120 likes | 230 Vues
Neal Puff, Chief Information Officer of Yuma County, AZ, shares insights on the county's journey towards adopting virtualization technologies. Located in extreme Southwest Arizona, Yuma County, with a population of around 200,000, has ranked among the top ten U.S. counties for digital government. This presentation covers various types of virtualization, the benefits such as improved security and reduced costs, and the challenges faced. Neal's experience spans over 20 years in IT, emphasizing the importance of user perception and network reliability.
E N D
The Road to a Virtualized Desktop Neal Puff Chief Information Officer Yuma County, AZ http://www.co.yuma.az.us
Yuma County, AZ • Located in extreme South West Arizona • Temperatures can reach over 120º F • Ranked a US top ten county for digital government for 2006 & 2007 (maybe 2008) • Population approximately 200,000 (approximately 300,000 in winter) • Main industries: Agriculture, military, manufacturing, retirement
My Background • 20+ years in private industry IT – Including disk drive manufacturing, consumer electronics and Arthur Andersen Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) • 3 years in county government as CIO • Operations and network design • CISSP, PMP, etc. (yada, yada, yada) • Lots of stories
Types of Virtualization • Server Virtualization • Desktop Virtualization • Local • Vmware, XEN, etc. • Remote • Server Based Computing (Citrix) • VDI (Vmware) • Blade PCs (sort of) • We will be concentrating on… • Remote Desktop Virtualization
Why Do It? • Extend Client Hardware Life • Improve Security • Decrease Time to Deploy Clients • Improve Remote Access • Improve Business Continuity Capability • Improve E-discovery Capabilities • It's “Green” • Save $$$
Why Not Do It? • Requires Constant Network Connectivity • Increased storage requirements (VDI) • User perception • Generally bad with multimedia • New skills required for PC technicians • “We’re just going back to mainframes.”
Recent Developments From VDI Supplier(s) • Off-line VDI Eliminates need for constant connectivity • Scalable Virtual Image technology reduces storage requirements by up to 90%
Considerations • User Perception • Disk De-duplication – Possibly addressed by Scalable Virtual Image technology • Cost (VDI versus Terminal Server) • Network Performance / Reliability • Off-line VDI changes everything
Yuma County’s Current State • Using VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.0 for server virtualization – Blade Servers with all virtual images stored on the SAN • VDI pilot program in place • Terminal server in production for a single application
How Did We Get Here? • Terminal Server – Result of a delivery problem with specialized case management software • VDI – Natural outgrowth of successful server virtualization and Linux desktops
What Now? (Current Plans) • Pursue three levels of desktop virtualization 1. No virtualization (CAD and similar) 2. VDI for power virtual desktops 3. Terminal Server or Citrix for base level virtual desktops • Build user acceptance • Evaluate thin clients
Questions? Neal Puff Chief Information Officer Yuma County, AZ neal.puff@co.yuma.az.us