VIRTUAL DESKTOP STRATEGIES
Insight | September 27, 2021
Insight Enterprises, the global systems integrator of Insight Intelligent Technology Solutions™ for organizations of all sizes, today announced that it has added Citrix to its Insight Managed VDI support and managed services portfolio. The addition of Citrix to Insight’s support portfolio for the Connected Workforce means Citrix clients can securely enable employees to work anywhere from any device, while alleviating the expense and time spent by IT managing the day-to-day administration of a virtual environment.
The modernization and migration of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) resources and tools to modern cloud-based platforms such as Microsoft® Azure® and Azure® Virtual Desktop (AVD) significantly reduce upfront infrastructure costs associated with deployment of a VDI solution. Insight Managed VDI for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops offers a modern and cost-effective turnkey approach to the administration and support of new or existing Citrix environments with AVD.
Enhanced management platforms like Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops enable dynamic and rapid scaling of the environment. Clients can quickly adjust resources up or down as needed, reducing cost complexity and allowing improvements in overall performance. Insight Managed VDI allows organizations to refocus internal resources on critical business needs while ensuring the performance of the environment against specific and measurable targets.
“Despite the clear advantages of modern VDI in today’s hybrid workplace, many organizations still struggle to master a long-term strategy for virtual desktop solutions,” said Stephen Moss, senior vice president and general manager, Connected Workforce, Insight. “Insight Managed VDI offers a cost-effective way to support new or existing virtual Citrix settings, simplifying the complexity of maintaining VDI tools while keeping the organization secure at its endpoints. In turn, our clients can shift internal IT resources to more strategic business transformation goals while their employees realize the greater convenience of working in the ways they prefer.”
Insight provides an evaluation of a client’s existing Citrix and Microsoft environments to see what needs optimizing across the Azure tenant. Insight’s Managed VDI for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop takes the challenges out of maintaining a virtualized environment by offering:
Tool and portal management for Azure-hosted Citrix solutions
Image management, including operating system and application updates, and deployment of virtual machines
Licensing for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops instance
Implementation of the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops instance with AVD
Expert ongoing administration of the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and AVD environment
24/7 admin-to-admin support of the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and AVD environment
Automated processes and regular reporting, service reviews and roadmap development
Citrix joins a rapidly expanding list of VDI technologies for which Insight offers expert operational oversight. Clients can outsource a wide range of managed endpoint, security, workplace and lifecycle services, in order to offload day-to-day management of end-user support, fill skills gaps, expedite issue resolution and reduce the risk of system downtime.
“Today’s workers require the ability to seamlessly and securely access work applications and productivity platforms no matter where or how they are working,” said Mike Fouts, vice president, Americas Partner Sales and Services, Citrix. “With Managed VDI for Citrix, Insight can help its customers deliver it and empower their people to perform at their best.”
AboutInsight Enterprises
Every business is a technology business. Insight Enterprises Inc. empowers organizations of all sizes with Insight Intelligent Technology Solutions and services to maximize the business value of IT. As a Fortune 500-ranked global provider of Digital Innovation, Cloud + Data Center Transformation and Connected Workforce solutions and services, we help clients successfully manage their IT today while transforming for tomorrow. From IT strategy and design to implementation, management and supply chain optimization, our 11,000+ teammates help clients innovate and elevate their operations to run business smarter.
Read More
VIRTUAL DESKTOP TOOLS
XTREME-D | August 28, 2021
XTREME-D announced the launch of a new instance on its baremetal high-speed computing environment. The new instance, named G4 for the company’s fourth-generation model, was developed as an all-in-one solution using AXXE-L One, XTREME-D’s first server product
AXXE-L by XTREME-D is an HPC Environment as a Service, a framework that supports both on-premise and cloud environments and allows users to run all HPC jobs using the same process, regardless of environment. AXXE-L provides all major software stack components required to run HPC/AI jobs and is designed to do everything via a web browser. AXXE-L One is an appliance that comes with AXXE-L pre-installed, providing the key components required to run HPC/AI jobs out-of-the-box.
XTREME-D’s new G4 instance consists of compute nodes equipped with AMD’s newest EPYC 7003 series processor running at 2.0 GHz. The instance supports a maximum of 128 cores and 1 TB main memory per node and features a large-scale, high-speed file system paired with Lustre storage from DataDirect Networks and Isilon storage from Dell Technologies. All nodes are connected using NVIDIA Mellanox InfiniBand at 100 Gbps.
Some compute nodes are equipped with NVIDIA A100 GPUs, and others with V100s in order to support GPGPUs under Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). The G4 instance is available to all AXXE-L customers who subscribe to XTREME-D’s Shared and Dedicated plans, which offer AXXE-L in combination with XTREME-D’s baremetal high-speed computing environment. Both plans are offered in a subscription model so that users can take advantage of the latest equipment without needing to purchase pricy state-of-the-art hardware.
The new G4 instance is deployed with AXXE-L One, XTREME-D’s first server product, and is built as a baremetal high-speed computing environment consisting of various nodes, including compute nodes (AXXE-L One for Compute), a management server, and storage, along with a high-speed file system. AXXE-L One was developed to provide customers with the best hardware environment for running HPC/AI workloads using AXXE-L, and forms the backbone of XTREME-D’s Shared and Dedicated access plans.
The G4 instance is deployed in a data center operated by XTREME-D’s data center partner MC Digital Realty, Inc., at which the company has built the last three generations of its baremetal high-speed computing environment. With the launch of the G4, XTREME-D and MC Digital Realty will further strengthen their collaboration and promote the latter’s PlatformDIGITAL infrastructure environment. PlatformDIGITAL was launched to meet the needs of all businesses with its ability to respond rapidly to exponential digital change and therefore quickly meet customers’ ever-changing business needs.
“We are very happy that the new G4 instance is up and running. This is the fourth generation of XTREME-D’s computing instance, and it’s clear that XTREME-D, our first colocation customer in Japan, is expanding steadily,” said Futoshi Kimishima, Vice President of Sales at MC Digital Realty, Inc. “In today’s social environment of digital transformation, demand for data centers is expected to increase worldwide. We will continue to strengthen our collaboration with XTREME-D to provide a stable digital infrastructure that supports customers in this social environment.”
“The new G4 instance announced today, deployed on our new server product, AXXE-L One, uses the latest CPUs, interconnects, and file systems,” said Naoki Shibata, Founder and CEO of XTREME-D. “Just like all previous instances, our servers will be installed in MC Digital Realty’s data center, which boasts world-class security and quality, and will provide open access to Digital Realty’s ecosystem of carrier-neutral businesses. We will continue to provide our customers with a high-quality R&D platform while deepening our technical collaboration with PlatformDIGITAL.”
About XTREME-D
XTREME-D Inc. was established in February 2015 with headquarters in Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan and offices in San Mateo, California, USA. The award-winning, VC-funded company offers an HPC System Software as a Service framework called AXXE-L by XTREME-D, which supports both on-premise and cloud HPC environments and allows users to run all HPC jobs using the same process, regardless of environment. XTREME-D’s leadership team averages 20 years of experience as HPC cloud architects and technologists.
Read More
VIRTUAL DESKTOP STRATEGIES
Whitehat Virtual | August 12, 2021
Whitehat Virtual, the expert in "work from anywhere" IT, today released Titanium HCI, its flagship hyperconverged virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) appliance for both Citrix and VMware Horizon environments. Offering a complete, self-contained system to deliver hardware, software and management, Titanium HCI delivers everything Citrix and VMware Horizon users need to be successful, including better performance and a great end-user experience while lowering the total cost of ownership.
"The majority of virtual desktop users are frustrated with the cost, complexity and performance of their VDI environment," said Val King, President and CEO, Whitehat Virtual. "Many continue to throw more tools and software at the problem, only to add to their management complexity and headaches. Companies need worry-free ongoing solutions, not band-aid fixes, that are guaranteed to work with leading-edge technology without escalating cost options. Titanium HCI offers everything VDI users need, for life. It represents the culmination of all our experienced team knows about building, managing, and supporting the use of virtual desktops by thousands of end users every day."
Built on the strength of Dell EMC and VMware vSAN Ready Nodes, Titanium HCI delivers scalability and easy hardware management and support. The solution provides the stability and performance benefits of best practices learned from more than 1,500 optimizations cataloged by the Whitehat Virtual team's proven experience. Additional benefits offered by Titanium HCI include:
Sub 30-second VDI user logins
No performance bottlenecks
Automatic issue resolution
Fixed, predictable cost
No capital expenditure on software or hardware
Zero-cost Citrix and VMware upgrades
Fully deployed and managed
Designed for users that want to simplify their VDI environment or are looking for a quick and easy way to stand one up for the first time, Whitehat Virtual's Titanium HCI packs everything that's needed in a fully managed hyperconverged appliance. The solution is fully supported by the Whitehat Virtual team including:
Unlimited experts as required to address all issues immediately
Unlimited upgrades as necessary to maintain current protection and operation
Dedicated software for unlimited communication between customers and Whitehat Virtual experts
Unlimited resolution of challenges and network issues
Whitehat Virtual's Titanium HCI is available now.
About Whitehat Virtual
Whitehat Virtual is a nationally ranked top 100 technology services provider specializing in security, compliance, desktop virtualization, cloud, hosting, and managed IT services with NVIDIA, Citrix, VMware, Microsoft, AWS, among other partnerships. Whitehat Virtual's mission is to maximize the value of IT for clients at what Whitehat Virtual calls the "Point of Execution," or the last 18 inches between the screen and the end-user, where IT productivity is gained or lost, and ultimately where data translates into dollars. Clients of Whitehat Virtual know what technology to buy, how to deliver it successfully on time, and how to extract maximum business value, achieving more dollar-for-dollar value from their IT investment than their competitors.
Read More