Mission Statement
The Enterprise VDI Users Users group exists in order to encourage an exchange of knowledge about all aspects of virtualization, green technology and cloud computing between IT Professionals with a keen focus on Desktop Virtualization (VDI). Furthermore, we will foster affiliation with similar virtualization groups located elsewhere to expand the reach of knowledge and training resources.
What We Do
As a user group, we virtually meet monthly with plans to have some regional meetings in the near future.
The meetings provides an opportunity for education, knowledge transfer, and training through formal presentations, demonstrations, and discussions. As a user group, of course networking is an important element.
Unless there is an objection from a presenter, all presentations will be made available to members. These may be downloaded and viewed by our members offline at a later time, and may be shared with other local user groups that are part of the Virtualization User Group Alliance. We plan at some point to make the presentations streamed live over the internet as well.
What We Cover
We use a very inclusive approach in determining what we consider to fit under the Virtualization umbrella. The list of interest areas that we have defined is expected to change as technology and interests advance. Currently, we have identified the following areas of interest to the group:
- Server Virtualization
- Desktop Virtualization (Hosted and Local)
- Presentation Virtualization
- Application Virtualization
- Storage Virtualization
- Cloud Computing
- Going Green
Content Level
We seek to advance the technical knowledge of our members, who are generally active IT professionals, contractors, and consultants. While presentations may sometimes focus on a particular vendor solution which requires an understanding of "why", presentations generally focus on the "how". Another way we state this is that presentations should be technical as opposed to marketing and at "level 200" or above.
Primary Areas Of Interest
Desktop Virtualization
Desktop Virtualization (called VDI by some), shares many of the technical details of server virtualization, but involves the virtualization of desktop operating systems rather than server operating systems. Because the management needs of desktop users are much more complex, often different products are needed to service those needs. The Desktop Virtualization space itself consists of several sub-spaces with very different solution architectures. This includes what we call the "hosted desktop" space, and the "local desktop" space. Hosted Desktop Virtualization is where the desktop is hosted on back-end equipment (such as a blade server or a multi-VM host such as is used in server virtualization), often combined with some kind of broker service to manage user connections. Local Desktop Virtualization is where the virtualized operating system is run on the local PC that the person is using.
Peripheral Areas Of Interest
Server Virtualization
Server Virtualization is concerned with the hosting of multiple server operating systems on a single hardware platform. Epitomized by products from vendors such as VMware,, Microsoft, Citrix, Virtual Iron, and others, server virtualization provides many companies advantages in consolidation, power, management, and deployment flexibility.
Presentation Virtualization
In terms of number of end-users, the largest usage of any of the Virtualizations we cover is that of multi user session sharing of a single OS, as in Microsoft Terminal Services and X-Windows. In this form of virtualization, user input and output devices are remoted to a single instance of an operating system where sessions are established to isolate activities. The higher user density that may be achieved using Presentation Virtualization will keep this class of solution popular for many years to come. In addition, many other virtualization solutions borrow from the connectivity protocols present in Presentation Virtualization solutions.
Application Virtualization
Application Virtualization isolates not at the OS or User level, but at the application itself. Application Virtualization helps to solve not only application compatibility and conflict issues, but when layered with other forms of virtualization can create a dynamic stateless infrastructure environment.
Storage Virtualization
refers to the process of abstracting logical storage from physical storage. The term is today used to describe this abstraction at any layer in the storage software and hardware stack.
Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing is generally considered to be scenarios whereby companies run software and/or services hosted that are hosted by other companies. The software and/or services may be private or public in nature. Cloud computing may incorporate Application Service Providers, hosting sites, and business solutions such as Google Apps, Microsoft Live Services, and others.
Storage Virtualization
Advances in storage are the most important advances today affecting the performance, availability, and manageability of our systems. Numerous vendors are creating new technology, and advanced management capabilities, that are required by virtualization.
Going Green
Rather than a technology or a product, this category is used to capture the interest and momentum in "going green".