VIOPS: Proven Practices for Deploying and Managing VMware: VDI Justification ...

Up to Discussions in Community

This Question is Possibly Answered

1 "correct" answer available (4 pts) 2 "helpful" answers available (2 pts)

11 Replies Last post: Jul 8, 2009 2:18 AM by Steve Chambers

Brian Kirsch

12 posts since
Feb 20, 2009

Feb 26, 2009 5:30 AM

VDI Justification

Good Morning,

I am a little new to the VIOPS so hopefully this won't be a repeat to anyone. Currently I am an IT Architect at a very large Children's Hospital located in Wisconsin. One of my current projects is writing a business case for VDI. Now I came from a fortune 500 company before this so writing white papers is not foreign to me but I am struggling with this one a bit.

Server virtualization is pretty easy to justify due to the high cost of servers but on a desktop side the hardware costs of a desktop are so cheap and the server side hardware and software licensing for VMware View are such a high initial capital cost it's a very tough sell in today's economy. Currently I am focusing on the power savings of the thin clients, however that savings is in a operational budget and not a IT budget. Of course it saves the entire organization money but saving money for another group is a hard sell sometimes.

If I focus too much on the labor savings to re-provision desktops I get the desktop teams scared they are going to lose their jobs (and I have stressed to them that they will get busier since there will be more thin clients because they are cheaper to put in).

Any thoughts, insight or suggestions would be helpful...additionally I would be happy to share the documents contents with the VIOPS site if it can benefit anyone else.

Steve Chambers

213 posts since
May 31, 2008

1. Feb 26, 2009 1:46 PM

in response to: Brian Kirsch

Re: VDI Justification

Brian, first of all welcome

I know just the people to help you - I will throw a bounty laden hook into their pond and see what big fish I can pull out.

Rodos

37 posts since
Sep 2, 2008

2. Feb 26, 2009 6:19 PM

in response to: Brian Kirsch

Re: VDI Justification

Brian welcome.

There was a VMworld session on cost models for VDI, I wonder if you can get your hands on a copy of that. It may not be available for a short while.

Have you put your hand to the VMware TCO and ROI calculator @ www.vmware.com/calculator. It has an option for Desktop Solutions. The output of that will give you a good breakdown of the areas in a business case from the capital and operational costs sides.

Certainly keep us informed of your progress and brain storm any ideas here.

Creating a document afterwards on the "thinking" behind putting yours together would be very helpful.

Rodos

Andrew Miller

3 posts since
Feb 26, 2009

3. Feb 26, 2009 6:25 PM

in response to: Steve Chambers

Re: VDI Justification

Am very much looking forward to this as I recently had a request for a fairly in-depth presentation on this topic.

Steve Chambers

213 posts since
May 31, 2008

4. Feb 27, 2009 7:36 AM

in response to: Andrew Miller

Re: VDI Justification

I've posted this to VMware's internal VDI email alias as well as contacted someone directly. VMworld was this week and most folks are at that, so it might be next week before we get a nibble.

Steve

Derek Niedermayer

1 posts since
Feb 27, 2009

5. Feb 27, 2009 12:34 PM

in response to: Steve Chambers

Re: VDI Justification

I am not sure what else you are looking for in regards to justification but has data security been considered? Now that you have all the data in the cloud, its tougher to remove which I would image would be beneficial in regulatory scenarios.

If you follow a thin client model, you can also display the benefits of uptime, load balancing, desktop regulation or time management. All features of ESX will expand to your desktop including features like HA, DRS, vMotion if you plan for that type of redundancy...

There were tons of topics at Vmworld 2008, there were even topics in regards to VDI in the Healthcare industry, ROI of VDI.

I can find the topics I just am not sure if I am allowed to post them here from vmworld website...

Steve Chambers

213 posts since
May 31, 2008

6. Feb 27, 2009 11:48 PM

in response to: Derek Niedermayer

Re: VDI Justification

Derek, you can post links to the sessions or just attach the documents and I'll sort everything else out - let me worry about the rules!

I'm glad you found VMworld 2008 sessions useful - have you seen our new VMworld Harvesting project?

It's aimed at the recent 2009 Europe event, but I wonder if we can go further back in time...?

Damian Murdoch

10 posts since
Feb 28, 2009

7. Feb 28, 2009 3:48 AM

in response to: Steve Chambers

Re: VDI Justification

If you are looking for the high level categories for consideration or addition to your cost modelling for the business case, include these items :

Client Hardware

Server Hardware

Facilities costs

Virtual Desktop Solution

PC deployment costs

Operational Costs

End User Retooling and Training Costs

Downtime and service costs

Each of these areas needs to be broken down, but of course the detail associated with each area needs to be known and within your accepted variances.

My VDI cost model is much more complex than what I have listed here and also has variance in each environment. The fundamentals always remain the same though.

As others suggested, you could do much worse than actually grabbing the vmworld content it has some REALLY great information in there.

I will be happy to help you further with is if you still need more info.

Brian Kirsch

12 posts since
Feb 20, 2009

8. Mar 2, 2009 5:34 AM

in response to: Damian Murdoch

Re: VDI Justification

Thanks to everyone for such great input. My business case is coming along, I have sections talking about security and overall power (and cost) savings but I am afraid the sticker shock maybe too much. In today's times everyone (aka Exec's) are focusing on the current capital costs as that effects the current cash flow. The additional savings in years 2, 3 and beyond don't help if the inital price tag can't be afforded. I have even been asked when does VDI hardware costs become less than physical desktops and the truth is it never really does due to the licensing model with support costs. I understand the ROI of VDI and the power savings alone are staggering but capital costs in today's economy are a huge uphill battle.

Rodos

37 posts since
Sep 2, 2008

9. Mar 2, 2009 12:19 PM

in response to: Brian Kirsch

Re: VDI Justification

Brian can you share some of your numbers? When you look at the upfront costs what are you including?

Terminal

Monitor

ESX hosts based on ratio

View / ESX license

Windows license

Storage

Are you able to re-use old PCs for a portion or just the monitors? What ratio are you estimating for your ESX hosts? Which version of View are you using? Moving to a VECD license model means you may be paying as you go which may be better long term. For the storage are you having to bring in a whole new SAN or are you just purchasing additional disks for an existing one.

When are the PCs up for a replacement or is it a break fix? If its a break fix can you use that model for VDI to, and just replace as you go, start small and grow? Do you have many laptops or requests for new ones? Can using VDI for remote work from home assist because you can offset the cost of some new laptops.

Just some thoughts.

Rodos

millja

1 posts since
Jul 7, 2009

10. Jul 7, 2009 12:02 PM

in response to: Brian Kirsch

Re: VDI Justification

Brian, I work in higher education, and we are embarking on the same business justification process that you have done. We have already virtualized the vast majority of our server environment with a great deal of success, but I am finding that the desktop justification is more challenging for the reasons you specified. Would you be willing to share your findings up to this point? My email is available in my profile. Thanks, John

Steve Chambers

213 posts since
May 31, 2008

11. Jul 8, 2009 2:19 AM

in response to: millja

Re: VDI Justification

Brian wrote up his work in a VIOPS proven practice doc:

Virtual Desktop Introduction Business Case

Go to original post

This Question is Possibly Answered

Feb 26, 2009 5:30 AM

VDI Justification

Actions

More Like This