Microsoft Defines the Components Needed for Public Cloud Hosting. (2nd post in a series of 4 posts)

Bottom Line:  Once Microsoft has the software in place to manage Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) in the public cloud, they will change their licensing to make a hosted VDI a reasonable option for organizations.

Throughout the last few years I have heard many complaints that Microsoft has made it impractical for organizations to have their desktops hosted at an offsite service.  Presently, Microsoft’s licensing makes hosted VDI solutions unreasonable because prospective tenants may only run their virtual desktops on physical servers that they own.  This requirement makes VDI less attractive to organizations because it restricts the efficiencies gained though sharing resources between multiple tenants.  The sharing of resources is one of four attributes, listed below, that Microsoft intends to provide in a cloud solution:

·         Shared Services

·         Scalable and Elastic Services

·         Self-Service

·         Usage-based Chargeback

The premise of these four blog posts is to show that Microsoft does not have the software in place to provide these four attributes at this time, but once they do, they will change their licensing to allow VDI in the public cloud.  I predict that these capabilities will be in place in the next six to ten months and Microsoft will be changing their licensing in concert with the release of the toolset.  The following will further explain the above four attributes and the benefits that they provide through a hosted facility.

Shared Services – This is one of the primary attributes that makes VDI at a hosted facility more economical than companies hosting VDI at their own facility.  The sharing of the following three assets with other tenants reduces the start-up and ongoing costs compared to a non-shared solution:

·         hardware

·         software

·         human resources

 Much like the process of server operating systems virtualization allowing reduced hardware costs, cloud VDI provides a platform for shared equipment between multiple tenants allowing a similar reduction in hardware costs.  Without the ability to share equipment between tenants, each tenant would be required to run their own hardware at a lower capacity, increasing the costs of each individual tenant.  The sharing of software provides the opportunity to reduce the tenants’ costs by avoiding the direct upfront purchase of software.  For example, a tenant could avoid the need to purchase desktop management software by appointing the hosting facility to manage the desktops on their behalf.  Another benefit of placing VDI in the cloud can be realized by sharing the human resources required to implement and maintain a VDI solution.  The implementation and ongoing maintenance of a VDI solution requires a specialized skill set that would be better suited in an environment where that talent could be shared across multiple tenants rather than each tenant employing their own set of employees.  

Scalable and Elastic Service – One of the risks to self-hosting a VDI solution is the shifting demands on an infrastructure while an organization increases the number of desktops.  The infrastructure required for each phase of a VDI implementation could be different than the network configuration of the previous phase.  As an example, a company could complete a successful VDI proof of concept and receive permission to proceed with the VDI solution.  Once they implement additional virtual desktops they may find that the infrastructure used to provide a successful proof of concept will not sustain a slightly larger audience.  The need to replace the existing infrastructure to support the additional users of a VDI solution could require an unplanned request for capital.  This same scenario could occur multiple times when the VDI implementation hits another infrastructure threshold.  For an organization that is unaware of these dynamics, the repeated request for more money could create the appearance that a project is out of control.  The entity could elect to avoid the repeated request for capital by initially building the final infrastructure needed for a fully implemented VDI solution, but this approach would require a large initial capital expenditure.  Though this all-or-nothing approach removes the inefficiencies of both repeated infrastructure rebuilds and requests for capital, it provides a greater exposure to risk in the event that the implementation is unsuccessful.   A hosting facility, on the other hand, already has the infrastructure in place to provide a virtually unlimited number of new desktops to a tenant at a consistent cost per desktop.  Thus, a hosted VDI solution avoids both issues related to a self-hosted VDI solution because the costs depend on number of implemented desktops and resources used, providing predictable cost throughout the addition of virtual desktops. 

Self-Service – Having the unlimited desktop capacity available that off-site Microsoft servers could provide is more beneficial to a tenant if routine requests can be both made directly by the business unit and also fulfilled quickly.  Microsoft’s vision is to provide software capable of executing routine tasks for the tenant, such as allocating a desktop, without the delays to which they have become accustom.  For instance, a Marketing Department may request that a desktop be set up with the tools required for a given person.  Rather than making a request for a physical desktop and waiting for days or weeks to receive the requested desktop, the Marketing Department would submit a request for a new virtual desktop and receive it with the underlying infrastructure configured immediately.  This would provide the end user with the capability of requesting and receiving desktops as they are needed.

Usage-based Chargeback – This final attribute provides the hosting facility the capability to charge their shared equipment tenants based on the resources that each tenant utilizes.  Without having the capability of reporting on each tenant’s resource usage, the hosting facility cannot bill their individual tenants and would not be able to provide a shared environment.

What is next - Until recently, Microsoft has been focused on improving their virtualization offering.  Recently, they have turned their focus to providing the functionality within their products that will provide the capabilities listed above.  The next, third, posting will cover the progress made related to Microsoft’s increased virtualization capabilities and the related licensing changes.  The fourth posting of this series will discuss the offerings that will provide the capabilities needed to enable a cloud based VDI service and why I feel that Microsoft will change the licensing to make hosted VDI practical.