The Dell™ Desktop Virtualization Solutions (DVS) team continues to bring improvements to the DVS Enterprise Integrated Solution Stack (ISS).
Last time around (29th June 2012), the first sets of enhancements increased user density and support for persistent user experience while massively reducing storage costs.
This time, the latest improvements are around increasing flexibility and more freedom. The new improvements brought to the existing DVS Enterprise Infrastructure solution and its respective benefits are:
On-line advisor tool for sizing VDI projects quickly:
Sizing and quoting a large VDI project can be a lengthy and approximate process. The new Dell Cloud Client Computing Advisor tool is now available publicly on-line and solves this issue: by answering 16 questions, a customer will get a complete BOM for his VDI project running on DVS Enterprise. The BOM will include hardware (Dell and non-Dell), all software, licensing and possible Dell Wyse endpoints. Such a powerful tool relies on over 50,000 hours of testing and characterization of the Integrated Solution Stack. For the next step, we recommend to work with a Dell DVS specialist who can quickly issue a quote based on the output results of the advisor. For a more in-depth analysis, we also highly recommend a Blueprint Assessment before actual implementation.
Qualification of Dell Compellent storage as a standard option:
The original reference architecture was supporting Dell EqualLogic™ storage (iSCSI). For customers who prefer Fibre Channel over iSCSI and want to implement very large deployments, Dell is now also supporting Compellent™ storage with up to 1000 users per storage array.
Because storage costs can represents up to 40%-60% of the total desktop virtualization budget of a project, it is important to mention that DVS Enterprise can also run on non-Dell storage and networking hardware, allowing customers to use existing components without rip and replace.
Qualification of Citrix XenDesktop running on Hyper-V:
The DVS Enterprise infrastructure currently runs on virtualization software Citrix® XenDesktop™ 5.6 or VMware® View™ 5.1, initially on the vSphere/ESXi hypervisor. In addition, Dell now also supports Citrix® XenDesktop™ running on Microsoft Hyper-V™ 2008 R2 hypervisor. It still supports up to 145 basic users or up to 95 users with a premium workload on a Dell PowerEdge™ 12G R720 rack server. Dell wants to adjust to the unique customer preferences by supporting major hypervisor options. In the coming months, Dell will also support Microsoft Hyper-V™ 2012.
Future developments on the Enterprise ISS will include moving towards a Converged Infrastructure and Active Systems for VDI. Additional information and resources are posted on dell.com/desktopvirtualization. Please contact your Dell Account Representative to get started with DVS Enterprise.
Introduction to DVS Enterprise: see an overview video (2:27)
