Virtualisation
Virtualisation is the answer to current issues of centralisation of servers infrastructures due to cloud computing projects, the need for a more agile IT dedicated to business needs, and the will to decrease the overall carbon footprint.
As a VMware Enterprise Solution Provider, a Citrix Gold Solution Advisor and a Microsoft Gold Partner, Prolival advice to its clients is to virtualise their IS for servers as well as desktops and applications.
Virtualisation is becoming critical for all levels of IT, from desktop to datacentre. After testing it for quite some time on development environments, more and more companies now use virtualisation to manage critical environments, with cost reductions due to server consolidation.
Many companies intend to extend virtualisation over some basic functions, such as service continuity, post incident reload, tests and development, as well as remote desktop management.
Servers virtualisation
The traditional model « One application = One Server » has reached its limits from a global efficiency point of view, as well as for management, security, continuity and cost issues. IT Directions have been searching for new solutions to try and tackle these challenges.
In a relatively short time, servers virtualisation has become the relevant technology to deal with these issues:
- High optimisation of global infrastructure costs
- An information system less complex and more centralised
- A simplified administration
- A dramatic improvement in capabilities and answer delays from IT services to business needs/li>
- A better use of equipment and a reduction of the IS carbon footprint
- Performance and systems availability optimisation
- Procedures and operation rules standardisation
- New features implementation is easier
Three editors carve up the market amongst themselves :
- VMWare with their vSphere products range
- Citrix with their XenServer Hypervisor
- Microsoft with Hyper –V, integrated to Windows Server 2008
Choosing between these solutions depends on the objectives, the IT infrastructure environment and applications requirements particular to each company. As a partner of these 3 market leaders, Prolival can provide you with the solution best suited to your needs, in complete independence.
VMWare vSphere 5[More]
Microsoft Hyper-V[More]
, part of Windows Server 2008 R2.
Citrix XenServer[More]
built on the powerful Xen hypervisor.
Desktop Virtualisation – VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)
Desktop virtualisation is adapted from the server virtualisation technology. Complete desktop environments (operating systems and applications) can be run on virtual machines hosted on servers, and accessed via thin clients, completely secure and less bulky.
Thanks to these work environments consolidated in the IT Service, users have access to their usual work environment. These environments become more secure, cheaper and are always available.
This enables IT departments to:
- reduce costs of maintenance and support for workstations
- increase security of workstations
- deploy different complete types of workstations (PC, thin clients, tablets, smartphones…) on centralised servers
- set up very quickly work teams or entire departments
VDI (for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is a relatively recent concept but quite a few large companies, among which some of Prolival’s clients, already use it with some success.
VDI is perfectly adapted to the most cost-effective thin clients, each desktop being attributed its own virtual machine on the server, to obtain a reliable, cheap, secure and easy to administer information.
Prolival has had an early interest in the VDI concept, and now integrates the solutions offered by two market leaders:
- Citrix and their XenDesktop solution
- VMware with their View product
According to a study carried out by IDC in July 2011, Citrix and VMware have become two VDI actors that have to be reckoned with, because of their long term vision and the maturity of their offer.
The following diagram represents the positioning, according to IDC, of all the actors of the VDI sphere. Considering the technical capacities of their offer and the strategic vision of the company, IDC reckons that Citrix is the main actor in this market, and should remain so for the next two years.
Citrix XenDesktop[More]
VMWare View[More]
to desktops and applications. Relying on VMware vSphere, View deploys desktops from a single integrated platform, and is part of your Cloud services strategy:Applications virtualisation
Traditional application deployment has become more and more complex and expensive. IT departments waste a great amount of time to correct and permanently update applications, on hundreds or thousands devices. As a consequence, many desktops are never really up to date.
At the same time, applications and data stored on users’ devices are not secured and can cause conflicts that will slow or cause the desktop to fail.
Virtual application delivery lets IT manage a single instance of each application in an application hub in the datacentre. Applications are then delivered via application streaming to Windows PCs for offline use or run on high-powered servers in the datacentre for online use on any device or operating system.
Citrix XenApp[More]
Attijariwafa Bank
Consulting and design for the implementation of an applications virtualisation architecture with Citrix XenApp
Bacardi Martini
Integration and evolution of the virtualisation infrastructure of VMware vSphere 4.1 servers, and applications virtualisation with Citrix XenApp
GIE Mutua Services
Design, integration and implementation of a VDI with Citrix and Windows 7 workstations, combined with a restructuring of servers virtualisation infrastructure (XenServer/ XenDesktop / XenApp)
Implementation of a resilient architecture
Jungheinrich France
Design and implementation of the architecture for applications centralisation through a virtualised VMware vSphere and Microsoft Terminal Services infrastructure
Manoir Industries
Virtualisation with VMware of all the servers of the Group's Central Information System
Implementation of a resilient architecture
