LogMeIn sVirtualDesktop SO#034100 E-Guide 042811

E-Guide

Expert tips for utilizing mobile

access and VDI

Because of all the hype surrounding mobile devices like tablets and

smartphones, you may be wondering if you should be using VDI with

them. In this e-guide from SearchVirtualDesktop.com, find out if your

IT environment is capable of supporting VDI for users’ mobile devices.

Determine if VDI will support user needs and how it can affect their

productivity. Plus, learn why running Unified Communications in virtual

desktops introduces performance challenges in these two areas:

processing signal data and providing “desktop-like” performance.

Sponsored By:

http://www.LogMeIn.com

SearchVirtualDesktop.com E-Guide

Expert tips for utilizing mobile access and VDI

Sponsored By: of 10

E-Guide

Expert tips for utilizing mobile access

and VDI

Table of Contents

More mobile devices support virtual desktops -- but is it practical?

Accessing mobile unified communications with virtual desktops

Resources from LogMeIn



Sponsored By: of 10

More mobile devices support virtual desktops -- but is it practical?

By Brien M. Posey, SearchVirtualDesktop.com

Ask anybody who attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, and they

will tell you that the show was all about tablets and smartphones. Since that time, I have

read countless stories on various technology blogs that claimed that the PC is dead and will

soon be completely replaced by tablets and smartphones.

Although I don't share that bleak view of the PC's inevitable demise, I do think that

nontraditional devices such as tablets and smartphones will start playing a much larger role

in the enterprise. We should thus examine the practicality of using such devices as virtual

desktop infrastructure (VDI) clients.

Do mobile devices support VDI?

I'm sure that some of you are wondering if mobile devices can even be used as VDI clients.

Generally speaking, the answer is yes. A lot of new tablets and smartphones are making

their way into the market right now, however, and client software may not exist yet for

some of the newer or the less popular platforms.

Of course, you also have to take the infrastructure into account. Some virtualization

vendors use proprietary client software and may not offer a mobile version of their VDI

clients. Typically, mobile VDI connectivity isn't a problem for mainstream technologies. For

example, 2X offers a free client for the iPhone, iPad, and Android phones and tablets that

works with all of the major VDI platforms.

Using a mobile device as a VDI client

Even though a mobile device might be able to access virtual desktops and provide a similar

end-user experience as a PC, the practicality of using that device ultimately depends on

what applications the user needs to do his job.



Sponsored By: of 10

In some ways, this could be said of VDI in general. After all, some applications are better

suited to VDI environments than others. For example, Microsoft Office usually runs really

well in a VDI environment, but you probably wouldn't want to use VDI to host video editing

or computer-aided design (CAD) apps. Those types of applications would quickly deplete

your virtual desktop host of hardware resources and may not provide a satisfactory end-

user experience.

When it comes to using mobile devices as VDI clients, you have to think about more than

just whether or not the server has the resources to run the application efficiently. You have

to consider how the end user will use the application.

From a VDI prospective, the biggest and most obvious difference between a PC and a tablet

or a smartphone is that the latter devices don't usually have hardware keyboards and mice,

and not having those familiar tools can affect productivity. (Some mobile devices support an

optional docking station.)

For instance, even though a tablet has an onscreen keyboard, it probably wouldn't be a

good fit for a user whose primary job responsibilities involve word processing or data entry.

In fact, I cannot imagine what it would have been like to have typed this article using an

onscreen keyboard.

The lack of a mouse isn't as significant of a limitation as the lack of a hardware keyboard is.

The 2X client that I mentioned earlier provides an onscreen mouse that seems to work

really well. Even so, it may not be a good fit for users who need precision control. For

example, an onscreen mouse might be a poor choice for those who do graphic design,

desktop publishing or CAD work.

One last limitation that you may run into is the device's screen resolution. In preparing to

write this article, for example, I loaded a VDI client onto an iPhone and established a virtual

session. I set the screen resolution to 800 x 600, but the Windows desktop extended far

beyond the boundaries of my iPhone's screen. Although the client software supports lower

screen resolutions that are better suited to the iPhone, some of my applications require a

minimum screen resolution of 800 x 600. I was able to access the entire desktop by

panning across it, but the experience wasn't really practical for long-duration use.



Sponsored By: of 10

Screen resolution isn't going to be nearly as much of an issue on tablet devices. But you still

need to make sure that your organization's tablets support the minimum screen resolution

required by your apps without forcing users to pan the screen to access the full Windows

desktop.

Though I don't believe that tablets and smartphones are superior to PCs, there are some

environments in which tablets and smartphones can make excellent VDI clients. This is

especially true if your organization uses applications that are optimized for use with such

devices. Before you begin replacing PCs with tablets, however, consider how the switch will

ultimately affect user productivity.

LogMeIn®, LogMeIn Free®, LogMeIn Pro®, LogMeIn® Ignition™, LogMeIn® Central™, LogMeIn Rescue®, are the trademarks and service marks of LogMeIn, Inc., and may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. This advertisement also contains the trademarks and service marks of third parties and such trademarks and service marks are

the property of their respective owners. These marks may be registered and/or used in the U.S. and other countries around the world.

To learn more or to take a trial of any of our products, visit www.LogMeIn.com Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/LogMeIn or tweet us at twitter.com/LogMeInEurope

Remote Access, Support and Collaboration Solutions



Sponsored By: of 10

Accessing mobile unified communications with virtual desktops

John Burke, Principal Nemertes Research Analyst

Editor’s note: Virtual desktops deliver access to mobile unified communications

applications, providing end users access to rich collaborative tools with their preferred

mobile device.

Virtual enterprises strive to provide place-independent and device-independent work

environments. Full support for mobility is a key tenet of the virtual enterprise. Smartphones

and iPads (and now many other tablets ) have made the future look distinctly mobile to

many IT departments. More than 70% of organizations have some support for mobile

platforms now. Already 11% of organizations report having some users whose only

connection to enterprise systems is via a mobile device. On average, they say slightly fewer

than 2% of users fall in this category, but at the leading edge of the group 38% of users do.

Success with mobile initiatives is strongly correlated with having a mobility strategy in place

and doing a risk assessment when developing that strategy. A major risk factor to consider

is the place of mobile platforms in a UC environment. Fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) may

make the integration of smartphones into a campus VoIP deployment easy, but doesn’t help

much with a Samsung Galaxy tablet, for example. How can users across many platforms

use the same set of rich tools that laptop or desktop users can?

Channeling mobile unified communications with desktop virtualization

One key enabler of the virtual enterprise is desktop virtualization (DV). DV treats the

desktop operating system (usually Windows, sometimes Linux or Solaris) as a container for

application delivery. Already, more than half of all organizations have some desktop

virtualization, a number we expect to grow to 74% by 2012. More than 60% of

technologically aggressive organizations, which pursue enterprise virtualization technologies

faster, have some desktop virtualization in place. Virtual desktops can reduce endpoint

capital and operating expenses as well as ease management headaches.



Sponsored By: of 10

IT can use virtual desktops as a channel that users can tune into from a PC, a dedicated thin

client, or thin client software running on other platforms including several smartphone and

tablet OSes. One IT leader in our current (2011-2012) round of research interviews told us

that his ultimate goal is “to virtualize everything and achieve complete device

independence.” This necessitates running softphones and other UC clients within the virtual

desktop images, making them available to mobile users.

Running UC in virtual desktops introduces performance challenges in two areas:

• Processing signal data

• Providing “desktop-like” performance

To optimize the user experience, UC software and the virtual desktop client software should

use the local device to process (encode and decode) audio and video data wherever

possible. This will vastly reduce the latency involved, as well as the volume of data moving

between device and data center.

To achieve desktop-like feel in terms of interactions with the interface, virtual desktops

delivered to mobile platforms need to deal with the challenges of limited bandwidth over

links whose quality tends to be far more variable than links on a campus LAN or WLAN.

Testing ensures mobile unified communications app performance

To combat such problems, enterprises need to look for and test client software that can

optimize, through compression and latency/loss mitigation, all traffic between client and

virtual machines in the data center. This has been a subject of significant development

activity in the protocols used for virtual desktop traffic. Citrix and Wyse have solutions

available for various platforms, for example, and Cisco has one for its own UC environment

and tablet.

Another set of issues to consider is the suitability of the mobile devices to work with the UC

tools’ interfaces. Some clients, with or without layered software added to virtual desktops,

can support current technologies such as multi-touch screens. Others would force users to



Sponsored By: of 10

interact via keyboards and/or mouse (finger) if available. This is another area where there is

no substitute for testing.

The bottom line? Integrate virtual desktops into your UC thinking, and mobile client devices

into your virtual desktop planning. Test multiple solutions. Test not only supported

platforms, but also platforms you expect to have to support in the future (iPhones anyone?),

and test under real-world conditions of mobile use.



Sponsored By: of 10

Resources from LogMeIn

Free 14-day trial of LogMeIn Rescue -- on-demand remote support software

IRIS improves remote support with LogMeIn Rescue

Top 5 reasons to replace your existing support tools

About LogMeIn

LogMeIn (Nasdaq:LOGM) provides SaaS-based remote access, support and collaboration

solutions to quickly, simply and securely connect millions of internet-enabled devices across

the globe — computers, smartphones, iPad™ tablets, digital displays, and even in-dash

computers of the Ford trucks. Designed for consumers, mobile professionals and IT

organizations, LogMeIn's solutions empower over 11 million active users to connect more

than 125 million devices. LogMeIn is based in Woburn, Massachusetts, USA, with offices in

Australia, Hungary, the Netherlands, and the UK.

https://secure.logmeinrescue.com/welcome/default.aspx?originid=27689&WT.mc_id=16152&destination=/UK/welcome/Flashb

http://image.logmein-inc.com/lib/feee137971600d/m/3/IRIS2010.pdf

http://image.logmein-inc.com/lib/feee137971600d/m/3/Top+5+Reasons.pdf

http://www.LogMeIn.com

LogMeIn sVirtualDesktop SO#034100 E-Guide 042811

Documents

Transcript of LogMeIn sVirtualDesktop SO#034100 E-Guide 042811