42 posts tagged with "rspruijt"

Azure Brings True Virtual Graphics to the Cloud with NVv4​

Do you know what's so great about bacon and eggs, burgers and fries, and peanut butter and jelly? They're all great together!

So are Nutanix Frame and the new Microsoft NVv4 AMD-powered virtual machines. In this post you will learn the technology details about the NVv4 - the first Azure cloud based instance type to use virtualized AMD GPUs. I'll also share insights into the benefits of using GPUs with Desktop-as-a-Service. You'll also get a preview of Frame and the Azure NVv4 in action.

In this blog series, I've discussed the pros and cons of VDI and DaaS, providing some guidelines to help you make smarter choices. If you've read the previous blog posts, you probably have a pretty good idea what your EUC goals are, what obstacles you face, and how to be successful with DaaS. This time I want to talk about Nutanix Frame, our innovative DaaS platform, and explain what makes Frame unique compared to other DaaS solutions such as Amazon Workspaces, Citrix Cloud, Microsoft WVD (Windows Virtual Desktop), and VMware Horizon Cloud.

I've often said, “We live in a world where everybody is working together and at the same time everybody is competing. This is the new normal.” Finding the balance between competition and partnership is healthy. It keeps Nutanix sharp and helps us to deliver value for customers now and in the future.

In Part 1 of this blog on DaaS success, I looked at DaaS use cases, application and data considerations, and networking factors. This time, I’m focusing on:

• Identity management and security
• Endpoint devices
• Workspace and application management
• Company culture

In my previous blog, I shared my thoughts about how to choose between VDI and DaaS. For the purposes of this blog, let’s assume that you’ve evaluated your needs and circumstances and decided to move forward with DaaS.

Frame started out during the early days of cloud computing, learning to adapt to rapid changes and build features to meet the needs of our many unique customers. We weren’t just built during early public cloud development, Frame was built on the public cloud and has always taken an agile development and delivery approach -- anticipating customer demands and acting quickly to provide new solutions using the latest technology innovations.

The first three blogs in this series focused primarily on VDI, while the fourth provided a deeper introduction to DaaS. If you've read this far, you are probably beginning to form an opinion about whether VDI or DaaS is better for your company's needs. This time I want to dig a little deeper into some considerations for choosing between the two.

We live in a world where the pace of business is 24/7/365. We also live in an uncertain world where anything can happen—be it the force majeure of Mother Nature or breaking your collarbone during a mountain bike ride. And when disaster strikes, it affects humans personally and professionally. They might, for instance, be unable to commute to work in the event of a railway closure or a bridge collapse. Floods, blizzards, fires, and all manner of natural disasters prevent people from “reporting for duty” as usual. Epidemics hit (as we’re all too familiar with in these past couple months), making it inadvisable to go into work—and sometimes it’s even mandated by the government that people remain at home.

So far in this series, I've talked about the advantages of VDI and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) over traditional desktops and laptops, looked at the challenges that get in the way of VDI success, and examined how Nutanix HCI overcomes those challenges. In this blog, I want to focus on DaaS.

At the end of blog 2, I suggested that—although it doesn't get you out of doing the necessary homework entirely—DaaS provides an alternative way to address VDI use cases, and it also unlocks new use-cases. For many companies, DaaS is simply a better fit than VDI or a complementary technology that can better address specific needs. Read more about the benefits of DaaS.

Designing, building, running, and maintaining VDI in-house can be challenging due to constraints that may include skills, datacenter space, budget limitations, and staffing. IT teams may already be oversubscribed. Finding and retaining experienced administrators with the skills to run a modern—but also complex—VDI platform can be difficult. Adding VDI to your existing mix of applications and services may just multiply your challenges.

In blog 2 in this series, I talked about three big issues that can derail a VDI project: poor user experience, excessive solution complexity, and high costs. I also explained why hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is widely recognized as the solution to these challenges. But, when it comes to VDI, not all HCI solutions are the same. Nutanix is uniquely capable of addressing VDI infrastructure challenges and delivering a better overall VDI solution. Virtual applications and desktops are almost literally in Nutanix's DNA. Today we have thousands of customers successfully delivering millions of virtual apps and desktops on Nutanix—all covered by our world-class support. While this blog focuses on VDI, the Nutanix platform supports both VDI and DaaS solutions addressing a broad range of use-cases.

In the first blog in this series, I talked about the main advantages of VDI and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), including centralized management, improved security, and ability to support bring-your-own-device (BYOD). This time, I want to focus on common problems that arise with VDI. We'll look at three big VDI challenges—poor user experience, solution complexity, and high costs.