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    Cloud Computing Via Virtualization

    SPECIAL REPORT: Virtual Desktop

    First Step To The Cloud 

    By Jeff Erlichman

    Virtualization within an agency or a networked data center is one of the first steps to Cloud Computing..

    It's early in the first quarter of the game. You have the ball on your own 15 yard line. The goal line is 85 yards away – a good distance to travel. But there is plenty of time.

    If you are a proponent of Cloud Computing, this is what you are thinking because the government's migration to Cloud Computing will be a journey of thousands and thousands of stops and starts. And we are just at the beginning and there is plenty of time.

    Like Cloud Computing, with the Virtual Desktop you get the ability to access your personal workspace securely from your desk, your home or remote office, at a hotel or on the beach. On the back end, back at the Data Center, you have the power to manage one "golden image" that, after giving the users the power of personalization, is the backbone of thousands of desktop user images.

    Like Cloud Computing, with the Virtual Desktop you get the ability to access your personal workspace securely from your desk, your home or remote office, at a hotel or on the beach. On the back end, back at the Data Center, you have the power to manage one "golden image" that, after giving the users the power of personalization, is the backbone of thousands of desktop user images.

    Like Cloud Computing, with the Virtual Desktop you get the ability to access your personal workspace securely from your desk, your home or remote office, at a hotel or on the beach. On the back end, back at the Data Center, you have the power to manage one "golden image" that, after giving the users the power of personalization, is the backbone of thousands of desktop user images.

    Virtually Green

    The move to Virtual Desktops is also being driven by government's green programs.

    From a green perspective, the basic components of a desktop/laptop TCO are the acquisition cost of fat client, desktop PC or laptop; the software suite, the ongoing maintenance of that device and then the end-of-life disposal. 

    This is generally a three-four year lifecycle with built in obsolescence so that in another three-four years you are going to buy more no matter what the technological advances there are in the Microsoft or Linux OS software or Application suites. The reality is in a Virtual Desktop, you may already have the power that you need and may not have to upgrade as often.

    Virtualization can extend the life of the machine because you only need a processor and memory to get to your virtual environment. You could argue that you don't need the latest, fastest processor or gigs of memory on device because that's what Vista required. With the server in data center doing the hard work, you may only need hardware that will run your browser and keep up with flow of information coming across the connection. 
    Private and Public Clouds
    "Look at it as one stepping stone to Cloud Computing," said Citrix's Tom Simmons. "Because now that workspace is portable and if things change I can move that work unit to wherever I have capacity and access."

    According to Simmons, virtualization within an agency or networked data center is one of the first steps to a "private cloud".

    "I'm separating the workload from the underlying OS and hardware. I'm making it portable and I can move it within my private infrastructure. I can move it if there is a power failure or disaster where my COOP plan provides moves to backups."

    Simmons said that now that the workload is portable it could be moved to a full blown private cloud (for now think of it as an upscale data center) that you could own or you could outsource the workload to SAIC, CSC, Lockheed, Sprint or Verizon to name a few (those who have private cloud capabilities).

    Or you could take that PC that currently houses your work and move it into public cloud like Amazon or Google. With these organizations taking care of security, you won't have to worry about keeping each and every PC protected and up to date. Ultimately the concept is a work environment you access from wherever you are.

    Dynamic and Accessible
    "All you want is to get to a browser where you can put in your credentials and have access to your virtual work environment wherever you are," said Citrix's Tom Simmons. "That's where we are going with Cloud Computing. From the user's perspective, I have a virtual workspace that sits out there I can access anywhere and I just need a browser connection."

    From an IT manager's perspective, now I can dynamically have the ability to put workloads out that I can grow or shrink dynamically with demand and I can put them wherever I need them. "It becomes a truly dynamic space where work can be done," said Simmons.

    With Cloud "the network is the computer" Simmons went on. "I'm going to cut my slice of that Cloud to do my work when I need it and when I'm not using it it's available for somebody else. I pay by the load or by the drink."

    "Eventually it will get to point where security standards around public clouds are solved and government will use public clouds like Amazon or Google. And by having my workload portable I can move it anywhere securely and audit how it is being used and who is using it."

    What's more, in the early days of virtualization, many IT managers complained it was the "Wild, Wild West out there" as virtual environments were provisioned without management knowledge.  Now management has the tools to control its thousands of personalized, customized permutations.

    "If I have 20,000 users I manage 20,000 images," explained Simmons. "I can build ‘golden images' based on primary user profiles of the applications they can access; I can dynamically assemble them at logon. The bottom line is it is more secure and efficient."

    And you have taken your first steps to the Cloud.