For profile management, RTO is goodness, but users need more

One of the things VMware View was often knocked for when it first came out was how it handled Windows profiles. Citrix acquired Sepago a few years ago and has been busy integrating it into Citrix Delivery Center to deal with profile management issues, whereas VMware has had to rely on standard Microsoft roaming profiles or some third party tool. With its acquisition of RTO's tools, VMware can now start to level the playing field.

There are several good write-ups already out on the VMware/RTO deal:

• Brian Madden's VMware Buys Every Part of RTO Software Except What They Owe Citrix
• Bernd Harzog's VMware Buys Key Assets of RTO Software, (which mentions Unidesk)

We generally agree with their viewpoints - VMware has picked up some solid technology and a great technology guy. Having Kevin Goodman working for them is a big bonus. If you don’t know Kevin then you should understand that he probably knows more about Windows profiles and the Windows logon process than anyone in Redmond. As most of us know, roaming profiles have been a thorn in administrators’ sides for more than a decade now. The biggest issue has been the negative impact on the speed of logon and logoff and the profile corruption that sometimes occurs due to the process (load and unload) not finishing properly. RTO certainly helps this situation when used with VDI or Terminal Services.

With all of that said, I still think we have a long way to go with VDI Personalization beyond profiles. Personalization of a desktop is often used synonymously with profile mobility. But these two items are not the same - they just overlap in some places. Don’t get me wrong - the mobility of the profile may be a component of a complete VDI solution. But real personalization goes deeper: user-installed applications (UIAs), add-ins on top of IT-delivered apps (like that WebEx or Citrix GoTo Meeting control you always say "yes" to), and changes to the file system that we don’t even think about are all needed to realize the “full control” and “rich user experience” promises of VDI for end users.

Of course, we also need to be able to achieve all these goals while still keeping the cost per desktop at a reasonable level. This means being able to keep VDI storage costs low and not having to cobble together multiple solutions to manage application delivery, operating system images, deep personalization, etc. After all, VDI is supposed to simplify management and administration of desktops! My earlier blog on the VDI Success Triangle talks about how hard it is to solve these storage, personalization, and management issues all at the same time.

Unidesk is in the unique position of being able to solve the personalization challenges that profile management tools like RTO, Sepago, and others can't solve. And we go beyond that by managing the entire virtual desktop lifecycle with a platform that complements the Citrix and VMware portfolios. For VMware, that used to be just vSphere, View and ThinApp. Now, we look forward to seeing the new VMware/RTO Virtual Profiles running on top of our Unidesk-composited and managed desktops.

-Ron Oglesby
Unidesk Chief Solution Architect