The VDI Delusion

v The VDI Delusion Why desktop virtualization failed to live up to the hype, and what the future enterprise desktop will really look like. Brian Madden with Gabe Knuth & Jack Madden This book has been provided compliments of The VDI Delusion Why desktop virtualization failed to live up to the hype, and what the future enterprise desktop will really look like. Copyright © 2012 Brian Madden, Gabe Knuth, & Jack Madden Published by Burning Troll Productions, LLC San Francisco, California www.brianmadden.com/books Written by Brian Madden Gabe Knuth Jack Madden Illustrations & Cover Design Rick Barnes Copy Editor Monica Sambataro All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmit- ted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review. ISBN 978-0-9852174-0-2 (hard cover) 978-0-9852174-1-9 (eBook) Set in Chaparral Light Second Printing, November 2012 Printed in the United States of America Contents Foreword by Kevin Goodman vi Introduction by Rick German viii 1. Why are we here? 11 2. The Promise of VDI 27 3. The Reality of VDI 39 4. Why Do VDI Projects Fail? 81 5. Desktop Virtualization Is More Than VDI 105 6. What Are You Trying to Solve? 123 7. Understanding Windows 135 8. What Is a Desktop? 145 9. How Do We Make Windows Do This? 155 10. Moving Beyond Windows Applications 175 11. Putting It All Together 195 12. The Future of the Desktop 225 13. The Unified Cloud (from Stoneware) 237 IV • THE VDI DELUSION From the Authors From Brian Madden: I’ve spent the past sixteen years preparing to write this book—fourteen working alongside Gabe, and eight with Jack. Thanks to them—and everyone—who’ve put up with me that whole time and have now given me the opportunity to put all my soapbox issues into one single book. Also, thanks to TechTarget for not making me live in Boston and for not firing me because I brought my own laptop and use Dropbox. And of course, thanks to Gabe and Jack for agreeing to write this book with me. This was truly a collaboration. Those two kept me on track, wrote a bunch of stuff that I couldn’t, and helped to shape and structure 60,000 random words into a pretty good story. O-H! From Gabe Knuth: I-O! I spent many years as a consultant, first in Cleveland, where I grew up, and later in Omaha, where I live now. In 2007, I ditched the 9 to 5 to become a professional blogger, which wasn’t really a type of job at the time. I wasn’t much of a writer in school, so if you see any of my old teachers, show them this book and tell them you don’t have to be a good writer as long as you have a good copy editor. My thanks to Brian for including me in this book and everything else he’s done for me in the past fifteen years; to my wife Kaylene, son Carson, and daughter Elizabeth, all of whom I am so fortunate to be around all day, every day. And thanks to Energizer for making the AAA batteries that power my noise- canceling headphones that I use to escape the constant sound coming from wherever the kids happen to be playing. THE VDI DELUSION • V From Jack Madden: I’m the guy who writes most of the stuff at ConsumerizeIT. com. I’ve been doing all sorts of things with Brian and Gabe for eight years now, and working with them is awesome. Thanks, guys! I also especially want to thank the BriForum gang—I can’t emphasize enough how much of an inspiration all of you have been to me. Finally, thank you to Kevin Goodman for his help with this book. VI • THE VDI DELUSION Foreword I first met Brian Madden in 2002 at the Citrix iForum conference in Orlando. Brian was working for HP, and he asked me what I thought of his idea to leave HP to start his own company writing for BrianMadden.com full time. At the time, I was the founder and VP of development for KevSoft Corporation as well as the author of two Windows programming books, a dozen or so articles for various programming journals, and a couple of patents. I looked at this kid (Brian was in his early twenties, but looked sixteen) and could tell that he had already made up his mind and was just looking to me for confirma- tion. “I think it’s a great idea,” I said with all the conviction I could muster. As it turned out, I was right. BrianMadden.com became the definitive location for peer support, news, and information on all things Citrix and Terminal Server, and every book Brian wrote became a best seller in its category. In his usual “in-your-face” style, Brian’s blog posts told users exactly what he thought about a particular product or company. Of course not all the reviews were flattering, and this would often lead to consternation among vendors. I remember when one vendor in particular cornered me at Citrix iForum Edinburgh with a conversation that went something like this: Vendor: I heard Brian is actually on the Citrix payroll. Me: Do you even read his blog? No way. Vendor: I heard he’s never even installed Citrix. Me: Seriously. Have you ever met him? If so, it would be clear that he knows his stuff. Vendor: He has blue hair. THE VDI DELUSION • VII Me: Okay now I know you don’t know Brian! (Mainly because blue was his hair color last year. Now it’s bright red.) In 2005, KevSoft changed its name to RTO Software and for some reason promoted me to CEO. This change led to a big regret I have had in my professional career: Since I was busy transitioning roles, I did not submit a session for Brian’s first BriForum conference in Washington, D.C that April. Brian conceived BriForum as a vendor-neutral conference to counterbalance iForum. Brian gath- ered top industry experts such as Dr. Bernhard (Benny) Tritsch, Ron Oglesby, Tim Mangan, Jeroen van de Kamp, and others to present on a variety of topics, with Brian being the keynote and one of the main speakers. The event was a hit, and last year Brian and his team celebrated their tenth BriForum. As gratitude for the speakers who presented at all ten BriForums, Brian created bobblehead dolls of Benny, Ron, Tim and Jeroen! So while I’ve presented every BriForum since, missing that first BriForum meant that I missed my chance at immortality as a bobblehead. Aaargh! When Brian started BrianMadden.com and BriForum, the industry was primarily focused on Citrix server-based computing technologies. Although a few vendors had products that allowed users to remotely access regular desktops as early as 2000, Jerry Chen of VMware is generally credited with coining the term “VDI” which led to the redefinition of an entire industry. In 2010, VMware acquired my company (RTO Software) to strengthen their foray into the VDI market, and I suddenly found myself in the center of the action as a part of the product man- agement team for VMware’s VDI product, View. Never being a big fan of VDI, I caused quite a stir in my first off-site strategy meet- ing when I suggested that VDI in general and View in particular were best suited for niche use cases. I wonder how many of my col- leagues shared my opinion: At last count, all but one of the original RTO employees VMware had acquired had either left VMware or had been transferred off of the VDI product line. I’m sure each in- dividual had his or her own reasons for moving on, but by the time I left VMware in February 2012, every position between me and the CEO, Paul Maritz, had changed over twice. And Jerry Chen, VIII • THE VDI DELUSION the original force behind VDI? He had transferred away from the VDI team before I even got there. In a conversation I had with Brian just prior to my leaving VMware, I lamented that I was tired of pushing the premise of VDI when in fact it was no better feature-wise, in my opinion, than a ten-year-old desktop PC. That’s when Brian shared that he, Gabe, and Jack were writing a comprehensive and critical analysis book about the VDI delusion that is taking place. In a very clear and often humorous way, they have laid out in this book why they be- lieve that the promise of VDI is much more alluring than the reality of what can be delivered today. This book also lays out a grand vision for the future of desktop computing, and I hope you read it prior to formulating any strategy for delivering applications and data to your users. —Kevin Goodman THE VDI DELUSION • IX Introduction: The Demise of the Desktop, the Rise of the Workspace Note from Brian Madden: This book is being brought to you for free thanks to Stoneware. They did not write the book, rather, they bought enough copies so that you could have it without paying for it. Thanks to them for that! By Rick German, CEO of Stoneware If you’ve picked up this book, you’re probably looking for some key insights into why VDI has failed to deliver what it prom- ised.

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