VMware Horizon 6 Desktop Virtualization Solutions

About This Book

• Design a successful solution to deliver Windows desktops and applications as a service
• Provide redundancy for components and design a backup solution and disaster recovery plan to protect your investment and to keep your users productive
• A learn-by-example-based approach that focuses on key concepts to provide the foundation to solve real-world problems

Who This Book Is For

If you are a desktop architect, solution provider, end-user consultant, virtualization engineer, or anyone who wants to learn how to plan and design the implementation of a virtual desktop solution based on Horizon 6, then this book is for you. An understanding of VMware vSphere fundamentals coupled with experience in the installation or administration of a VMware environment would be a plus during reading.

What You Will Learn

• Learn the strategies and techniques needed to migrate your user population from a traditional physical desktop environment to a successful virtual desktop solution
• Plan the approach to deliver, protect, and manage Windows desktops and applications to ensure that users can work anytime, anywhere, on any device
• Decide whether to use persistent or nonpersistent vDesktops and understand the impact of both on the VDI environment
• Understand the choices around end devices such as thick clients, thin clients, and zero clients
• Size the VDI environment correctly to avoid slow logons, poor PCoIP performance, authentication problems, and other random failures
• Analyze all of the potential points of failure within a VDI and provide redundancy for each component
• Design a backup solution and/or disaster recovery plan to ensure a quick recovery in times of failure

In Detail

VMware Horizon 6 (with View) delivers virtualized desktops and applications through a single platform. It supports users, providing them with access to all of their Windows and online resources through one unified workspace, anywhere, using the device of their choice. The latest VDI release has brought with it various enhancements that will provide a better way to solve the common problems that occur while designing a VDI solution.

This book will guide you through how to produce a solid VDI solution with VMware Horizon 6 View, by combining best practices with actual installation challenges. The book is designed to be used during the design phase, which comes before the implementation phase. It covers all major Horizon 6 components and tips on how to use them to provide a solid VDI solution.

Ryan Cartwright

Ryan Cartwright (@ryandcartwright) has been involved in virtualization technologies since 2005. His focus has been on enterprise systems engineering and architecture and operational support with many Fortune 500 customers. He is currently a senior consultant for the cloud management team within the Professional Services Organization for VMware. Prior to joining VMware, he was a senior consultant and sales engineer in GANTECH, focusing on end user computing and software-defined data center. Before his roles in the consulting field, Ryan worked for Stanley Black & Decker in a variety of roles, focused on enterprise architecture for global virtual infrastructure and integration through mergers and acquisition. He has been working with VMware View since v3.5 and has designed and implemented multiple VMware View environments for Fortune 500 companies for a variety of use cases. He currently holds VCP5-DCV and VCP5-DT certifications as well as a Nutanix Platform Professional (NPP) #55 certificate.

Chuck Mills

Chuck Mills (@vchuckmills) has been involved in virtualization technologies for more than 10 years and has focused on using these technologies to create efficient and resilient solutions for data centers and desktops. He is currently the End User Computing Practice Director for GANTECH, Inc. Prior to joining GANTECH, he was a solutions architect for Allegis Group, and prior to that, he was the Director of Information Technology for Maryland Legal Aid and ESP of Maryland, where both companies achieved data centers that were 100 percent virtualized. He is one of the leading experts on VMware Mirage, having worked with it prior to the VMware acquisition. He has implemented Mirage in 5000 plus endpoint environments for PoCs, pilots, and Windows XP migrations. Chuck has designed and led teams on effective View solutions, including a successful worldwide PoC. He has given numerous presentations regarding virtualization and their benefits, including VMworld and VMware Partner Exchange. He is a former member of the VMware Customer Council (VCC), coleader of the Maryland VMUG, and has been a vExpert since 2011. He also maintains a blog dedicated to virtualization at www.vchuck.com.

Jason Langone

Jason Langone (@langonej) has been involved in VMware solutions for over seven years and has designed and implemented solutions around the world. Langone has a long history of designing VMware-based tools (for example, V-Moses and ESX Recovery Center), as well as designing robust solutions for enterprise customers. Langone spoke at VMWorld 2006 and won a VMware Vanguard Award in 2007 for Best DR Solution. He is a VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX), a VMware vExpert, and a VMware Certified Professional (VCP). In addition, Langone has been involved in some of the largest VDI deployments from the Middle East to deployable solutions in the US. Langone maintains a blog dedicated to virtualization and cloud computing at www.ThinkVIRT.com

Andre Leibovici

Andre Leibovici (@andreleibovici) is a leading expert in the current area of virtualization and End User Computing and maintains an award-winning and world-recognized blog. For the last 10 years, his passion and dedication around virtualization and End User Computing has helped many organizations while working for VMware Professional Services, EMC Virtualization Team (vSpecialists), and through creating professional blogging resources. His expertise is backed by more than 20 years industry experience managing IT infrastructures for large organizations. Andre's blog http://myvirtualcloud.net is recognized as one of the industry leading technical VDI blogs with more than 1.5 million views every month. Based on his field experience, he developed a number of free tools to help beginners and advanced architects to appropriately size and architect VDI solutions. Those tools include the VMware View Online Calculator, the XenDesktop Online Calculator, and the Display Protocol Online Calculator. His passion for End User Computing led him to find the APAC Virtualization Podcast and speak at conferences such as the Brazil vForum 2011, Las Vegas VMworld 2011, and the Sydney vForum 2010. Due to his creativity and accomplishments, he received the VMware Virtual Desktop Ingenuity Award 2009 and was recognized as vExpert recipient award for two consecutive years. Degree qualified, Andre also holds VCP 5, VCAP4-DCA, VCAP4-DCD, VCP4-DT, ITIL V3, EMCCA, EMCDCA, and MCSE certifications. He is currently helping to shape the future of End User Computing by working at VMware as an architect in the Office of the CTO and enjoying his work.