HP Discover and Client Virtualization and Win 7 Migration

There was some useful theory off the start but once the demo failed and we started to shift into a presentation focussed on AppSense's product, my attention went into a deficit.

Presentation by AppSense, an HP partner.
Key problem noted as the drive to support multiple mobile platforms, this is enabled by virtualizing the desktop. IT client side support is 80% of the $1,298 per annum cost per user. We are experiencing an explosion of unique user devices, per Gartner report. The focus was shifted to end user management in storage, desk side support, and security being the most volatile cost aspect in managing end user computing. The theory proposed is to manage the user, not the devices.

Persistent desktop is the current trend in implementation. Decoupling the user from the apps, OS, and device is the methodology proposed to achieve performance and service delivery improvements.

Define and manage the "digital DNA" of the users environment. Personalization, policy management, user rights, user data, and user installed applications. These are the five key criteria AppSense feels need to be in place to achieve virtual desktop implementation.

AppSense states that virtualizing your users is not migration, but a one time change to reduce the scope of migrations in the future. Challenges with the demo planned caused a lengthy delay, but we now resume the speaking without a demo.

Core point is to tune what the users are doing with their digital DNA before migrating.

Speaker then proposed that when you try to do everything in policy management with GPOs and login scripts, you have to account for all possible scenarios. Example is automatic remapping of printers based on location specific data. The theory is just in time to match match use case requirements instead of just in case at each login. You can also control where and when certain applications are used and when they are not.

Policies can be created such as "when a user launches app a, map drive d to their account. When they quit the app, log them out." The migration benefits are based around fewer images, less storage, and better management and administration. The speaker takes us into the application itself.

I suspect we are now getting into the cusp of a software sales pitch. Several people are starting to walk out and I'm torn between being polite to the speaker and sitting through the rest of a session I'm no longer interested in because it's not moving where I had expected it to, and my desire to go home after a long week in Las Vegas.





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Location:Las Vegas, NV