the future of desktop...

The future of desktop computing: Preparing for effective desktop delivery in the post PC - era

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The future of desktop computing

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End users say ‘no thanks’ to touch changes in Windows 8

The 8 components of the future desktop

Three desktop virtualization trends that won’t go away in 2013

If you’ve addressed virtual desktop security concerns, devised a way to deliver multiple types of applications, and dealt with disparate user personalities, then you should be confident in your ability to deliver desktops, applications, data, and personalized user-settings as a service. Or should you? Leading industry experts Gabe Knuth and Brian Madden dig into the future of the desktop. Gain insight into the challenges Windows 8 presents in end user satisfaction, what our future desktops will look like, and how the consumerization of IT will blur the lines for desktop admins.

End users say ‘no thanks’ to touch changes in Windows 8 By Brian Madden

Now that Windows 8 has been released, every enterprise IT department is playing the “If, when, how” game to determine how Windows 8 will be rolled out. So, for enterprise IT folks, I’d like to add another data point to your calculations: The perspective of end users is, “No thanks!” Seriously, we’re fine with Windows 7. Don’t go to Windows 8 on our behalf.

While there’s debate in the press about how much Microsoft is spending to advertise the Windows 8 launch, we consumers can see that the budget is huge. Billboards, TV commercials, online banners, bus wraps and full-page magazine cover wraps throw Windows 8 in our faces. And yeah, every Windows-based computer or tablet that we get this holiday season will run the operating system, but that doesn’t change our core position on Windows 8 at work, which is, “No thanks—really. We’re good!”

From a user standpoint, the biggest change in Windows 8 is the new touch-based tile start screen, which replaces the traditional desktop. While it looks awesome on a tablet, it doesn’t make sense on our existing devices, which are all keyboard- and mouse-based laptops and desktops. Please don’t inflict the tile world on us!

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Still Lovin’ Apple

When it comes to tablets, we love iPads. End users want to remind you that even though Microsoft is pushing the familiarity of Windows for its Windows 8 tablets, the reality is that none of our familiar Windows desktop applications are meant to be touch-based. So if you think that we want to touch our laptop screens to use our traditional applications, remember that we didn’t like the Windows XP tablets you gave us in 2001, and we’re not going to like the Windows 8 ones now.

And don’t try to give us the lightweight Windows RT tablets because they feel like iPads. We’ll remind you that they don’t run traditional Windows desktop applications and that we’d rather just have the iPad. (But don’t worry: We’ll still gladly let you manage our iPads with enterprise mobile application management software. And we’re happy using Quickoffice on them—there’s no need to wait for “real” Microsoft Office for iOS.)

The other reality is that the many Windows 8 “enterprise” improvements aren’t tied to Windows 8 at all. If you want to move us to Office 365, Office 15, SharePoint and SkyDrive, I can speak for all your users when I loudly shout, “Yes! Please do it!” But of course all of these applications work wonderfully on Windows 7. So please don’t get swept up in the hype and make us use Windows 8 just to get the cool new Office productivity features.

The bottom line is that we recognize we live in a Windows world. We’re fine with that. But that world can stay on Windows 7 until 2020. We’re fine with that, too.

The 8 components of the future desktop By Brian Madden

A few years ago I wrote an article that explained the difference between "The Desktop" (Big D) and a "desktop" (Little D). This article is an update to that as I now have a more nuanced view of what the future desktop will look like.

To quickly review, I suggested that historically speaking, the "Desktop" has been a single monolithic brick that we call Microsoft Windows. Even though we've gotten good at managing, building, slicing, and delivering that brick, at the end of the day, it's still Windows. I suggested that the future "desktop" will not be a single monolithic brick, but instead a dynamically-created instantiation of user settings, apps, and data constructed in an appropriate way for whatever device the user happened to be using.

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The example of why this is important is captured in the following image (which is by now familiar to readers of this site):

Even if you believe that tablets will rule the future, this is clearly not what the desktop of the future will look like.

So in order to understand the desktop of the future, we have to understand what a desktop actually is. Traditionally, of course, a desktop was this monolithic brick:

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But if you break this desktop up into its core parts, what is it really? (And I'm not talking about layering in this case, since layering is a concept that only applies to Windows desktops. After all, once you reassemble the layers, you still end up with a Windows desktop.)

The 8 components that really make up the desktop

If we dig into what a desktop actually is or does, we can see that there are eight components that come together to create the picture above. Looking at them one-by-one:

1. The device's hardware interface

At the most basic level, the desktop provides the interface that connects applications, data, and user interface to the process, memory, peripherals, and storage. So we can say that acting as the device's hardware interface is one role of the desktop.

2. The user interface

The desktop is also the user interface, including graphics, buttons, windows, menus. This also includes the system for users to interact with it, whether it's keyboard, mouse, touch, acceleration, or orientation.

3. The application runtime

The desktop provides a runtime environment that applications can leverage to do what they do. For example, Windows EXEs can run because the Windows desktop has the kernel, APIs, and everything else that EXE needs to do something useful.

4. An app launcher

The desktop provides a way for users to view and launch available applications. In Windows, this is via the Start Menu or via shortcuts on the desktop.

5. A provisioning target

The desktop is a target we use to deliver applications to users. In Windows, when we want a user to have an application, we deliver a shortcut to their desktop, or we install or stream that application to their desktop.

6. Provider of application integration

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The desktop allows different applications to interact with each other. At the most basic level, this is cutting and pasting between apps. But it could also be things like OLE integration and drag-and-drop.

7. A security container

A user logs into a desktop, and from there everything he or she does uses the credentials and tokens of the original logon. So in Windows, the users logs in, and then everything they access—files, programs, network resources—are accessed in their context.

8. A configuration container

The desktop holds the overall configuration of a user's environment. This includes things like spelling dictionaries, regional settings, fonts, and other preferences.

What does this desktop look like?

As mentioned previously, for the past twenty years or so, all eight of these components of the desktop were combined together into Microsoft Windows—it was all or nothing. We couldn't deliver just some of these components without delivering others (which is how we end up with that funny image of the Windows desktop on mobile devices).

But if you think about our definition of the desktop being made up of those eight different components, you can imagine that those same eight components can combine into a form other than the Microsoft Windows desktop. For example, each of these "desktops" has those same eight components in one form or another:

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Breaking up the monolithic brick

Of course each of the above "alternate" desktops are each still monolithic bricks in their own right (even though they're different than Windows-based bricks). But does it have to be that way? Based on the technologies that we have today, can we start to break up those eight desktop components? And if so, can we deliver a more appropriate desktop to different types of client devices?

In order to do that, we have to look at the client devices and the applications and start to think about which of the eight components we should deliver from where. After all, if a client device already has an app launcher (#4), then us "painting over" the phone's app launcher with our remote Windows desktop app launcher is a huge #fail. (To launch an app with the iPhone's app launcher, you just swipe to the page and touch the icon. But launching an app with a Windows desktop app launcher delivered to an iPhone means you have to pan down to the start menu, zoom way in, push Start, pan up the menu, push Programs, pan over to the app you want, push it, zoom out to the app).

The same could be said for other components of the desktop, like the app integration (#6), the user interface (#2), and the device's hardware interface (#1).

So if we want to deliver a good desktop experience to a device, rather than forcing our remote desktop and all eight of its components onto a client device, we want to use components 1, 2, 4, and 6 from the local device and deliver the rest remotely.

And we can break it down even further. One could argue that the security container (#7), provisioning target (#5), and configuration container (#8) are all user-specific settings that don't need to be tied to a device at all. For security and provisioning, I really just care about which users have access to which apps. It doesn't matter so much that a user has access from one specific device or another. The same is true for user configuration. A user's mail server is the same regardless of whether they're using a laptop, phone, or iPad. And the user preferences like spelling, regional settings, and timezones are also the same no matter what device the user is using.

That just leaves Component #3—the app runtime—as the only thing that we can't really control via the "desktop." And this makes sense, because when it comes to what runtime an app needs, it is what it is. In other words, if we have a Windows app that we need to deliver to our users, then we have no choice but for it to run on a Windows OS. But if we want to deliver that Windows app to an iPad, rather than delivering all eight desktop components remotely (and covering up the eight local components of the iPad), we can

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deliver just the app (perhaps with XenApp, RemoteApp, or Framehawk) and let the other components of the iOS desktop (app integration, app launcher, UI, etc.) shine through.

The point of this story is to get you to think about the desktop as something more than a single monolithic Microsoft Windows-based brick. While the components of today's desktop are the same as that old brick, we have the technology to pick-and-choose which components we get from where. And doing so will deliver a better user experience than just falling back on our old way of painting over everything with our remote desktop.

Three desktop virtualization trends that won’t go away in 2013 By Gabe Knuth

Last week, I shared some of my favorite things from 2012 -- desktop virtualization trends and products that excited me during the year. But that's not all.

There are three more stories that will be important to the VDI industry as we head into 2013. Here's how Microsoft licensing, Dell acquisitions and the consumerization of IT will affect desktop virtualization pros in the new year:

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Microsoft licensing remains a thorn in our sides

Last week I discussed the OnLive vs. Microsoft licensing controversy in depth, so what does that mean for admins in 2013?

One good thing about OnLive's misuse of Windows 7 licenses was that it called attention to the fact that Microsoft does not offer a Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) for Windows 7. Not only does OnLive have to deal with an issue like that, so do all the other Desktop as a Service (DaaS) providers in the world. As OnLive showed, the technology to effectively share hardware to run secure desktops exists, but organizations are prevented from using it by Microsoft's licensing practices.

That means that even though DaaS would be a perfect option for smaller

deployments that want to access remote desktops without having to know all the intricacies of desktop virtualization, it's not cost-effective for a DaaS provider to put together standalone hardware for them.

It may sound like the only people affected are service providers, but there are still many challenges with Microsoft VDI licensing that will carry over into the new year. Using Windows 7 licenses with VDI requires Software Assurance (SA), and if your primary device doesn't have it, then you need to buy a Virtual Desktop Access (VDA) license. On top of that, you're also required to buy additional VDA licenses for other devices accessing your virtual desktop.

Microsoft attempted to change this with Windows 8 licensing, adopting the Companion Device License (CDL). Purchasing a CDL in addition to SA or VDA entitles you to use up to four other devices while at the office. Sounds great, but if you try to take them home, you still have to have a VDA license for them. (Incidentally, if you buy a Microsoft Surface tablet running Windows RT, your license is included and you can use it whenever and wherever you want. Go figure.)

On top of all this, you are technically required to have a Microsoft Office license for every single device that accesses Office. That means that if you have a physical desktop, an Apple iPhone, iPad, virtual desktop and a laptop, you need five Office licenses, despite the fact that you already own it.

We can only hope something changes with Microsoft licensing in 2013, but be careful what you wish for. Sometimes changes aren't all they're cracked up to be.

http://searchvirtualdesktop.techtarget.com/definition/desktop-as-a-service-DaaS

http://searchvirtualdesktop.techtarget.com/feature/VDI-vs-DaaS-How-are-cloud-hosted-desktops-different

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Dell goes acquisition-crazy

In the span of just a few months, Dell acquired two companies that are near and dear to the desktop virtualization market: Wyse Technology and Quest Software.

The acquisition of Wyse, makers of thin clients for the past 15 years and of dumb terminals for many years before that, was expected in light of the heavy competition that Dell was getting from Hewlett-Packard. HP thin clients are the largest competitor to Wyse, and Dell had almost no thin-client offering to speak of. The move made and continues to make sense. There's no doubt that Dell can be successful integrating Wyse's expertise in thin clients into their supply chain and sales channel in 2013.

The $2.4 billion Quest acquisition was more complicated, both because of the number of products that Quest had and because of the arduous task of sorting them out among the different Dell focuses. Quest has storage, monitoring and database management products that are highly regarded, and those took the lion's share of the spotlight post-acquisition. Still, our focus rested solely on what would happen with vWorkspace, one of the "Big Three" VDI and Remote Desktop Session Host platforms on the market. At first, Dell seemed content to let vWorkspace ride off into the sunset, but they're still making announcements and enhancing the product.

I've always had a soft spot for vWorkspace, and I hope that it remains in the discussion in 2013. There's much work to be done with Hyper-V 3, Windows Server 2012 and the changes that Microsoft has implemented in RemoteFX. Quest has been Microsoft's biggest supporter for many years, and I expect them to augment Microsoft's base technology with its own improvements this year.

Desktop virtualization feels the consumerization love

The last thing that sticks out to me about 2012 is that this was the year we really started to understand what the consumerization of IT and desktop virtualization are all about -- and why they always seem to go hand in hand.

Ultimately, all we care about as user-focused IT people is getting users access to their data and applications. How we go about doing that is different for every case, but with new devices and an empowered, technically savvy user base, we have our work cut out for us. Simply slapping a client on an iPad and sending down a published Windows app or desktop isn't enough.

As the consumerization and virtualization trends ramp up in 2013, we see companies, including Citrix Systems and VMware, dedicating astonishing

http://searchvirtualdesktop.techtarget.com/tip/Using-the-iPad-as-a-VDI-client-Does-it-work-and-who-needs-it

http://searchvirtualdesktop.techtarget.com/tip/Using-the-iPad-as-a-VDI-client-Does-it-work-and-who-needs-it

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resources to mobility. Citrix Receiver is becoming a platform unto itself, with built-in security, mobile application management, email, calendaring and data. VMware's Horizon Suite uses cloud-based application management and provisioning, as well as mobile virtualization and data.

The end result is a blurring of the line between consumerization and desktop virtualization, which reinforces that our jobs are about effectively delivering and managing applications and data to the places where they're needed -- be it a Windows desktop, an iPhone or a Google Chromebook.

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