There is a lot going on in technology as 2011 begins and that means that there are many new products and approaches out there that can be overwhelming or confusing for business owners. It is best to enlist the expertise of Responza’s IT professionals who stay in tune with what’s new and what works for businesses to determine how best to take advantage of trending innovations. Six trends for enterprise computing that have been identified by various experts are shared below.

1. Mainstream means mobile
For many years, mobile has been a peripheral afterthought when developing enterprise applications. Even when running in a browser, the laptop or desktop PC has been the primary user platform, and a mobile client was always an option at best. This year will bring a seismic shift. Significant numbers of enterprise software vendors will set development priorities on mobile, before desktop.

2. The cloud fails the crowd
It should be no surprise to find me predicting that so-called ‘private cloud’ will disappoint. Confusion over what could computing is and is not will lead the way to this disillusionment. Its concepts have been hyped by the best and have left many seeking to capture the benefits of cloud computing without understanding the core principles. This will cause cloud’s reputation to suffer – even if it is undeserved.

3. IT management gets wired in
Even when utilizing cloud computing, hosted providers or outsourced IT services, those managing IT within their organizations will require visibility and accountability. Small to medium business owners are reaching new levels of understanding when it comes to oversight and governance of their computing.

4. Data just wants to be mined
The volume of data being accumulated every day is exploding, and it’s yielding huge new value for those who know how to mine and refine it. Many organizations (not to mention consumers) are sitting on rich seams of data whose value they have barely realized. Others are mining that wealth and learning how to benefit from it.

5. Social technologies remake enterprise apps
The ability to collaborate in real time, to instantly initiate conversations or to develop a thread across time zones is bringing people together in new ways that cut across the old business processes that put the organization and its process automation first. Now applications are being remade to put people at the center of process and have automation serve their needs. The result? A people-centric automation stack instead of resource-centric process management.

6. Adapting surpasses the actual technology
People are obsessed with the pursuit of the new, new thing in technology. 2011 will turn this on its ear because the new, new thing is not a technology, but a new way of doing business. The new year’s most telling innovations will not be in mobile, cloud or social technologies but in how smart, entrepreneurial business people adapt to the potential that blossoms from the above-mentioned technologies.

Responza uses its expertise in applying new computing processes and technologies to the needs and goals of the small to medium business to help them take advantage of innovations to improve the way they do business. Call Responza experts at 206-762-5100.

Small Business IT Investment Picture Improving: Report

The small business IT Growth Monitor increased five points from October to 54, a record high since December 2007.

The budding recovery in IT investment that started to take shape in 2010 appears to be heading for an uptick in 2011 as small businesses report a positive outlook on IT investment for their organizations. According to the latest CDW IT Monitor, which has been tracking IT sentiment since the beginning of the recession in 2007, 49 percent of IT decision makers at small businesses expect to replace or install new hardware in the next six months, up 10 percentage points from the October IT Monitor.

The confidence level among small businesses was also echoed in the medium business segment. Ninety percent of IT decision makers at midsize businesses expect to purchase new hardware in the next six months, also up 10 percentage points since October 2010. The small business IT Growth Monitor, which measures IT investment expectations, increased five points from October to 54, a record high since December 2007.

Rising growth expectations among SMBs (small and midsize businesses) are influencing sentiment across the entire corporate sector, according to the report, despite a leveling-off in the large business sector, which showed greater optimism earlier in 2010. Three-quarters or more of overall corporate IT decision makers anticipate replacing or installing hardware (75 percent) or software (78 percent) in the next six months—a record high in the corporate sector since the launch of the IT Monitor in December 2007.

In addition, the report found 61 percent of IT decision makers at small businesses anticipate replacing or installing new software in the next six months. However, the outlook for IT staffing is not keeping pace with investment expectations: Eight percent of corporate IT decision makers expect to cut IT staff in the next six months, up three percentage points from October 2010.

“As the economic climate improves, investing in technology will be critical for organizations seeking to increase productivity,” said Thomas Richards, president and COO for CDW. “Focusing on the IT refresh cycle and upgrading existing technology clearly is taking immediate precedence with decision makers over increasing IT staffing in the near term.”
The CDW IT Monitor was created by CDW, and independent polling firm Richard Day Research conducted research and analysis. Decision makers are invited from two large national panels of IT decision makers built and maintained by E-Rewards and Survey Sampling International. Data reported in this release are based on a survey of 1,056 IT decision makers conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 6, 2010.

At the center of the CDW IT Monitor is an index number, which registered an initial benchmark reading of 69 in December 2007. Results are calculated on a scale of 0-100, with 100 indicating the highest level of confidence. In terms of government sentiment, the optimism among corporate IT decision makers is not as strong in the public sector. The IT Growth Monitor, which measures anticipated IT investment, fell four points in the federal government sector to 69, the lowest reading of 2010.

Source: Nathan Eddy, eWeek.com Midmarket News, January 6, 2011

With experience providing outsourced IT and expertise in best practices for SMBs, Responza analyzes requirements and determines computing strategies tailored to fit business needs. Call Responza experts at 206-762-5100.

Microsoft Office 2010 is powerful, but some of the best time-saving techniques are relatively unknown. Here are some power-user tricks for Microsoft Word 2010. Each of these tips works in both the 2007 and 2010 versions of Word.

Give Word a more readable default font
The default font in Word 2010 is Calibri, which looks elegant on screen but some consider it unreadable. To change Word’s default font, press Ctrl-Shift-F to open the Font dialog. It is advisable to review fonts and have a replacement font determined before opening the Font dialog. Choose a font and size. Click Save as Default, choose “All documents based on the Normal.dotm template,” and click OK.

Change other layout defaults in Word
To disable other default settings, follow the same procedure as when changing the Font. Press Alt-O, then P to open the Paragraph dialog (or click the More Arrow in the Paragraph group on the Home tab). Set spacing and other options, and click Save as Default. Go to the Page Layout tab, click the More Arrow in the Page Setup group to open the Page Setup dialog. Set margins and other page-layout settings, and click Save as Default.

Make Word warn you when you save or print a file with tracked revisions
Those who use revision tracking in Word documents have probably mistakenly sent a document out with revisions still present in the file and easily visible to anyone who uses the option to display revisions and changes. Word 2010 finally adds a dignity-saving security option that provides a warning when the user tries to save or print a document that contains revision information, or e-mail it from Word’s menus. To turn on this warning, go to the File menu, then Options, then Trust Center. Click on Trust Center Settings and then Privacy Settings, and add a checkmark next to “Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments.”

Responza helps companies and organizations of a variety of sizes and types determine their best computing strategies. Call Responza experts at 206-762-5100.

Getting Digital Affairs in Order
Developing a plan for passing on those digital files and passwords after the business owner is gone can save loved ones from the time consuming and frustrating process of sorting through an online estate. It is also possible that survivors or attorneys may find themselves in the position where they need to handle someone’s digital affairs. The role of the estate executor is growing an entirely new dimension in the digital age.

A good starting point for both planning and execution of the digital part of a business is to find knowledgeable technical and legal help. There are attorneys and technology companies that have amassed expertise in this area and are familiar with the nuances and process of digital survivorship.

Even with outside expertise available, it helps to have a basic understanding of the right questions to ask and some immediate steps to take or not to take with proper closure, notifications and dissemination of digital assets.

The Top Five Issues in Getting Digital Affairs in Order
1) Change all passwords as soon as possible. Make copies of Web sites and other online accounts. Remove all credit card information from shopping accounts.

2) Make a list of applications, sites and social media systems that the person has used and determine if and how they should be transitioned or closed.

3) Do not start closing accounts, shutting down hosting and e-mail, or taking other drastic steps until it can be determined how best each should be handled. Keeping a Web site up for a year or more will not be expensive. Shutting it down too early and losing valuable data could be quite expensive.

4) Buy an external USB hard drive and make a copy of all hard drives, flash drives and other data and keep them in a safe place. Once the data is reviewed, another drive can be utilized to store any items of value.

5) Be slow to delete, and when deletion happens, do it in accordance with forensic standards so data cannot be retrieved by others. Err on the side of keeping e-mail, documents and photographs for family members.

Responza’s experts can help businesses establish the IT elements that support the protection of their digital assets for all phases of business needs including day-to-day operations, growth and expansion strategies and succession plans. Call Responza at 206-762-5100.

New IT security concerns arise almost daily for SMBs. Now is the perfect time and the ushering in of a new year is the perfect time to take action and safeguard your system from those that have the greatest impact. Here are the top five expected security threats for 2011.recognize those that have the greatest impact.

• State-sponsored malware attacks
Malware attacks that target critical infrastructures such as water supplies and electrical grids are high on the list of potential threats for 2011. Attempts on critical infrastructure systems first took place about 4 years ago. While the intruding organizations may be difficult to determine, it is obvious that these exploits have been designed and tested by organizations with much greater resources than the usual individual hacker, such as other countries or organizations owned by other governments. Such attempts have generally been non-crippling, but they are costly and they test infrastructure systems to determine what is effective for future attacks. Experts predict that as many as three of these attacks could take place in 2011. The timeframe for these complicated attacks depends on how long it actually takes cybercriminals to develop them.

• Blended threats will expose the companies with weak security policies
SMBs’s penchant for operating with lean resources exposes their systems to greater potential for attack and intrusion from blended threats. Blended threats give cybercriminals access to sensitive information, such as banking account. Such threats are more cunning than standard malware because they More cunning than standard malware because they blend mediums, such as the Web and email, and they hide in blended threats hide in rich media or innocuous-looking emails, and end up giving cybercriminals access to sensitive information, such as banking accounts.

Cybercriminals have targeted consumers with these attacks in the past, but are now targeting SMBs. With much more cash in bank accounts than the average consumer and generally subpar security arsenals, SMBs are ideal targets. Losses can be significant – in the hundreds of thousands of dollars – which makes it vital for SMBs to engage knowledgeable resources that can help them put security solutions in place that address different angles of Web attacks and data leakages.

• More corporate data breaches will occur over social media channels
Search poisoning is on the rise. In 2010, when searching for a current event or news story, 22 out of the top 100 search results were malicious Web sites, up from 13 the previous year. During 2011, it has been predicted that these malicious threats will not be limited to Google searches, but will migrate to Facebook and other social media platforms. By setting up malicious sites that look like popular legitimate sites, cybercriminals easily capture those interested in popular topics.

That is not the only danger with social media. Social media users are vulnerable to spam and malicious data-stealing content. Companies can be exposed because employees may post confidential corporate data to these public pages, thinking that they are secure. Because cybercriminals often use URL shorteners, users have no way of really verifying the link that is being posted by another user. It is important that SMBs alert their employees to these dangers and help users understand that even clicking on links from “people they trust” can be risky.

For SMBs this comes down to using an IT vendor that is in lock-step with innovative threats and puts a security solution with real-time capabilities that can protect users from these dangers.

• An increase in zero-day vulnerabilities and drive-by download attacks
More zero-day vulnerabilities will be discovered due to malware exploit kits and increase the use of drive-by download attacks. Zero-day vulnerabilities are exploits that take advantage of security vulnerabilities on the same day that the vulnerability becomes generally known. So there are zero days between the time the vulnerability is discovered and the first attack. Drive-by download attacks automatically download malware to the user when his or her browser is at the compromised site.

These types of vulnerabilities make data loss prevention and real-time threat protection a necessity for SMBs who want to keep information in and cybercriminals out.

• The iPad, iPhone and other smartphones will be prime targets for cybercriminals
Phones have always been a target, but this year will be the year they become true targets for cybercriminals. Of particular appeal is the iPad because of its growing popularity among executives who chose the smaller device over heavier laptops. Many executives have their entire corporate life on their iPad, making it particularly vulnerable to drive-by download attacks.

The need for mobile device security has increased as more people – especially SMB executives – get non-BlackBerry smartphones for business use. Regardless of the devices used – inside the office or out – it is vital to keep data safe as its exposure beyond the walls of the office is more and more common.

With experience providing outsourced IT and expertise in best practices for SMBs, Responza analyzes requirements and determines computing strategies tailored to fit business needs. Call Responza experts at 206-762-5100.

Viewing subsets of data is a routine task for many Excel users. An AutoFilter lets users limit the data displayed, but it is limited because it depends on the actual data. Excel’s Advanced Filter feature requires a bit of setup, but is more flexible and powerful than an AutoFilter. Not only can it be used as an expression to match records, but it can also be combined with expressions using the And and Or operators.

Excel’s Advanced Filter feature requires three elements:
• Data
• A criteria range, where you specify criteria as an expression.
• An extract range, where Excel displays the data that satisfies the criteria.

A simple AutoFilter
This is a simple AutoFilter example that uses a partial set of data from the Products table from Northwind (the database that comes with Access). To apply an AutoFilter, users select the column headings in A1:F1 and choose AutoFilter from the Data menu. In Excel 2007 and 2010, users click the Data menu and then click Filter in the Sort & Filter group. Excel will display a dropdown arrow for each column in the selection. Using this feature, users can perform simple filtering tasks, such as which products have no units on order. It’s quick and easy, but sometimes inadequate. (To remove a filter, simply choose All from the same list.)

An Advanced Filter and And
Suppose users want to know which products with a price of $20 or more have 10 or less units currently in stock. This filtering task has two requirements – two criteria – and the user would want to satisfy them both. In other words, the product must be $20 or more and have 10 or fewer units in stock. An AutoFilter just can’t do that, so an Advanced Filter must be used.

The criteria range, in this case, requires only two columns: Unit Price and Units In Stock. Copy just those column headings to an out of the way place. (It is recommended to copy ALL of the headers since they made be needed in another filter.)

Next, state the filtering requirements in terms Excel can understand, using an expression. In this case, both expressions are simple comparisons:
Unit Price: >=20
Units In Stock: < =10

As you can see in Fig. 4, the criteria range is above the actual data. This placement is efficient and easily accessible. Both expressions are in the same row – Row 2. By placing both expressions in the same row, Excel knows to apply an implicit And operator to combine the expressions.

The extract range is optional. To copy the data to another location, specify the columns you want to extract. User beware here – the headings must be an exact match to the original column headings. If the exact range is left empty, Excel will extract all of the columns – simply select the top-left cell in the range. To simplify the example, extract in place.

Apply the filter as follows:
1. Click any cell in the data range.
2. Click the Data menu, and then click Filter | Advanced Filter. In Excel 2007 and 2010, click the Data tab and then click Advanced Filter in the Sort & Filter group.
3. Retain the default setting, Filter the List In-Place.
4. Excel automatically fills in the List Range, correctly in this case.
5. Specify the Criteria range, A1:F2. It is necessary to identify only the column headings

6. and the criteria row or rows.
Click OK

Eight products have a price of $20 or more and have 10 or fewer units in stock. To remove the filter, click the Data menu, then click Filter | Show All.

An Advanced Filter and Or
To specify an implicit Or operator, users must place the expressions in separate rows. The criteria shown below will find products with a price of $20 or more or products with 10 or fewer products in stock.

After adjusting the criteria range by moving one of the expressions down a row, apply the new filter as follows:
1. Click any cell in the data range.
2. Click the Data menu, and then click Filter | Advanced Filter. In Excel 2007 and 2010, click the Data tab and then click Advanced Filter.
3. Retain the Filter the List In Place setting, the default.
4. Excel automatically fills in the List Range, correctly in this case.
5. Specify the Criteria range—that’s A1:F3. Notice that this time, the range includes Row 3.

Click OK. Many records meet one or the other criteria.

An Advanced Filter may also be used with just one expression, but using implicit And and Or operators opens the door for some very complex but powerful filters. Just be careful that the expressions and their placement make sense, in terms of applying the And and Or operators.

Responza helps companies and organizations of a variety of sizes and types determine their best computing strategies. Call Responza experts at 206-762-5100.

Filters are a powerful and easy-to-use Excel feature. Using filters, users can quickly limit data to just the records desired for viewing.

Summing filtered records is another matter. Trying the SUM() function will be surprising, so abandon that method and follow the method below:
Fig 1 shows a filtered list. It is obvious by the row numbers to the left that many rows are hidden. How the filter itself works is not covered here, but you can read more about using filters in Excel on another posting on Responza’s blog.

Fig 1

The next figure shows what happens when users try to sum the filtered values. It is obvious that the result isn’t correct; the value is too high. The SUM() function is evaluating all the values in the range D14:D64, not just the filtered values. There’s no way for the SUM() function to know that you want to exclude the filtered values in the referenced range.
Fig 2

The solution is much easier than it might seem. Simply click AutoSum—Excel will automatically enter a SUBTOTAL() function, instead of a SUM() function. See Figs 3 & 4. This function references the entire list, D6:D82, but it evaluates only the filtered values.
Fig 3

Fig 4

Responza helps companies and organizations of a variety of sizes and types determine their best computing strategies. Call Responza experts at 206-762-5100.

Business Need a Will
Digital Asset Protection and Succession Planning should be high on the list of priorities for business owners. If something happens to the owner, very often businesses cannot continue on successfully because there is no plan. This specifically refers to the digital files that entrepreneurs go to great lengths to keep private. In many small companies, the owner is the only one with access to important login information that is necessary to keep the business running. Without a plan to pass on those digital files and passwords, sorting through an entrepreneur’s online estate after he or she is gone can be time consuming and frustrating for loved ones.

If the owner already has a will, that attorney can draft an addendum that spells out who should receive the keys to the various digital accounts. However, a will is not the place for usernames and passwords since it will become a public document. A better way would be to store the information on a USB flash drive that is kept it in a safety deposit box or a safe in the owner’s home. Along with that, it is important to include instructions so the successor knows how the data is organized, including email and where sensitive company information is stored. Most importantly, keep this master information updated and make sure a trusted person knows where to find it if the need arises.

Here are 5 Basic Steps to Digital Succession Planning

Step 1. Inventory Digital Assets. Track down and identify a list all of the digital assets. In the digital world, it is also helpful to a successor to create an inventory that includes hardware, software, file structures for accessing key data, online accounts and work information.

Step 2. Identify Appropriate Help. How is that trusted person selected? Perhaps the IT person in the business could assist the surviving spouse and then make it clear that he or she should be engaged to help.

Step 3. Provide for Access. While all warnings caution against writing down passwords and PIN numbers, the simple fact is, if those passwords and PIN numbers key to the business aren’t written down and kept in a safe place where the appropriate person can find them, the business will basically be frozen. This can cause delay, frustration and inconvenience.

Step 4. Provide Instructions. There are a number of areas where survivors would appreciate instructions:
Notifications. Many have Facebook “friends,” LinkedIn “connections,” Twitter “followers” and others communicated with on a regular basis or a blog or Web site with readers that visit sites on a regular basis. These items should be included in the plan along with the owner’s plan for the blogs and sites after his or her passing. There may even be opportunities for the content of popular blogs, photography or online video sites to be recognized as income from licensing, the creation of a book or monetizing content.

Step 5. Give Appropriate Authority. For some, it makes sense to designate specific knowledgeable people as authorities who can properly manage digital assets and to designate them as co-attorneys-in-fact, co-executors or co-trustees, where one is specifically tasked with taking the responsibility for digital assets and affairs. Finding estate planning lawyers who are experienced and knowledgeable in “digital estates” is also essential in certain cases.

Online services are available that offer what is essentially a “digital safety deposit box”. These web-based services generally allow safe storage of key digital files and data and assign beneficiaries for all or specific accounts in the event of the owner’s passing. The service requires someone responsible for confirming the owner’s death to be named.

Responza’s experts can help businesses establish the IT elements that support the protection of their digital assets for all phases of business needs including day-to-day operations, growth and expansion strategies and succession plans. Call Responza’s experts at 206-762-5100.

Social networking – while not high on the list of challenges for many senior executives – is something that businesses need their people to understand. Social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, enable professional collaboration and personal interaction. These benefits, however, should be tempered with an awareness of the risks they carry. Every business should have and make its people aware of policies and acceptable behaviors related to the use of social media tools both internally and in the public environment.

According to a recent survey from financial analyst firm Ernst & Young, only 33 percent of the participants indicated that social networking is a considerable challenge to effectively deliver information security initiatives. Interestingly enough the same survey revealed that only 10 percent of this group considers the examination of new and emerging IT trends as a critically important function.

It seems that almost everyone recognizes the fact that there are risks and information security issues related to social media but very few have actually examined social media and developed an approach that will balance the business opportunity with the risk exposure.

And there are risks associated with the use of social media. A recent article noted the frequency with which worms are identified as originating from Facebook that infiltrate friends lists without the owners knowledge and proliferate throughout their friends’ networks.

What were the participants’ greatest concerns/highest priorities?

Achieving compliance with regulations (55percent)
Protecting reputation and brand (51 percent)
Managing privacy and protecting personal information (44 percent)

Without an effective process in place (i.e. policies and accepted behaviors) to evaluate the risks associated with new emerging IT trends – such as social media tools which encourage the sharing of personal information – protecting privacy-related data could become increasingly difficult to achieve.

A couple encouraging points:
- Only 15 percent of those participating in the survey indicated that they don’t have a security awareness program in place.
- 42 percent plan on spending more over the next year on security awareness and training.
However
- only 34 percent currently use information updates on the risks associated with social networking.

In the participant pool of executives, 45 percent are attempting to control data leakage of sensitive information by restricting or prohibiting the use of instant messaging or e-mail for sensitive data.

Of course the most logical way to reduce the risks associated with social networking would be to restrict or limit the use of these tools in the work environment – but there is nothing to show that this approach is successful.

Statistical Source: Survey from financial analyst firm Ernst & Young as part of the company’s 13th Global Information Security Survey that included 1600 senior executives in 56 countries

Responza’s experts can help companies determine security strategies tailored to fit their needs. Call Responza experts at 206-762-5100.

Depending on the source, desktop virtualization is either the hottest trend in IT or an expensive notion with limited appeal.
InfoWorld describes desktop virtualization a concept that reminds us of the good old mainframe days of centralized computing while upholding the fine desktop tradition of user empowerment. Each user retains his or her own instance of desktop operating system and applications, but that stack runs in a virtual machine on a server – which users can access through a low-cost thin client similar to an old-fashioned terminal.

Weighing the Pros/Cons of Desktop Virtualization

For:
The argument in favor of desktop virtualization is powerful: What burns through more hands-on resources or incurs more risk than desktop computers? Even with remote desktop management, admins must invade cubicles and shoo away employees when it’s time to upgrade or troubleshoot. And each desktop or laptop provides a fat target for hackers and an opportunity to steal data.
But if desktops are run as virtual machines on a server, those desktop user environments can be managed and secured in one central location. Patches and other security measures, along with hardware or software upgrades, demand much less overhead. And the risk that users will make mischief or mistakes that breach security drops dramatically.

Against:
The argument against desktop virtualization is almost as strong. Overhead costs conserved through central management get cancelled out by the need for powerful servers, virtualization software licenses, and additional network bandwidth. Plus, the cost of client hardware and Microsoft software licenses stays roughly the same, while the user experience – at least today – seldom lives up to user expectations. And then the kicker: How are users supposed to compute when they’re disconnected from the network?

Decisions about whether or in what form to adopt desktop virtualization become a whole lot easier when the basic variants and technologies are clear.

Information decision makers should have:
1. Desktop virtualization really is virtualization. Just like server virtualization, desktop virtualization relies on a thin layer of software known as a hypervisor, which runs on bare-metal server hardware and provides a platform on which administrators deploy and manage virtual machines. With desktop virtualization, each user gets a virtual machine that contains a separate instance of the desktop operating system (almost always Windows) and whatever applications have been installed. To the desktop OS, the applications, and the user, the VM does a pretty good job of impersonating a real desktop machine.

2. Traditional thin client solutions are not desktop virtualization. By far the most popular form of server-based, thin client computing relies on Microsoft Terminal Services (recently renamed Remote Desktop Services), which lets multiple users share the same instance of Windows. Terminal Services is often paired with Citrix XenApp (formerly known as Presentation Server and, before that, MetaFrame), which adds management features and improves performance – no hypervisors or VMs here. The main drawbacks: Some applications run poorly or not at all in this shared environment, and individuals can’t customize their user experience the way they can with virtual machines or real desktops. Nonetheless, people often refer to traditional thin client solutions as desktop virtualization because the basic goal is the same: to consolidate desktop computing at the server.

3. Desktop virtualization and VDI mean pretty much the same thing. VMware was first to promote the VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) terminology, but Microsoft and Citrix have followed suit, offering VDI solutions of their own based on the Hyper-V and XenServer hypervisors, respectively. Think of it this way: VDI refers to the basic architecture for desktop virtualization, where a VM for each user runs on the server.

4. Don’t confuse desktop virtualization with … desktop virtualization. The desktop virtualization discussed in this post refers to server-based computing. But “desktop virtualization” also refers to running virtual machines on desktop systems, using such desktop virtualization solutions as Microsoft Virtual PC, VMware Fusion, or Parallels Desktop. Probably the most common use of this sort of desktop virtualization is running Windows in a Parallels or Fusion VM on the Mac and has nothing to do with server-based computing.

5. No server-based computing solution supports the same range of hardware as a desktop. The Windows folks in Redmond spend half their lives ensuring compatibility with every printer, graphics card, sound card, scanner, and quirky USB device. With thin clients, support for hardware is going to be pretty generic, and some items won’t work at all. Other limitations are introduced by the fact that users interact with their VMs over the network. Multimedia, videos, and Flash apps can be problematic.

6. VDI solutions cost more (and deliver more) than traditional thin client solutions. With VDI, each virtual machine needs its own slice of memory, storage, and processing power to run a user’s desktop environment, while in the old-fashioned Terminal Services model, users share almost everything except data files. VDI also means a separate Windows license for each user, while Terminal Services-style setups give you a break with Microsoft Client Access Licenses. Plus, VDI incurs greater network traffic, which may add a network upgrade to the purchase order for beefy server hardware.

In return for that extra cost, along with a better user experience, VDI delivers greater manageability and availability. As with server virtualization, virtual machines can be migrated among servers without bringing down those VMs, can enable performance of VM snapshots for quick recovery, and can run automated load balancing, etc. If a virtual machine crashes, that doesn’t affect other VMs; with Terminal Services, that single instance of Windows is going to bring down every connected user when it crashes.

7. Dynamic VDI solutions improve efficiency. In a standard VDI installation, each user’s virtual machine persists from session to session; as the number of users grows so do storage and administration requirements. In a dynamic VDI architecture, when users log in, virtual desktops assemble themselves on the fly by combining a clone of a master image with user profiles. Users still get a personalized desktop, while administrators have fewer operating system and application instances to store, update, and patch.

8. Application virtualization eases VDI requirements even more. When an application is virtualized, it is “packaged” with all the little operating system files and registry entries necessary for execution, so it can run without having to be installed (that is, no changes need be made to the host operating system).

In a dynamic VDI scenario, admins can set up virtualized applications to be delivered to virtual machines at runtime, rather than adding those apps to the master image cloned by VMs. This reduces the footprint of desktop virtual machines and simplifies application management. If application streaming technology is added, virtualized applications appear to start up faster, as if they were installed in the VM all along.

9. Client hypervisors will allow virtual machines to run offline. A client hypervisor installs on an ordinary desktop or laptop so that “business VM” containing your OS, apps, and personal configuration settings cqn be run. Talk about full circle: Why place all that in a virtual machine instead of having it installed on the desktop itself? Two reasons: One, it is completely secure and separate from whatever else may be running on that desktop (such as a Trojan some clueless user accidentally downloaded) and two, all the virtualization management advantages are there, including VM snapshots, portability, easy recovery, and so on. Client hypervisors also make VDI more practical. A user can run off with the business virtual machine on a laptop and compute without a connection; then when the user connects to the network again, the client VM syncs with the server VM.

Client hypervisors point to a future where individual computers are brought to work and synched with business virtual machines to start the day. Any computer with a compatible client hypervisor can be used – anywhere. The operative word is “future” – although Citrix has released a “test kit” version of its client hypervisor, and VMware is expected to release its own early version soon, shipping versions will not arrive before 2011.

The long march to the server side. A completely different form of server-based computing continues to gain traction: the variant of cloud computing known as SaaS (software as a service), where service providers maintain applications and user data and deliver everything through the browser. A prime example is Google’s GOOG campaign for Google Docs. This encourages users to forget about upgrading to Office 2010 and adopt Google’s suite of productivity apps instead. Google’s Chrome OS also promises to create entire desktop environments in the cloud that retain user personalization.

Very likely, no big winner will emerge in server-based computing. Old-style Terminal Services setups will continue to crank along for offices harboring users with narrow, simple needs. True desktop virtualization on the VDI model will make sense where security and manageability are paramount, such as widely distributed organizations that use lots of contractors. And where far-flung collaboration is key, SaaS will flourish, because anyone with a Web browser can join the party. Conventional desktops may never disappear, but one way or another, the old centralized model of computing is making a comeback.

Virtualization strategies can tremendously impact the performance and the total cost of ownership (TOC) of business’s technology environments. Responza’s experts can provide insight and expertise that helps identify, design and build out the VDI strategy appropriate to each buisness’s needs. Call Responza experts at 206-762-5100.