With flying Colors let us start a new blog based on Azure WVD.

Till date we have seen how we setup horizon, creating pools desktops etc On Premise. In this series let us focus on how we create desktops based out of Azure Cloud which is called Azure Windows Virtual Desktops/ Azure WVD.

In this blog let us see both the advantages of having an Cloud based solution as well as On-Prem with estimated pricing

Desktop Virtualization: Choosing Between Cloud or On-Premise


Desktop Virtualization: Cloud or On-Premise

Whether you’re setting up Thin Clients for users in an office or provisioning Zero Clients for a remote workforce, you’re going to need access to some powerful computing to run the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that host the desktop virtualization environments.

You have two main options: in the Cloud or On-Premise. Essentially, the fundamental difference between the two comes down to these initial questions –Where is the server located and Who is responsible for server maintenance?

Cloud Computing basically means that you’re using remote servers in someone else’s data center and that they’re responsible for provisioning and maintaining it. Cloud offerings can range from Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), which provides base access to hardware in the Cloud, to Platform as a Service (PaaS), which includes an operating system, all the way to Software as a Service (SaaS), where the Cloud company is responsible for the entire application and its underlying technology stack. On-Premise, on the other hand, means that you ‘own’ the machine and are responsible for everything from keeping the software up-to-date all the way to the HVAC system that keeps the servers cool. (Both of these options are applicable, whether your computing environment is desktop virtualization or not.)

Cloud /vs/ On-Premise: Pros and Cons – Desktop Virtualization and More

Picking the right option comes with understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each. Here are five important areas of consideration.

COST – Price point is a good first thing to think about. In many cases, Cloud Computing will be cheaper than On-Premise, because you don’t need to buy related server or storage hardware, fix it, or pay an IT admin to maintain it. Most Cloud providers use a pay-as-you-go model, where you pay a monthly charge based on how many resources you use. For smaller organizations who want to leverage VDI desktop virtualization, this could be a no-brainer, but larger enterprises should really crunch the numbers to figure out whether it’s worth running desktops in the Cloud. One last note here is that Cloud and On-Premise fit into different parts of the budget; while On-Premise is largely CAPEX, Cloud falls into OPEX.

SECURITY – Security should be your next biggest concern. In almost all cases, Cloud is more secure than On-Premise. Most major Cloud providers can afford to spend more on cybersecurity than even the most well-funded organizations, giving you access to talent and technology that may otherwise be out of reach. On top of that, Cloud providers will patch vulnerabilities at any time, meaning you don’t have to call IT in the middle of the night, over the weekend, or when they’re on vacation. As a result, companies that leverage Cloud Computing have an extra layer of defense against ransomware and other attacks against their desktop virtualization environment.


SCALABILITY – In Cloud also has the benefit of scalability. Scalability in Cloud computing is the ability to quickly and easily increase or decrease the size or power of your IT solution. A scalable Cloud is why you can sign up and use most Cloud solutions in just a few minutes, if not seconds – sometimes, with just the push of a button. That is a big gain for fast-growing companies, or those that have frequently shifting requirements, whereas On-Premise requires a lot more set up and configuration.

LATENCY – Simply put, the further away your endpoints are from their server, the more latency they will experience. This can cut both ways, though, depending on where your desktop virtualization employees work from. Office workers can benefit from the low latency of connecting to a local On-Premise server, while remote workers may also experience lower latency if the Cloud provider has a data center that’s geographically closer than their company’s data center.

COMPLIANCE – Compliance is a final consideration. If you’re in a strictly regulated industry like healthcare for example, you need to make sure that your chosen Cloud Provider is HIPAA-compliant. Some regulations require certain types of data to be carefully protected, and On-Premise configurations can guarantee you meet these requirements.

 




Why on-premise?


• CAPEX – often viewed as a negative, but a one-off, upfront expense can actually keep operating costs down.

• Security – keeping data securely on your own infrastructure, protecting your IP.

• Customisation – owning your own hardware and having full control over your choice of processors allows more scope for provisioning of resource to users. As opposed to pre-configured, cloud instances that don’t always provide the best performance for resource hungry graphical applications.

• Deployment – more control over deployment; the what, when, where and how are in your hands.

• ISV licensing – most ISVs do not take issue with this method and is considered no different to your current workstation licensing agreement. • Data – all your data is kept in one centralised store, when running alongside your current workstation environment.

• Designed to minimise latency. Why the cloud?

• OPEX – predictable ongoing costs. No surprise, large capital expense for hardware refresh or failure.

• Security – shifting the responsibility of security to the CSP can reduce nervousness. Smaller businesses benefit from enterprise grade security.

• Ready to use instances – instances that have been pre-configured with licensing and should be ready for use immediately. • Deployment – cloud solutions typically take less time deploy.

• Project-based deployments, spin up your environment then close it down, on demand.

Both solutions offer the key benefits of mobility, flexible working and centralisation of your data.

The costs

Below outlines the hardware and software required to run 24 concurrent users using Revit and AutoCAD in an on-premise VDI solution.

Required infrastructure (1 x server with 24 x virtual desktops)

• Server, processors, RAM, 2 x Nvidia GRID GPUs, SSDs

• Licensing – Microsoft Windows Server 2016/9 + Windows 10 and Citrix/VMware licenses • SQL express and Active Directory

• Remote access SSL VPN

• Nvidia GRID vDWS licenses

Financial Estimate

• Hardware £30,000 approx.

• Software £20,000 approx.

• Consulting / deployment services £15,000 approx.

Total approx. £65,000 one off, plus an annual renewal of licensing and support.

This does represent a substantial Capital Expenditure (even without failover) but how does this differ from a cloud-based solution?

With the cloud, there is no upfront hardware cost but there are still software and consulting costs, plus additional costs for extra provisioning such as file storage, data migration / bandwidth. Setting up an environment with a public cloud provider is still complicated, so you will need an experienced partner to ensure the deployment is a success.

In the tables below you can see the per user, per month cost of an on-premise solution compared to both a Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solution and a public cloud solution over a four-year period.

Each table gives an approximate cost to run Revit and AutoCAD. The servers in the DaaS offering are provisioned exactly as the on-premise servers have been and both solutions give 24/7 access to your users.

The public cloud offering is running on instances utilising Nvidia M60 GPUs. The cost has been calculated on a per instance, per hour cost for a 40-hour week, working 50 weeks of the year. For every extra hour worked on top of this, there will be extra cost.


In Our next blog let us have a look at how to get started creating a Microsoft account and getting an Azure subscription etc