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rarely object to funding the necessary technology to meet compliance demands. (For more detailed information on compliance, see Chapter 10, which is devoted to this topic.)
Moving the Desktop into the Data Center
You can’t do much to improve management of mobile devices (after you’ve integrated solid management processes, that is), but the same isn’t true of managing desktop PCs. Most desktop expense lies in support: managing the PC population (software upgrades and the like) and fixing things when they go wrong.
In a typical enterprise situation, the annual support cost per PC is anywhere between three and five times the cost of the PC. Because PCs are outdated about every four years, the actual cost of ownership can be anywhere from 9 to 20 times the cost of the PC itself.
Although securing a good purchase price for PCs is important, keeping ownership costs under control is far more important. Keep costs low through effective automated desktop management processes. Bring the costs down even further by moving the desktop into the data center, so to speak.
Moving the desktop into the data center covers every possible means of replacing physical PCs with graphics terminals (also known as thin clients; see the nearby sidebar “Thin is in”). You can make these replacements in four ways, each of which is described in the following sections:
Session-based computing
Operating-system streaming
True client virtualization
PC blade
Thin is in
Thin client is another name for a graphics |
mice — aren’t PCs in the sense that they don’t |
terminal. The name comes from the fact that |
have disks or DVD drives. These devices also |
such devices — although they’re computers |
run an operating system, but the OS is used |
with CPUs, memory resources, keyboards, and |
purely to emulate the user interface of a PC. |
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164 Part IV: Nitty-Gritty Service Management
You could loosely describe every one of these techniques as being client virtualization, because in each technique, the PC is controlled from the data center (not from the desktop). In practice, however, only one of these techniques is based on true virtualization, which is the use of software to emulate a computing environment within another computer. Client virtualization involves emulating a whole PC in software on a data center server and displaying the user interface on a graphics terminal. Computers have become powerful enough to do this, and users are unlikely to be unable to detect the difference between client virtualization and a desktop PC.
All these arrangements simplify PC management considerably by making the following tasks easier:
Enabling immediate setup of a new virtual PC if an actual PC fails
Applying new patches
Backing up data
Dealing with viruses
It’s a little early to put a figure on the benefits of moving the desktop into the data center, but anecdotal information suggests that this practice commonly reduces a PC’s annual total cost of ownership by approximately 40 percent to 50 percent.
Session-based computing
In session-based computing, the user is really running a session on a server. The server is running a single instance of the Windows operating system with multiple sessions. Only the screen image is actually transmitted to the user, who may have a thin client or possibly an old PC. Products that provide this capability include Citrix MetaFrame and Microsoft Terminal Services.
Operating-system streaming
In this approach, the Windows OS software is passed to the client device — but only as much of the software that’s needed at any point in time. Technically, this process is called streaming. Thus, the Windows OS and its applications are split between the client and the server. You can implement this approach by using PCs on the desktop (diskless PCs and laptops are options) or by using thin clients. Both Citrix and Hewlett-Packard provide this capability.
Chapter 13: Desktop and Device Management 165
Real versus virtual desktops
It’s easy to speak of PCs as though they’re all the same, but they’re not. In most organizations the 80–20 rule holds: At least 80 percent of PC users can get by with the current standard model, and the rest have specialized needs, such as dual screens or highly configured devices.
This approximate 80–20 split affects any initiative aimed at virtualizing the desktop, because you probably can’t virtualize all PCs. Therefore, you end up with two client management
processes: one for virtualized desktops and one for real desktops.
The truth is that some PC users (so-called power users) really do need a whole PC, even if that PC runs only one application (such as Adobe Photoshop) that requires as much processing power as you can provide. Such applications run unacceptably slowly in virtualized environments. Typically, IT developers also need high-end PCs to run their development environments.
True client virtualization
In true client virtualization, virtual PCs (complete emulations of a PC) are created on the server. The user has what appears on the server to be a complete PC, but in reality, the PC is virtual. Use the desktop with either a laptop or a thin client. VMware and Citrix both provide software that delivers this capability.
From a service management perspective, you should understand that desktop virtualization doesn’t remove the need for management at the desktop. You still need to manage laptops and PCs that can’t be virtualized, and that task may still place a heavy demand on support.
The PC blade
A server blade is a server computer contained entirely on a single computer board that can be slotted into a blade cabinet — a purpose-built computer cabinet with a built-in power supply.
In this arrangement, a whole PC is sitting on a server blade in the data center, which isn’t shared in any way. Normally, the desktop is a thin client (refer to the sidebar “Thin is in,” earlier in this chapter).
166 Part IV: Nitty-Gritty Service Management
Meeting Service Expectations
in Client Environments
Specific service levels are undoubtedly an investment choice. The relationship between extra investment and improved service levels is complex. It’s far less expensive to raise desktop PC availability levels from 97 percent to 98 percent, for example, than to raise them from 98 to 99 percent. Sometimes, technology can make a difference for very little cost. A diskless PC, for example, provides far greater availability than one with a disk and may be suitable for some users. Such inexpensive service improvement possibilities are rare, however. Disks are mechanical devices that wear out and, hence, have a relatively high failure rate. You can reduce that failure rate by consolidating storage into arrays of disks that are designed so that the failure of any disk causes no problems.
You can’t address end-to-end service-level issues in a simple manner; they’re caused by factors such as technology incompatibilities, software patches, and user error. With the right attention to the client, however, you can improve the service level of the client device. To increase service levels across the board, you need to address each issue and problem area individually, and then monitor your success levels.
Desktops in the cloud
A desktop in the cloud has nothing to do with |
The business advantages are the same as in |
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your local meteorologist. In effect, it refers to |
other forms of PC virtualization, reducing desk- |
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the approach in which you don’t move the PCs |
top ownership costs and support efforts in a |
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into your data center; instead, you move them |
big way. This approach also has some other |
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into the cloud. The process works this way: |
advantages: |
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1. You virtualize your desktops wherever they |
The up-front investment is very low and |
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are, replacing them with thin clients. |
transforms most client computing costs |
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2. The virtual PCs live in the cloud, which |
from fixed to variable (from capital to oper- |
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ating expense). |
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means that they live at one or more data |
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centers run by service providers that house |
It’s quick to deploy and easy to scale |
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and support server hardware containing |
incrementally. |
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the virtual PCs. |
It’s particularly attractive to companies that |
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All your software (administration/configuration |
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are running out of data center space. |
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and ownership) remains in your data center |
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under your control, whether it’s desktop or client/ |
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server applications. You deploy it into the cloud. |
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Chapter 13: Desktop and Device Management 167
User demand for improved service levels naturally increases over time because the amount of client-based (or usercentric) activity increases. Currently, voice over IP (VoIP) is fast becoming a desktop requirement, and video transmission may follow in its wake.
Following are two obvious key performance indicators for desktop management:
Annual support costs per device: This metric is preferable to the total cost of ownership, which includes variable uncontrollable costs such as software licenses and device purchases.
Availability: This metric, which measures uptime, gets close to 100 percent with virtualized desktops.
168 Part IV: Nitty-Gritty Service Management
Chapter 14
Data Management in a Service
Management World
In This Chapter
Understanding the key elements of data management
Knowing the various types of data
Providing access to data
Making data secure
Preparing a disaster-recovery plan
Perhaps your company delivers an online service to small businesses. It helps businesses track and manage their consultant workload, manag-
ing contracts, project proposals, project management, expense reporting, and so on. This information comes from multiple customers in multiple locations. Your servers store all the data. You also provide your clients industry information that you pull from multiple sources and tailor to your clients. Service-level agreements (SLAs) make sure that your customers can access this service 24/7 and that if the system does goes down, you’ll restore service in a certain amount of time.
One day, a customer reports that she can’t access her account. Then more customers call your service desk with the same complaint. You realize that all the servers have shut down because of a flood. You can’t restore the service and recover the data because you didn’t back up the servers in the past month and didn’t have a secondary storage facility. Heads roll. Lawsuits are filed. Your company goes out of business.
This extreme example shows the importance of data management in meeting customer expectations.