Posted by Nicole Reineke on Thu, Jul 22, 2010 @ 09:40 PM
As of July 1, 2010, Microsoft has eliminated the VECD license, eliminated the need to purchase an additional license for Windows clients with Software Assurance (SA), and introduced Virtual Desktop Access (VDA) licensing.
Who does this effect?
Anyone accessing server-hosted virtual desktops with a Windows OS. Generally, you do not license the copies of the Windows OS that live on the server, you license the end points/access points that access these copies. The access point subscription licenses can be boiled down to this:
- VDA is a subscription license that is for access points that do not have a qualifying copy, or any copy, of Windows. (Aka, a thin terminal.)
- SA is also a subscription license that enables access to hosted desktops, but it includes a license for the Windows OS for the end point. (For example, you use a Win7 laptop to access the virtual machine.)
How is this different than VECD?
If you are a Windows client Software Assurance (SA) customer, you no longer need to buy VECD to access your virtual desktops, it is now included. (This saves $23 a year.)
If you want to use a device without SA to access a virtual desktop, you need to purchase VDA - a $100 annual subscription. This is quite similar to VECD, but it is $10 a year less, and they have lifted some of the restrictions on access. You can now access desktops from devices both inside and outside the firewall.
So how does this map to the use cases? Lets try it out:
Use Case 1: Enterprise buys a new PC or laptop that comes with an OEM copy of Windows.
VDI License Implications: This OEM Windows license is based on the physical machine you purchased, and is not transferrable to the hosted virtual desktop, which has a separate copy of Windows running on a server. So, you have two choices if you want this new PC to be an access point for VDI:
* Bring the new PC (*note must be less than 90 days from purchase) under Software Assurance. Bringing it under Software Assurance will cost roughly $50 per year.
* Purchase a VDA license at an annual subscription cost of $100 per year.
Use Case 2: Enterprise wishes to re-purpose an old PC or laptop into a “dumbed-down thin client” that can serve as a VDI access point.
VDI License Implications: If the PC is eligible for SA (meaning it was already covered by SA), you can choose to maintain the annual SA subscription ($50 per year).
If the old PC or laptop is not eligible for SA, you'll need to purchase the VDA license at a subscription cost of $100 per year.
Use Case 3: Enterprise purchases a new thin client to use as a VDI access point.
VDI License Implications: By definition, a machine that does not have a Windows license or run Windows cannot be added to SA, so this use case will require the VDA license at a subscription cost of $100 per year.
Use Case 4: Bring Your Own PC (BYOPC).
VDI License Implications: Consultants or employees who buy their own PCs have a home license for Windows. Since the license does not belong to corporate, it is not eligible for SA. Enterprises must purchase a VDA license for each PC at a cost of $100 per year.
Use Case 5: Employees use a work PC to access their hosted virtual desktops at work, and occasionally use their home PC to access their virtual desktop to work from home.
VDI License Implications: The work PC will need to be licensed as mentioned above. If the primary user of the machine is the person that works at home, then the SA license covers occasional home use.
Use Case 6: Enterprise supplies a thin terminal to access VDI at work, and a laptop for travel.
VDI License Implications: This use case is interesting – you need VDA for the thin terminal, $100 per year, but you may not need any licensing for the laptop, the new VDA license includes the right for the primary user to access corporate VDI desktops from non-corporate PCs, such as internet cafes and home PCs.
For full details, visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/solutions/virtualization/operating-system/
The good news here is that Unidesk will not do anything to increase your VDA fees. Just be sure to design in your access point license planning well ahead of implementation.
Did I miss something? Let me know!
Nicole Reineke
Director, Product Management
Posted by Tom Rose on Tue, Jul 20, 2010 @ 10:15 AM
Unidesk sponsored last week's Wisconsin VMware Users Group meeting in Madison, with Ron Oglesby presenting "Implementing VMware View and VDI - Strategies for Success." Over 100 people attended, indicating the strong interest in desktop virtualization, and the need for help when implementing a VDI access solution such as View.
Ron's discussion of the user adoption, management, and storage challenges struck a chord with the 10% who said they had already implemented VDI, the 40% who are currently in pilot, and the rest who are thinking about it.
Here are a few of the tweets:
@timcurless Really great and entertaining VDI preso from @RonOglesby! Very applicable to what we're doing. Thanks Ron and @wivmug
@EricSelje I will sit through just about anything to win an iPad, but that was *great* content yesterday. I learned a ton.
@banksz This last one probably would have come in handy as we are considering attempting to implement View
@nelmedia Another great WI VMUG yesterday. Great to see you again Ron & thx to @Unidesk for the iPad giveaway.
Here's Ron presenting, nice of Promega Corp to let us use their state of the art facility.
Congratulations to Nathan Scheunnaman of Wonderbox who was the lucky winner of our iPad give away.
Big thanks to Rod Gabriel (@ThatFridgeGuy), WI-VMUG leader, for inviting us and for his feedback on Ron's session: "Overall, among the best overall quality of all presentations. I got a lot of very good feedback from attendees. I'd be happy to work with you again and would recommend you to any other VMUG looking for sponsors that provide quality content."
And thanks to all who attended, especially those who have already downloaded Unidesk and are starting to pilot us with VMware View!
-Tom Rose
Unidesk Chief Marketing Officer
Posted by Ron Oglesby on Thu, Jul 15, 2010 @ 06:23 AM
Over the past 6 months I have come to the conclusion we're ignoring an obvious way to drive down VDI costs - use local disk. I have brought this up a few times on Twitter and have seen a mixed response. Violent dissent from one part of my followers and violent agreement from others. Yesterday's debate on brianmadden.com is a good example.
One response pointed me to Dan Feller’s entries on the Citrix blog - Deciding on local or shared storage for your desktop virtualization solution and Local Storage or Shared Storage, That is the Question.
In both, Dan talks about using local storage to reduce the price point of VDI, but at the cost of losing some of the features we are used to, such as load balancing, live migrations of VMs, etc. This is what I would like to take a bit farther. Do you NEED those features for your desktops?
Recently at BriForum I posed the following questions to those who attended my session “Server Virtualization: Success, VDI: Not so much. Why?”:
- How many of you boot your normal desktops from the SAN?
- How many of you boot your terminal servers from the SAN?
- How many of you have an extremely short SLA on recovering your desktops?
Very few hands went up for the last question. None were up for the first two. I used this to frame a discussion around using local disk for virtual desktops hosted in the data center. Most of today’s VDI environments are using centralized storage simply because that is how the server virtualization platform was designed.
But if we stop and think about the actual requirements of the desktops being hosted - the required uptime, SLAs, RPOs and RTOs - we'd realize we may not need SAN for VDI.
Too often centralized storage is just assumed. And once it gets momentum, it's never changed. And then the project manger or VP of IT or CFO decides that VDI is expensive and that the storage cost is the reason. What to do, what to do!
Most people never get back to thinking about local storage for virtual desktops even though there are terminal servers hosting remote desktops in the next rack over. Why is this? Because we've bought into the idea that they REQUIRE Vmotion, or fast recovery with tools like VMware’s HA. But do you really NEED that for the desktop? If you lose a host server (a fairly rare occasion, thankfully) how soon do these desktops have to be back up?
What do you do now in Terminal Server environments? When the user gets disconnected, they click the icon again and they're routed to another desktop on another host. Why is this good enough for terminal services but not for VDI?
Local disk is ignored for a few simple reasons:
- Storage companies make a lot of money selling centralized disk and the software around it so they're pushing it for VDI
- The hypervisor’s “big” features require centralized storage
- Storage reduction and image management approaches like Linked Clones and Provisioning Server don’t work well (if at all) without centralized storage.
But with the price of SAN (which is the biggest knock on VDI), we should at least be bringing up the local storage topic in the discussion.
*Shameless, somewhat on topic, plug here: Unidesk works with local or centralized storage. Our disk savings and single image management features are not based on centralized storage volumes. So you can use whatever fits your needs if you are using Unidesk. I just happen to be a big fan of local disk, specifically local SSD.
Is local storage a panacea for VDI? Maybe not. But you can get the capacity and IOPS you need at a much lower cost, and probably even enter into high performance disk (like SSDs) for a much lower cost per desktop than you could with that array you're getting quotes for.
And, yes, you may need HA to recover your servers but do you HAVE TO HAVE IT for all your desktops? If your cost per VM for storage is $450 per desktop centralized and $29 per desktop when using local storage, is that enough to make local storage more attractive? Are you willing to sacrifice HA for that low of a cost?
I believe that local storage should be one of your considerations for your VDI environment. See if it fits and if you can get it to meet your true desktop requirements. Then give us a call. We’ll make it work.
-Ron Oglesby