The economic viability and viability of introducing VDI

    Hello! We continue our series of articles on virtualization and various hp technologies, and this time we will consider the most burning issue, on which we received the most questions through various channels: at what stage it is advisable to introduce virtualization of jobs, for how long it will save your money and how can you save on the implementation of VDI.

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    Economy and Saving


    Virtualization of computing is a modern and fairly new service, its capabilities and savings with virtualization are growing every year, and large companies every year are trying to understand whether it’s time or not time for them to switch to VDI. The largest IT companies and monsters of digital communications in Russia also consider this technology and in the most thorough way analyze all the possible information in this area. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to divulge some information, but were given access to interesting statistics and accumulated data, which allowed us to share the economic part with you. So, before rushing to the director with the sentence "And let's virtualize everything here!" one simple truth must be understood. Virtualization alone does not generate direct revenue (unless you are a system integrator for virtualization, but this is a separate topic). ;)

    What then to save and how? The main economic effect of virtualization is the reduction in capital and operating expenses for maintaining the PC fleet up to date. The conclusion, in principle, is quite obvious, but it consists of many factors. One of the mobile operators, who switched to fully virtualized workstations, gave us interesting statistics that showed how the savings are achieved.

    Save


    In the first place is, oddly enough, the acquisition of new jobs (and the replacement of old ones). On average, a working PC becomes obsolete in 4-5 years: power supplies “dry up”, drives “roll off”, very often (you have no idea how often) monitors fail. Workplaces that have worked out a full five-year cycle do not look the best: the system is “littered”, the hard drive regularly crunches with the stroke limiters of the read heads, the capacitors in a cheap power supply unit come into a substandard state, and there is nothing to say about the amount of dust inside the system.

    A thin client (which is an All-in-One solution, that is a separate “box”) is often devoid of all these problems both constructively and ideologically, and by itself it does not become obsolete - the computing power is consolidated in a server rack, the flexibility and scalability of which is embedded in the very idea of ​​virtualized jobs.

    The second expense item is electricity. Electricity consumption even taking into account the consumption of powerful servers and storage is 30-50% lower, and this ratio is greater, the older your computer fleet. Affected by cheap power supplies with not the highest efficiency, their degradation, inefficient use of power.

    The third burner of the hole in the company’s budget is the payroll fund. Let's say you have 20 computers and 2-3 servers in your office. One system / network administrator serves both software and hardware issues, and in general the entire office rests on it. Now imagine that you have several branches throughout the city (or even several branches throughout the country), each of which has several hundred computers. From time to time they need to be repaired, cleaned, serviced, and all these operations require a qualified specialist, and you can’t do anything with one universal uncle in a deer sweater. In addition, any hardware failure of the PC leads to downtime in the user. Using thin clients can effectively reduce both the volume of service personnel and the possible costs caused by equipment downtime and the cost of its repair / maintenance.

    We have more or less figured out the advantages, now let's move on to the difficulties that await you if you decide to implement VDI in your home.

    We spend


    The largest “consumers” of finance in VDI are thin clients, servers, and storage. Moreover, the costs of purchasing clients, servers and hard drives are approximately equal, and in total make up more than half of the costs.

    The second largest cost item is the licensed side of the issue: server OSs, client OSs, a hypervisor and specialized software require money, and not small, though for regular workstations you just need to buy an OS, the whole set of software and say right away that it will be cheaper, ordinary licenses or licenses for virtualized workstations - difficult.

    The third point is staff training. Training costs are considered very conditional, since practically nothing changes for users, and administrators and maintenance personnel are usually very wide-field specialists, and virtualization technology should not create unnecessary problems, for this it was developed to make it easier and more profitable.

    Transition to virtualized workstations


    Before you bring Napoleonic plans to the table, you need to make sure the cost-effectiveness of the transition, consider the main models for transferring jobs to VDI, and evaluate the scope of work.

    Answer the following questions for yourself:
    • How long has the PC fleet been updated?

    a) The computer park was updated 1-2 years ago;
    b) The computer park was updated 4-5 years ago;
    c) Was the computer park updated o_0?
    • How many company jobs that can be quickly and painlessly transferred to VDI?

    a) We have a lot of managers who do not need anything besides a browser, email client, office and 1C database;
    b) We have many engineers working together on one project (its different parts);
    c) We have many highly specialized specialists who require PCs that are different in their capabilities.
    • How reliable are current computers and how often do they need attention?

    a) Constantly breaks down this, this, this, "he asks to enter SMS";
    b) There are breakdowns, but, as a rule, everything is treated in a few hours;
    c) We have reliable and high-quality computers, if problems happen, then only with software / through the user's fault (coffee spilled).

    If the computer fleet has been updated over the past couple of years, implementing VDI now is not profitable, but you can begin to prepare the infrastructure: improve the network, prepare a place for servers, upgrade storage, if any.

    If computers are no longer young but reliable, they can be used as thin clients after appropriate configuration and / or minor upgrades. Having worked for several more years, they will save on the initial purchase of thin clients, and you can change them as they fail, or simply after a certain period of time, when support for an old PC will become less profitable than a maintenance-free simple piece of hardware with a long-term enterprise guarantee.

    If the computer fleet is worn out, and their reliability causes the staff to move their hair in various parts of the body, it is worth changing such computers immediately (or gradually, as they fail, putting the entire PC fleet into thin client mode).

    The uniformity of workplaces is also an excellent recommendation for the implementation of VDI: sales managers, call center and many other office employees do not care what glands they have under the table, if the usual set of software works. Replacing a PC with virtualized workstations will save on maintenance (zoo) of the equipment fleet and on electricity bills. Engineering teams can also use virtualized workstations (in some cases, VDI, in some RDS, both technologies have their own characteristics and advantages), and multi-monitor thin clients will allow you to conveniently work even with the most complex software.

    Implementation of VDI is NOT recommended if you have many users with different functions and requirements, a small office where there are not so many workplaces, there is no possibility to place server equipment or a large number of new jobs are not planned.

    Payback


    Payback will directly depend on how and in what quantities you deploy thin clients instead of regular PCs. Using current workstations as terminals for VDI allows you to save on the “starter pack”, but does not eliminate the operational costs associated with servicing these computers. In this case, it is necessary to calculate how much it will cost to maintain jobs, for example, another 2-3 years (3 years is just the time when the economic effect of introducing VDI becomes obvious), and how much expenses will be reduced over the same 2-3 years if you replace these computers with thin clients. A detailed analysis of the current situation in your company, an assessment of the proposals of VDI integrator companies and the high reliability of virtualized workstations will allow you to reduce the amount of expenses in a few years,

    ps: Many thanks to the companies that shared statistics and estimates. We expect questions and suggestions from you in the comments.

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