Why User Experience is Key to Your Desktop Transformation Whitepaper
INTRODUCTION This whitepaper has been authored by experts at Liquidware Labs and draws upon its experience with customers as well as the expertise of its Acceler8 channel partners, in order to provide guidance to adopters of desktop virtualization technologies. In this paper, we explain the importance of thorough planning factoring in user experience and resource allocation in delivering a scalable next-generation workspace that will produce both near- and long-term value. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any external use by any person or entity without the express prior written consent of Liquidware Labs. Liquidware Labs, Inc. 3600 Mansell Road Suite 200 Alpharetta, Georgia 30022 U.S.A. Phone: 678-397-0450 www.liquidwarelabs.com 2015. Liquidware Labs Inc. All rights reserved. Liquidware Labs, Stratusphere, FlexApp, Flex-IO and ProfileUnity are trademarks of Liquidware Labs. All other products are trademarks of their respective owners. 2
OVERVIEW There s little doubt we re in the midst of a change in the way we operationalize and manage our end users workspaces. On the one hand, IT leaders are looking to gain the same efficiencies and benefits realized with cloud and next-generation virtual-server workloads. And on the other hand, users are driving the requirements for anytime, anywhere and any device access to the applications needed to do their jobs. To provide the next-generation workspaces that users require, enterprises are adopting a variety of technologies such as virtual-desktop infrastructure (VDI), published applications and layered applications. At the same time, those technologies are creating new and challenging problems for those looking to gain the full benefits of next-generation end-user workspaces. Before racing into any particular desktop transformation delivery approach it s important to define appropriate goals and adopt a methodology for both near- and long-term success. One of the most common planning pitfalls we ve seen in our history supporting the transformation of more than 5 million desktops is that organizations tend to put too much emphasis on the technical delivery and resource allocation aspects of the platform, and too little time considering the needs of users. How to meet user expectations and deliver a user experience that fosters success is often overlooked. To prevent that problem and achieve near-term success as well as sustainable long-term value from a next-generation desktop transformation approach, planning must also include defining a methodology that should include the following three things: Develop a baseline of normal performance for current end user computing delivery Set goals for functionality and defined measurements supporting user experience Continually monitor the environment to ensure users are satisfied and the environment is operating efficiently This white paper will show why the user experience is difficult to predict, why it s essential to planning, and why factoring in the user experience along with resource allocation is key to creating and delivering the promise of a next-generation workspace that is scalable and will produce both nearand long-term value. 3
THE SERVER VIRTUALIZATION APPROACH DOESN T TRANSLATE TO DESKTOPS It s easy to get started with technologies such as desktop virtualization, but it s considerably harder to develop a virtual application or desktop architecture that will effectively scale. And it s harder still to maintain a platform that will produce sustained value for desktop users and the IT organization responsible for its care and feeding. Many organizations believe they can manage this transformational process because they have mature processes in place for managing physical desktops and also have years of experience in virtualizing server workloads. However, history shows that the processes organizations use to plan and manage virtual-server workloads doesn t translate to the enduser computing realm and isn t effective for virtualizing desktops or applications. The primary challenge is centered on the fact that desktop users typically have a one-to-one relationship with the resources that support their physical PC workspace. Unlike server workloads, desktop workloads are not usually shared, and neither are the personalization and other usercustomized settings that have been set. Without forethought these resources and customizations can significantly impact performance and usability, not to mention add risk and decrease productivity of both users and the staff that manage the workload. It s also important to realize server workloads tend to be much more consistent and predictable when compared to desktop workloads. Operationalizing, trending and providing resources to support back-end server processes have become routine, with well-understood metrics and indicators for success. In desktop transformation, scalability creates challenges. By way of example, consider the following hypothetical scenario, which represents a common desktop transformation approach and illustrates some of the overlooked challenges to creating an efficient, scalable next-generation virtual workspace environment. Imagine a company whose first production next-generation workspace experience was virtualizing the desktops of its customer-service representatives. The first phase of said project goes well, so the company subsequently wants to transition more of its employees to virtual desktops and selects the marketing department. Without much analysis, marketing seems a viable choice to continue the successes of the project. However, from a resource-consumption point of view, the marketing group and associated stereotyping of its workload provides almost no meaningful or measurable value. In fact, had IT examined marketing workspaces in advance and developed performance baselines, it would have been evident that some marketing employees spend their time working with browsers and other lowresource productivity applications while others, responsible for creating brochures, presentations and video editing, use a completely different set of applications. A desktop optimized for one marketing roles will not perform well for the other. It should be understood that marketing is not a single resource definition or use case, and it cannot be leveraged on its own to define a transformation strategy or approach. 4
Any population of desktop-computer users (virtual or physical) loses homogeneity as it gets larger, and this is relatively easy to manage in a physical environment by assigning different types of users, and different hardware and software to meet specific needs. Desktop diversity is harder to manage in next-generation environments, because resource dependencies often are not readily apparent. Configurations from one successful user group can t simply be extrapolated to scale in support of bringing more users onto the platform. As you move into more challenging use cases, individuals, machines and applications can contend for the same resources, making it even harder to deliver and maintain a positive user experience. Related, it s quite common for new desktop delivery approaches to realize benefit from a very successful start, especially in smaller proof-of-concept phases of project adoption. But as these platforms scale, it becomes challenging to maintain the high performance and satisfying user experiences originally experienced on newly-deployed under-utilized hardware. As these platforms are expanded to include new departments, they often reach a plateau and begin to provide diminishing returns on performance and resources. Enterprises should consider it necessary to separate a project s hardware and platform aspects from the longer-term user onboarding. While it s the norm to define the platform based on initial users and groups, it s equally important to continuously measure those users not only in terms of onboarding, but also to ensure that you re continuously monitoring trends and meeting appropriate business and performance goals. WHY ESTABLISH A BASELINE OF NORMAL? The point in pursuing a next-generation workspace environment is not to replicate what s already in place prior to the transformation, but to provide something better in terms of performance, support, operations and user experience. To achieve this, organizations need to know where they re starting from so to set appropriate improvement goals and to measure progress toward the goals. Organizations should set three distinct categories of goals for desktop transformation initiatives: To deliver an equal, if not better, user experience To reduce end-user support requirements To reduce ongoing operating costs and efficiencies over time The onboarding process, therefore, must define baseline levels related to these goals. In many organizations there is a disconnect regarding how IT originally configured desktops configured to run, how IT thinks they are running and how they are actually running. Pre-transformation evaluations typically uncover numerous applications, application versions and workloads the organization didn t know were in use, as well as applications that are licensed and installed but are never used. In a physical desktop environment, these conditions often result in hardware that is inadequately configured for users needs. Users may be reluctant to report computer problems to the 5
help desk because they fear their rogue applications and configurations will be discovered. As a result, slow desktop performance and wasteful software licensing are accepted as business as usual. But with virtual desktop and application delivery, unsanctioned applications or under-resourced configurations can cause performance problems for the entire user base supported by the shared pool of resources. Conducting a pre-transformation baseline evaluation protects against such problems and provides objective data that can be used to measure improvement and define success metrics. MINIMIZE RISK AND DELIVER ONGOING VALUE The need to measure and manage doesn t end when the transformation is completed. As noted, many desktop transformation projects encounter challenges after the initial pilot or proof-of-concept phase. This is true because it s much easier to configure and deploy a virtual application or desktop than it is to design scalable architecture. Organizations should establish an onboarding process to evolve nextgeneration workspaces from proof of concept or fledgling projects to something that will produce sustainable value when the population goes into production and is later expanded. A well-designed onboarding process will identify resource requirements of subsequent user groups undergoing transformation. It will also consider how the platform will need to be adjusted or optimized to accommodate the additional workloads, which may not conform to previous resource consumption patterns. Each time an organization wants to expand its transformed desktop infrastructure it should take a fresh look what users require and how the infrastructure will be affected. At the end of the day, this approach will ensure that you have a before-and-after measure of normal, an important metric to help define success in the onboarding process. It will also help organizations minimize risk in meeting user expectations, in the platform, and in the operations to support the virtual desktop infrastructure. Without a thoughtful near- and long-term approach to the transformation, it becomes challenging to realize success and provide ongoing value. 6
CONCLUSION When planning a transformation to next-generation workspaces such as virtual desktop infrastructure, published applications and layered applications, it s important to go beyond solving the immediate challenges of hardware sizing, resource allocation and scaling and the architecture. More critically, you must consider how the project will ultimately provide value to the organization in three areas: a consistent, positive experience for users; reduced support requirements for IT; and lower overall operating expenses for the organization. Meeting these goals involves setting technical, userexperience and business goals for your projects. The planning process previously required a substantial amount of guesswork, but as desktop virtualization has matured, best practices and support tools have emerged. Liquidware Labs has helped its customers transform more than 5 million desktops. In our observations, most problems in next-generation desktop transformation projects did not occur because the organization wasn t using the right hardware or platform. Constraints developed because the organization didn t begin with the right strategy, guidelines and goals to define success. The more you know about your users and their needs, the easier it will be to make precise strategic and tactical choices. That is why there is tremendous value in following a thorough onboarding methodology. An onboarding methodology isn t essential for getting virtual desktops up and running, but proper predeployment planning is critical to ensure that the virtual application or desktop architecture will provide long-term value to the organization. Stratusphere solutions make it easy for organizations to plan and manage the desktop transformation process by providing organizations with the visibility needed to make informed decisions and build confidence to move forward with a desktop transformation strategy from the onboarding process all the way through to ongoing operations. Stratusphere offers comprehensive monitoring, performance validation and diagnostics to ensure you re delivering and can set key performance indicators about desktop-user experience. Stratusphere can be used stand-alone, but it s also complementary to and integrates with other systems and infrastructure-monitoring solutions. Liquidware Labs is the leader in desktop transformation solutions for next-generation physical and virtual desktops, including VMware Horizon, Citrix XenDesktop, Red Hat and Microsoft Windows. The company's innovative Stratusphere FIT and Stratusphere UX products support assessment, design, monitoring and diagnostics of virtual desktop environments. Liquidware Labs award-winning ProfileUnity solution with FlexApp, FlexDisk features supports migration to Windows, and user profile and environment management and application layering. Flex-IO supports IOPS acceleration in virtual desktop environments. Liquidware Labs products are VMware-certified and Citrix Ready, and are available through a global network of partners. Visit www.liquidwarelabs.com/ for more information. 7