most innovative and secure zero client portfolio, including desktops and the revolutionary Cirrus LT mobile zero client laptop.

So as you can see, there is a lot to consider when you are ready to implement an end-to-end VDI solution. Picking the right vendor partner is perhaps the most important element in your decision to move forward. A decision to partner with NCS will ensure your IT success!

 

To learn more about end-to-end VDI solutions, please download this Brochure!

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Topics: VDI, PCoIP