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Top five network challenges of VDI deployments

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IntroductionVirtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is broadly described as Client Virtualization; Client Virtualization encompasses several client-computing models: virtualization of the application, the session, or the entire desktop. For IT managers considering VDI or Client Virtualization in general, it is important to keep this in mind: the success—or failure—of deployments depends on choosing the right building blocks to meet the network challenges.

VDI is a technology that can address a myriad of issues related to end-user device management for IT departments. But with today’s global, mobile workforces and technology-enabled businesses, VDI improves security while retaining the familiar user desktops. It is especially attractive to the public sector, healthcare, and many commercial enterprises.

Of those who have deployed VDI, 99% said they have reaped benefits. Among them, 31% said that it helped them increase worker productivity, 28% said that it reduced capital and operational costs, and 21% said that it enabled them to meet security requirements for confidential data and industry regulation compliance.1

Client Virtualization: redefining the user experienceSince the dawn of the computer age, the architecture of the computer network has been in flux, as the endpoints evolved from simple terminals and mainframes, to powerful workstations, to Wi-Fi-enabled notebooks and remote desktops. But in the age of cloud, mobility and virtualization, the endpoints are being re-defined. Rather than physical devices or servers, Client Virtualization views the endpoints as the user and the application environment. With the help of the network, wherever the user goes, the environment follows.

Client Virtualization turns various connected device into a user workspace, offering a consistent computing experience regardless of form factor. Because the operating system, applications, and user-specific preferences are being delivered from a centralized data center, the solution offers additional benefits management, scalability and security.

With today’s server, storage and networking technologies, it’s easier than ever to create centralized pools of resources to be consumed anywhere. Government employees, healthcare professionals and sales executives, for example, can all use tablets to access graphic-rich applications and services that were once confined to high-powered workstations in locked-down computer rooms. It is easy to see why Gartner projected that by 2016, 30% of major corporations will have deployed VDI.2

However, the transition to a virtualized user environment can be a complex move unless the network requirements are understood and met. With the computing environment residing at a data center or cloud, the user is completely reliant on the network. Bandwidth, quality of service, and high availability of the network become crucial to business operations.

Five top challenges for scalable virtual desktop deploymentsVDI relies on a converged infrastructure of servers, storage and networking, but the most commonly overlooked aspects are in networking. IT professionals can avoid the pitfalls of small or large scale VDI deployments by considering five challenges: network load increases, user experience and accessibility, security, operation and management, and platform openness.

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1 Enterprise Strategy Group, Research Report: Desktop Virtualization Market Evolution, February 2013, pg. 20.

2 Gartner, Inc., Forecast: Hosted Virtual Desktops, Worldwide, 2012-2016, 2012 Update, June 2012, pg. 3.

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For all the benefits it brings, VDI increases traffic in the campus network, on the wide area networks (WAN) and inside the data center. In a typical legacy network, the increased network loads associated with VDI can drastically slow down the user interaction. Among early adopters of the technology, 22% of IT professionals list increased network bandwidth requirements as their top concern in virtual desktop deployments.3 On the other hand, a network designed with VDI in mind can actually make it easier to solve performance and scalability issues while offering improved availability and application stability. Among organizations that have deployed VDI solutions, 31% report a significant simplification of application deployments and upgrades, while 26% reported a significant increase in systems availability and business continuity.4

Today’s users have very high expectations for usability and availability. With a legacy network, network congestion and outage make the desktop environment appear slow and inaccessible to the users. For example, legacy network protocols take minutes to recover from a simple cable break. With the right modern architecture, the network can heal around a failure point in less than a microsecond, unnoticed by human users.5 When the number of VDI users and sites grow, a modern network can also scale up or scale out without the need to totally re-architect and redesign the network topology.

Security needs for traditional PC desktops have always been compromised by malware and local data storage concerns. With VDI, compute and storage resources are centralized and secured inside the data centers, and the focus of security is shifted to the end-user devices. With legacy networks, IT managers are often forced to choose between banning BYODs (bring your own devices) and risking security breach. Modern network architecture comes with comprehensive capabilities to manage BYOD devices, users and security policies.

While VDI greatly simplifies IT operations for software and applications maintenance, network management complexity increases since much more is happening across the network. Selecting the right network architecture can also greatly simplify network management. By virtualizing physical devices, modern data center fabric reduces the number of devices to manage. With the right management tools, centralizing the delivery of virtual desktops can help IT departments reclaim productivity by simplifying monitoring and troubleshooting across data centers and campuses while significantly reducing IT operational expenses associated with supporting end users and endpoint devices.6

Building the network on industry-standard, open platforms allows for the management and monitoring of heterogeneous infrastructure elements while delivering the flexibility to run best-of-breed third-party software. By steering clear of proprietary technologies, organizations can deploy VDI solutions without the fear of creating new technology silos.

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3 Enterprise Strategy Group, Desktop Virtualization Market Evolution, pg. 22.

4 Ibid.5 Network Test, David Newman, convergence time

on the IRF is more than 4900x faster compared to VRRP.

6 Enterprise Strategy Group, Desktop Virtualization Market Evolution, pg. 20: 35% of respondents claimed reduced IT operational expenses as a major benefit of Client Virtualization deployments.

VDI Challenges Legacy Architecture Pitfalls HP VDI Solution Benefits

Increased Network Load Can drastically affect VDI performance and user experience • Centralizes OS, applications, user preferences • Boosts application performance

User Experience and Accessibility Increased outages, adversely affecting user productivity • Increases availability, decreases latency• Scales flexibly for bandwidth and port growth• Reduces recovery times

Security Introduces security risks for mobile device authentication • Simplifies security of user-server connections• Isolates data storage in data center• Authenticates user instead of device

Operations and Management Increases complexity, requires additional IT staff, and prolongs time to deployment

• Simplifies maintenance and management• Increases application agility• Increases operational efficiency

Platform Choice Risks vendor lock-in, becoming reliant on proprietary technologies

• Standards-based open platforms• Encourages use of best-of-breed solutions• Ensures solution longevity

Table 1. Five top challenges for VDI network

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The HP FlexNetwork solution HP FlexNetwork is the modern network architecture that meets all the challenges. The HP FlexNetwork framework consists of FlexFabric, FlexCampus, FlexBranch, and FlexManagement. It covers every aspect of VDI networks from the data center to the campus to the branch office. Complete with a single management platform, HP FlexNetwork allows IT leaders to take full advantage of what VDI technology promises.

VDI significantly increases traffic on LAN and WAN links especially when end users are running video, HD graphics or multiple monitors. The HP FlexNetwork solution supports the increased network load of Client Virtualization deployments by using flat, scalable data center fabric and WAN optimization. HP FlexFabric for the data center and FlexCampus for campus networks are designed to scale out with no network topology changes, easily absorbing bandwidth increases.

To ensure a reliable user experience, the network must be highly dependable and highly available, even during planned maintenance or unplanned failures. The components in the HP FlexNetwork are fully redundant, with no single point of failure. With the help of technology such as Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF), HP FlexNetwork failure recovery is virtually hitless.

HP FlexFabric and FlexManagement allow IT to consolidate security management solutions and policies for both virtual and physical networks in the data center. With FlexCampus, FlexBranch and FlexManagement, IT can deliver secure applications to users with identity-based authentication, offering protection for both wired and wireless end users.

To help IT simplify administration and speed delivery of new services, HP’s FlexManagement platform, widely known as Intelligent Management Center (IMC), is a single-pane-of-glass solution for management and orchestration. It manages and monitors networks, whether wired or wireless, virtual or physical. It orchestrates virtual application networks for VDI workloads.

While some vendors lock organizations into costly and complex proprietary networks, HP delivers open solutions with modular designs: the HP FlexNetwork architecture is no exception. IT managers can expand their networking environment as needed and foster innovation. It’s an approach that frees IT teams to deploy best-of-breed third party technology. VMware View, Riverbed Virtual Steelhead, and HP Velocity are examples of 3rd party (and HP) technologies that are integrated as part of the HP FlexNetwork platforms to optimize VDI performance.

Figure 1. HP FlexNetwork meets VDI challenges

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HP FlexNetwork addresses all five challenges head-on by being open, scalable, secure, agile, and consistent. By choosing the HP FlexNetwork architecture, the IT managers can expect virtualized desktop environments to scale smoothly, stay simple to manage, and remain nimble to use as the number of users grows.

HP Converged Infrastructure HP Client Virtualization is an end-to-end solution built on top of the HP Converged Infrastructure, of which With HP FlexNetwork architecture is a cornerstone. The HP Converged Infrastructure delivers an architectural blueprint that integrates servers, storage, networking, management, security, and facilities such as space, power and cooling. The HP Converged Infrastructure removes technology silos and freeing up resources to focus more on innovation.

HP Client Virtualization solution also includes products from the rest of HP family; for instance, HP Thin Clients are ideal dedicated devices to run VDI clients, and HP Velocity is a software product that addresses packet loss or latency issues often seen in wireless deployments. Together with the rest of the solution, these components enable instant access to applications and services and offer a high-quality user experience.

Future-proofed networking to meet tomorrow’s needs HP is addressing the future challenges by pioneering in areas such as software-defined networking (SDN), and HP Networking has 40 devices that are OpenFlow-enabled, representing 20M+ ports in the market today.7

Built on industry-leading technologies and platforms, the FlexNetwork networking solutions enable organizations to meet desktop virtualization challenges of today and tomorrow. HP switches, security, and management are all designed to prepare IT teams for innovative new technologies and protocols. For example, they support Fibre Channel over Ethernet, cloud orchestration, and 10-, 40-, and 100-Gigabit Ethernet. Server virtualization, I/O virtualization, and desktop virtualization present opportunities for organizations to experience new levels of agility and efficiency. With the HP portfolio, IT managers can take advantage of these improvements without resorting to forklift upgrades.

HP Networking solutions are designed to scale easily so IT departments can consolidate network, server, and storage architectures. HP network switches can automatically be recognized, configured, deployed, and added to a virtual resource pool by using centralized management tools with single-pane-of-glass infrastructure visibility. The consolidation and end-to-end management automation eliminates IT sprawl and simplifies the infrastructure so IT can focus on enhancing user experience and business agility.

Next StepsThe following resources can help IT leaders prepare for the virtual desktop revolution.

• HP FlexNetwork Architecture: hp.com/networking/FlexNetwork

• HP Converged Infrastructure solution: hp.com/go/ci

• HP Client Virtualization solution: hp.com/go/cv

For assistance in developing your Client Virtualization strategy and plan, HP Technical Services offers an “HP Transformation Experience Workshop for Mobility” — a one-day workshop that sets forth a strategic roadmap for the connected enterprise. Visit hp.com/services/mobility for further details.

7 HP internal research.

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© Copyright 2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

4AA4-8203ENW, August 2013