Faster Remote Access to Network Resources

Customer Solution Case Study

OECD Delivers Improved Remote Desktop Experience

Overview “We gain flexibility on many different levels through the Country or Region: France improvements to Remote Desktop Services in Windows Industry: Nonprofit organization Server 2012—from the different deployment scenarios to the Customer Profile Based in Paris, France, the Organisation ability to deliver a full-fidelity Windows experience on a for Economic Cooperation and variety of devices.” Development (OECD) is an international organization committed to promoting Marius Fodoreanu, Systems Architect, social and economic policies. It has Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development approximately 2,700 employees. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

Business Situation (OECD) wanted to improve the performance and simplify the In concert with the planned upgrade of management of its desktop computing environment. As its desktop operating system and to facilitate its bring-your-own device executives considered the advantages of upgrading the initiative, OECD wanted to deploy virtual organization’s desktop operating system to Windows 7, they saw desktop infrastructure. an opportunity to deploy virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to Solution deliver greater flexibility to application developers —without The organization participated in the Rapid Deployment Program for Windows compromising network security. As a participant in the Microsoft Server 2012 and focused early testing on Rapid Deployment Program for Windows Server 2012, OECD the enhanced Remote Desktop Services feature of the solution. evaluated the enhanced Remote Desktop Services feature. Through access to personal virtual desktops running the Benefits Increased operational agility Windows 7 operating system, OECD developers were able to Faster remote access to network remotely connect to network resources up to five times faster— resources Simplified IT management through while IT leaders benefitted from simplified management of VDI desktop standardization components through a centralized administrator console. Situation The Organisation for Economic IT leaders at OECD see the organization’s Cooperation and Development (OECD) adoption of VDI technology as a way to promotes policies that will improve the embrace the bring-your-own-device trend economic and social well-being of people and ultimately support the delivery of around the world. It seeks to achieve this business applications to consumer devices mission by providing research and thought —while maintaining high levels of data leadership to inform decision making at all security. As a first step, they sought to pilot levels of government. a larger-scale rollout of Windows 7 virtual machines to the organization’s application OECD has approximately 2,700 employees developers. “This group met a number of spread across numerous locations. To important criteria, which made them the promote greater productivity, executives perfect test group for evaluating the allow workers to use a variety of computing benefits of a VDI deployment,” says Marius devices—including their personal mobile Fodoreanu, Systems Architect at the devices—to connect to corporate resources Organisation for Economic Cooperation from practically anywhere. In fact, OECD is and Development. “First, they have moving forward with a companywide specialized requirements for performance bring-your-own-device initiative. In as they build, run, and test applications. addition to working with executives to Second, many of our developers work from create new security guidelines and policies, remote locations and need varying levels of IT leaders began evaluating the need to network bandwidth at different times upgrade the organization’s server during the day. And, given the large infrastructure to enable more secure, number of computers that our developers remote access from any device. use, we need to centrally manage access to these machines to ensure proper Over the past two decades, the compliance.” organization has increasingly standardized on Microsoft technologies. It has used the Executives were eager to evaluate and Windows XP operating system on its support a test deployment of virtual desktop and laptop PCs and relied on desktops. Specifically, they were looking for Windows Server 2008 R2 as its enterprise a server platform that would enable application platform. In conjunction with its flexible, controlled access to virtualized planned upgrade to the Windows 7 work environments from practically any operating system, the organization wanted location. to expand its use of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to support simplified IT Solution management, stronger security, and OECD decided to participate in the greater workforce flexibility. Windows 7 Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program for offers a number of features that facilitate Windows Server 2012, the latest version of the move to a VDI environment, including the server operating system. Windows faster start times and improved network Server 2012 introduces dozens of connectivity. enhancements to the previous version,

25 including improvements to the Remote With Windows Server 2012, organizations Desktop Services (RDS) feature. “We were can choose between two main deployment excited to test improved high-availability options: virtual desktops or session support for Remote Desktop Services in virtualization. Within the virtual desktop Windows Server 2012, in addition to the infrastructure scenario, they can opt to ability to centrally administer multiple RDS deploy personal or pooled collections of deployments,” says Fodoreanu. virtualized PCs. From the administrator The organization’s IT team worked with console, OECD deployed personal virtual Microsoft Services to create a proof-of- desktops running the Windows 7 operating concept demonstration of the Remote system to 60 of its developers. “Our Desktop Services server role in Windows developers need the ability to administer Server 2012. The team set up two server their own virtual machines, but as we look clusters on HP ProLiant BL460c blade server to expand our VDI rollout, we’ll plan to use hardware, both of which were running pooled virtual machines,” explains Hyper-V, the embedded virtualization Fodoreanu. technology in the solution. IT staff distributed the two-node cluster, with the Personalized User Settings Remote Desktop Services component In the coming months, OECD plans to installed, across two separate data center extend virtual desktops to a total of 100 locations. They configured the second, employees across a variety of devices, four-node cluster to manage the virtual including tablet PCs running the Windows 8 desktop machines. operating system. While deploying pooled collections of virtual machines, the IT team Straightforward Deployment will use the User Profile Disk feature in OECD took advantage of the ability to Windows Server 2012 to store personalized deploy and manage multiple instances of user settings and application cache data on the Remote Desktop Services feature a virtual hard disk that persists in a through the centralized interface in the centralized storage location. This means Server Manager role in Windows Server that any changes that employees make to 2012. This centralized interface replaces the their profile from their last session are use of multiple tools in the previous version immediately available the next time they of the software, such as Remote Desktop log on to any machine. Services Manager and RemoteApp Manager. “The ability to manage all aspects Remote Access of a VDI deployment from a single console The user group for the organization’s pilot made our tests run so much easier,” says deployment of Remote Desktop Services in Fodoreanu. “And we like the added Windows Server 2012 included developers flexibility of using Windows PowerShell to working in three different locations. From automate deployment and management these various geographies, developers tasks in the future.” compared the speed with which they could run applications and connect to other Pilot Deployment to OECD Developers network resources against the initial benchmark of two minutes and 30 seconds.

35 several distinct deployment options for its Although it was not the focus of its initial VDI environment, depending on the needs evaluation of the solution, OECD wanted to of each group of employees. “We gain test improvements to the Microsoft flexibility on many different levels through RemoteFX tools in Windows Server 2012. the improvements to Remote Desktop Introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 Services in Windows Server 2012—from the Service Pack 1, RemoteFX encompasses a different deployment scenarios to the set of technologies designed to preserve a ability to deliver a full-fidelity Windows high-fidelity end-user experience by experience on a variety of devices,” says accelerating graphics processing. In Fodoreanu. particular, the project team tested the ability to render a variety of rich media Faster Access to Network Services, formats, including high-definition video, Improved Application Performance over a wide area network connection. OECD realized performance gains in its VDI environment. Developers were able to establish a remote access connection to Benefits network resources in approximately 30 By adopting Windows Server 2012, OECD seconds. Also, the organization can now has already experienced a number of virtualize data-intensive workloads on benefits. For example, it can more easily Hyper-V servers, including high- deploy virtual desktop infrastructure and performance computing applications. centrally monitor this environment to ensure compliance with security Simplified IT Management management standards. And, through OECD benefits from the simplified support for a variety of deployment deployment and management of Remote options, OECD can roll out Windows 7 and Desktop Services components on multiple standardize its desktop environment— servers using wizard-based tools accessible while still providing a rich, personalized through a single administrator console. computing experience for workers with From a centralized interface, IT staff can specialized requirements. create virtual desktop or session collections, deploy and patch images, and Increased Operational Agility manage users. And they can use Windows OECD can now use enhanced desktop PowerShell to automate many of the tasks virtualization capabilities in Windows Server and workflows associated with managing a 2012 to deliver a rich computing VDI environment. “The ability to use the experience to employees working from Remote Desktop Services interface in practically any location. And OECD will Server Manager, together with Windows assess the possibility for employees to PowerShell, is a powerful combination,” access their applications and data from a says Fodoreanu. “It means our greater variety of devices—while ensuring administrators can deploy VDI components easy maintenance of personalized user quickly and reduce the day-to-day profiles to boost productivity. The complexity of managing our environment.” organization will also take advantage of

45 Windows Server 2012 Windows Server drives many of the world’s largest data centers, empowers small businesses around the world, and delivers value to organizations of all sizes in between. Building on this legacy, Windows Server 2012 redefines the category, delivering hundreds of new features and enhancements that span virtualization, networking, storage, user experience, cloud computing, automation, and more. Simply put, Windows Server 2012 helps you transform your IT operations to reduce costs and deliver a whole new level of business value.

For more information, visit: www.microsoft.com/en-us/server- cloud/windows-server/2012-default.aspx