Using Citrix's new XenDesktop 5 and Microsoft VDI, Wipro now offers 'Desktop as a Service'
Microsoft, Citrix and Indian outsourcer Wipro Technologies have joined forces to allow companies to outsource their virtual desktop environments. Wipro’s new Desktop as a Service (DaaS) makes use of Citrix’s newly launched XenDesktop 5 as well as Microsoft’s VDI Premium Suite.
As an outsourcer, Wipro’s pitch is almost always about the money. DaaS is no different. Wipro didn’t announce a one-size-fits-all, per-seat price for its new service, so initial costs probably won’t be lower than buying a new Windows 7 PC and deploying existing Windows apps on it. Microsoft would never have partnered in this deal if that was the case. Windows 7 deployments are just about to skyrocket, with new research showing that 11 percent of organizations have already upgraded and another 50% plan to within the next twelve months. My guess is that DaaS is likely cheaper than a Windows infrastructure overhaul of Windows 7 desktops, Windows Server 2008 R2 servers, Office 2010, Exchange 2010 … all the stuff Microsoft would like you to buy and deploy.
This is more about saving money on management — particularly worker salaries, otherwise known as operating expense (OPEX). DaaS should offer a company reduced OPEX, Wipro senior vice president Deepak Jain said. IT could achieve that by reducing headcount or it could keep the workers and redirect them to more important projects once they are freed from supporting Windows clients.
OPEX may also come from reducing facilities costs. But you don’t need to use DaaS as a cloud service with Wipro’s data centers. Enterprises can opt to hire Wipro to run DaaS from their own on-premises data centers — the so-called “private cloud” model.
Most companies haven’t yet moved to virtual desktops — though I haven’t met a CIO in the past year that has no interest in doing so. Market researchers predict that corporations will spin up nearly 50 million new virtual desktops over the next three years, Citrix says. Certainly, Citrix is working to make that prediction prove true. In early 2011, it will launch a website to recommend virtual desktop configurations, host how-to videos and best practices documents, and provide other self-help tools to help companies go virtual. It’s dubbed Success Accelerator Program.
But it’s not really a lack of expertise that stands in the way. Desktop virtualization could very well be used to lower CAPEX costs, outsourced or not, if Microsoft stopped thinking up licensing schemes that prevented such savings. Microsoft seems to be bending a little. On July 1, the company lowered costs on its VDI a little with a new licensing plan — particularly for Software Assurance customers (who are paying Microsoft more money anyway). But there’s still a hefty VDI tax for those who are not SA customers and would like to continue using Windows as a virtual desktop on multiple devices instead of as a fat client tied to a single device. (See Rand Morimoto’s excellent two-part series Microsoft’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure).
Even in this case, Wipro’s DaaS offering is based on Microsoft’s “premium” VDI offering, which basically covers a package of Client Access License fees for Microsoft. Plus, Microsoft still insists on a “per device” license — meaning every device that will use the virtual desktop must pay a fee — rather than a per user license, which Citrix offers.
The heart of the DaaS offering is Citrix’s new virtual desktop, XenDesktop 5 which includes Citrix’s new device client, Citrix Receiver. Citrix Receiver let’s virtual applications run on any device using it, including PCs, Macs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. It includes touchscreen support.
XenDesktop 5 is supposed to ease VDI management, Citrix says, with things like role-based features, realtime metrics, integration with Microsoft’s System Center. It improves performance for high-bandwidth needs such as audio, video, printing of large documents via a technology Citrix calls HDX. Low tolerance, bandwidth hogging apps have traditionally been one of the downsides of VDI. XenDesktop 5 also includes an improved version of the FlexCast tool, which lets the XenDesktop run in a hypervisor on the device, even if the device is unplugged. (Got that? A virtual desktop in a virtual machine which allows your PC to function as if it were a regular fat client PC running the software on its own.)
Citrix is way ahead of the game with desktop virtualization, though VMware is hoping to bite in with VMware View 4.x.
I’m not convinced that companies will race to hand over their virtual desktops to Wipro in the same way they are willing to hand over their generic technical support. The upside is that if Wipro can make desktop virtualization so cheap that it overrides Microsoft’s VDI tax, it does offer companies an attractive way to try it.
But would those lower OPEX costs require companies to eliminating in-house IT jobs?
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