Efficient workspace management
in complex IT environments.
IT management has become one of the most challenging tasks in present-dayorganizations. Poorly grounded technology decisions may render businesses slow in responding to environment changes or even in performing day-to-day operations. Being close to a global economic and financial recession makes the job much harder, as IT managers face significant pressure to cut costs while maintaining the acceptable IT service that an organization needs to function.
Further complications are brought by con-stantly emerging new technologies that make IT environments complex, at best.
Global IT strategy, business process alignment and constant optimization are management tools that strongly affect every institution but the key issues reside on a more operational level. The ability to make sure end-users can fully employ the corporate IT capabilities, independently of time and physical location, proves to be the true key to success in the world of business.
This paper focuses on one particular aspect of the problem mentioned above – the efficient workspace management in complex IT environments.
Contents
The world of mixed IT environments 2
Workspace management challenges in mixed environments 4
Application management 4
User management 5
The solution IT managers should be looking for 6
Full control 6
User freedom 6
Optimization & efficiency 7
Environment awareness 7
Scense User Workspace Management 8
Scense implementation process 8
Scense Architecture 8
Step 1. Scense setup 9
Step 2. Application delivery 9
Step 3: Desktop configuration 9
Step 4. Desktop management 9
Workspace Management in mixed environments with Scense 10 Application management with Scense 10
User management with Scense 10
Summary 11
Workspace – the end user work environment independent from hardware platform and operating system; comprises all user desktop settings and applications.
Complex/Mixed IT environment – heterogenic ICT infrastructure consisting of different hardware (desktop PCs, laptops, blade PCs, think clients) and software solutions (Server Based Computing, Virtual Desktops, Cloud Computing, Generic Computing).
Scense User Workspace
Management in mixed
environments.
After installing Scense, the administrator will have the architecture in place that delivers all functionality needed to address the challenges within complex IT
environments. All information about desktops, users and applications is available in one place and the administrator is able to act on every moment of the user session by using tools that eliminate complexity. He is able to guarantee a functional and stable workspace environment on every desktop and will therefore deliver the flexibility and mobility demanded by today’s end users. In the end he will save resources, time and money.
Let’s discuss how Scense addresses the main challenges within mixed
environments.
Application management with Scense
As mentioned by Gartner, application delivery or deployment is one the most expensive tasks that needs to be addressed by Scense. Scense makes sure that all your applications are delivered to end users when they need them, with the right configuration in place and without any application conflicts.
Management interfaces. Scense delivers all types of applications in the same transparent, elegant and easy way. If you decide to use virtualization techniques in combination with MSI and generic installers, you will still be able to use one management interface which will save costs and increase your level of control. Applications are added to the central database in no time at all and are ready to be used by your end users: instantly.
Application conflicts. Scense Adaptive Installer guarantees conflict free installation of applications. It has the advantages of application virtualization or MSI-repackaging: unattended and conflict free delivery, but not the costs in time and resources. Import your application in the Scense database by using Scense Easy Delivery and you’re done. The application will be available to your end users, wherever they logon and conflict free.
Application maintenance. Applications and the related configurations will be repaired automatically in case something breaks. Updates and upgrades will be delivered automatically so every user will always work with the latest version of software (at least if you want them to). Application maintenance will mostly be unattended resulting in a decreased workload and savings in cost and resources. Consumer Applications. Consumerization of IT will not be an issue after
implementing Scense. End users you see fit to do so, will be able to import their own application in the Scense database. These applications will only be available to them (as long the administrator allows them too) and will not conflict with other applications. In one mouse click these applications are upgraded to corporate applications to be used company wide.
User management with Scense
Scense is developed with a strong focus on the user. Whilst other solutions have been focusing on the machine from the beginning and are now struggling with the paradigm change, Scense has been on the right track from the beginning. Flexibility. End users demand flexibility. The need to be able to access their personal data, desktop and applications wherever they are and don’t want to be restricted by IT policies and locked down pc’s. Scense will deliver this flexibility. It won’t matter on what type of desktop the user logs on, Scense will take care that the same personal desktop is available with the right applications and
configurations. The administrator will be able to guarantee a working, stable desktop without locking down this desktop. The desktop will be fully functional and user experience remains high.
Profiles. Scense leverages the use of roaming profiles. Scense will monitor the size of the roaming profile and coach and guide the end user to manage it himself. The parts of the roaming profile that really matter to the administrator (the desired state) will be guarded real time by Scense and in case of problems or corruptions, these parts will be repaired automatically.
Help Desk. The amount of help desk call’s will decrease when implementing Scense. Scense contains lots of functionality designed to prevent end users from calling the helpdesk. Most functionality is designed to keep the desktop and applications in a solid state by monitoring and auto repairing the parts that matter to the administrator. Scense also provides self service tools that help the end users to fix minor helpdesk issues himself.
Efficient workspace management in
complex IT environments.
Summary.
Organizations are constantly seeking ways to optimize the costs associated with owning, deploying and managing applications. In a world of complex IT environments this task has never been harder. Fortunately, there are software solutions that will facilitate and automate those processes to an extend where IT management is focused not on mundane daily tasks but on innovation and efficiency.Workspace management and application delivery platforms, such as Scense, introduce a revolutionary shift of thinking about mixed environments. Putting the end-user and IT officer on equal grounds, looking at their needs as complementary instead of conflicting sets of requirements allows IT administration to effectively and efficiently manage a constantly shifting IT infrastructure, transforming the management function into a competitive advantage.
About Scense
Scense is the thought-leader in Next Generation Workspace Management by delivering dynamic applications in a personalized workspace to hundreds of thousands of satisfied users worldwide. Scense’s unique patented technology dynamically configures Windows applications and provision them in real-time with the necessary personal setting to physical and virtual personalized workspaces.
11
Efficient workspace management in
complex IT environments.
The world of mixed
IT environments
SBC environment
Desktop virtualization environment
Modern-day organizations face a world of technology so rich and dynamic that often the amount of knowledge and expertise required to successfully run the corporate IT is overwhelming. Simply taking a look at the foundations of any IT infrastructure - the end-user devices, sales figures show that portable computers (laptops, netbooks etc.) are becoming predominant over regular desktops. Such slight transition towards mobility, at least from the perspective of an external observer, results in numerous changes in the corporate application portfolio, procedures and policies.
Additional challenges are posed by the newly established trends of virtualization of the end-user computing environment. The idea and the technology have been around for almost a decade but only recent developments transformed it into a plausible solution. Being promoted as a cost effective opportunity, more and more organizations implement it to a certain extend.
Complete virtualization cases, however, are still rare. The wide variety of specific solutions and approaches is beneficial from cost and opportunity point of view but it transforms the IT management task to a Herculean effort. We will briefly list the major technological paths that organizations can undertake.
Server-based computing (SBC) is a technology whereby applications are
deployed, managed, supported and executed on the server and not on the client. Instead only the screen information is transmitted between the server and client. This architecture solves the many fundamental problems that occur when executing the applications on the client itself.
In SBC environments hardware & software upgrades, application deployment, technical support, and data storage & backup are simplified because only the servers need to be managed. Data and applications reside on a few servers rather than on hundreds or thousands of clients. PCs become terminals and can be replaced by simpler, less expensive and most importantly easier to manage devices called "thin clients”.
Desktop Virtualization is using virtual machines and relevant solutions to serve a number of desktop environment needs: running multiple OS simultaneously on the same hardware, hosting multiple virtual desktop environments on a single server, improve high availability of desktop environment by hosting virtual desktops in datacenter with failover capabilities between servers, maintain secure access and simplify management of multiple desktop environments. VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is a server-centric computing model that borrows from the traditional thin-client model but is designed to give system administrators and end-users the best of both worlds: the ability to host and centrally manage desktop virtual machines in the data center while giving end users a full PC desktop experience. VDI is a great way to simplify desktop provisioning due to automated tasks and virtual nature of the environment. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure provides many of the advantages of a terminal server, but (if so desired and configured by system administrators) can provide users much more flexibility. Each, for instance might be allowed to install and configure their own applications. Users also gain the ability to access their server-based virtual desktop from other locations.
Blade PCs are computers that are entirely contained in a modular card (blade), housed in a centralized, secure chassis (rack) in a data centre. A standard network cable connects the card to the user's display, keyboard and mouse. Vendors of blade PCs include ClearCube and HP.
Efficient workspace management in
complex IT environments.
The world of mixed
IT environments
- continued
A blade PC, in contrast to a thin client , is a complete computer that includes all the components normally found in a desktop PC including the microprocessor, memory chips, hard drive, video card and network card. The blade PC concept is similar to the blade server paradigm, except that the ratio of cards to end-users is one-to-one rather than one-to-many6. This solution is ideal for power users of graphics intensive applications, such as stock traders, who need the full power of a dedicated machine all to themselves.
From the brief descriptions above, one can see how similar in functionality technologies differ so greatly in terms of management and support. When a company decides to implement more than one of those solutions, the resulting mixed environment pose a significant challenge for the IT administration.
The reason complex environments exist is that there is not a single
solution that could fit all organizations.
In order to be able to respond in time to the highly dynamic global environment, often within a single enterprise different parts of the application portfolio or business processes require different IT environments. Thus, hybrid structures are implemented, mixing aspects of the technological approaches that seem the most useful at that time. The nature of large organizations itself support the experts’ view that mixed environments are here to stay, at least for the next 10-15 years.
"Every large customer I talk to doesn't want to bet the farm on just one vendor," said Simon Crosby, the CTO of the Virtualization and Management Division at Citrix.
In conclusion, we can say that making it easier for enterprises to efficiently run a mixed environment will become increasingly important as virtualization becomes a more mainstream technology.
Footnotes 1 http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/Notebook-Sales-Outpace-Desktop-Sales/ 2 http://vmware.com/customers/#c3879 3 http://www.2x.com/whitepapers/WPserverbasedcomputing.pdf 4 http://www.pc-ware.com/medialibrary/services/images/gra_20061030_pcw_jf_serverb.jpg 5 http://www.peripheralstorage.com/virtualizationsoftware/images/vdi.gif 6 http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1175735,00.html 7 http://reseller.co.nz/reseller.nsf/inews/915D90086D190399CC25748800184EC6 3
Efficient workspace management in
complex IT environments.
Workspace management
challenges in mixed
environments.
Today’s IT landscapes are increasingly complex and difficult to integrate. You need a solution that creates new levels of collaboration and connectivity possible among all the systems and applications within your company and across your entire value chain. In addition to integrating these heterogeneous system environments, you want to leverage your existing legacy systems – in today’s environment, a “rip and replace” solution is simply not feasible. You also want your implementation to support the goal of standardizing on a services-based architecture.
In this section we will identify the key areas that pose risks to the goals listed in the previous paragraph and the smooth operation of the corporate IT infra-structure. Abstracting form the Operating System, there are two main areas that can cause significant management problems: application management and user management.
Application Management
Application management is one of the areas that are influenced the most by changes in company policies, strategy and operations. In the turbulent times we live in, the ability to swiftly implement those changes is vital. It is a clear negative sign if an application takes weeks or even months to be deployed throughout the whole organization.
Application deployment. According to Gartner (2008) this process is one of the most expensive parts of application management. Significant costs occur from the need for application repackaging (incl. conflict management). In a Microsoft Windows environment, a number of different application set-ups co-exists – generic EXE applications, MSI applications, Microsoft App-V and some vendor specific ones such as the Symantec SVS. In order to be efficient in the manage-ment of all those types of applications, IT administration is required to use a number different tools and deployment methods. If the established process is not highly efficient, the costs to the company are significant. Achieving consistent software distribution through diverse IT channels, with different management tools is an extremely complex task. In a mixed IT environment, this issue becomes a day-to-day activity and if not addressed appropriately it could lead to significant setbacks.
Application maintenance. Broken shortcuts, application updates, version control, file type associations, etc.; all those issues relate to the day-to-day maintenance activities IT administration is expected to perform at high
efficiency. There is virtually no chance of preventing break-downs at 100 percent, errors are part of everyday life. What IT support can do is create a system that allows for high responsiveness when it comes to facing the mundane task of application maintenance. Another issue IT management will have to deal with is the ongoing introduction of "consumer-grade" technology into their work environments. That includes applications such as America Online Inc.'s instant messaging system, peer-to-peer voice technology from Skype Technologies SA and Google Inc.'s desktop search tool.
In an instant conference poll8, 20% of the attendees said they have banned those technologies from their users' systems, while 43% said they discourage them, and 26% said they allow them to be used but don't support them. The rest either encourage their use and/or support them as well. Prentice said the use of these consumer technologies is something IT workers will ultimately have to learn to live with, especially if they want to keep their environments attractive to knowledge workers. "You cannot stop consumer-grade technology from entering the enterprise."
Efficient workspace management in
complex IT environments.
Workspace management
challenges in mixed
environments
– continued.
User Management
Organizations thrive on people. Limiting people in their ability to excel, to be productive or to enjoy their daily work activities is something an IT manager should not aim for. End users should not be limited by IT boundaries and administrators should facilitate the empowerment demanded by today’s workers: to be able to work wherever and whenever they want and not depending on IT personnel to remain productive.
User profile management and settings. Roaming profiles are the greatest challenge of all, not only generating peak loads and bottle necks on the network during log in and log off, but also posing significant security requirements/risks. The ability to access your files from anywhere within the corporate network has transformed from a user nice to have requirement to one that is implicitly demanded. This puts a huge strain on the network availability and reliability together with additional complications coming from the different technologies employed like moving from a thin client to a desktop pc or a laptop.
Help-desk assistance. This is another major cost factor that proves to be frustrating for the both parties involved – end-users and IT support. The main issues are the nature of the problems, often user faults, and the time required for the help-desk to fix the problem – the options are either to send a technician to that particular device , connect remotely or instruct the end-user by phone what to do. All options are often time consuming and/or pose a great risk for the end-users to further damage the system.
Footnote
8 http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Hardware& arti cleId=106776&taxonomyId=12&pageNumber=2
5
Efficient workspace management in
complex IT environments.
The solution IT Managers
should be looking for.
First and foremost, IT management should look for a single solution that answers both the requirements for application and user management. Employing differ-rent tools increases IT spending and further burdens the application portfolio optimization. Often, with a number of different tools it is harder to identify the core of a problem or implement a solution that has to be propagated from one tool to another. Overall, the more instruments you have the more expensive your work becomes.
Full control
IT administration shall be in control, no more, no less. This is the founding rule of any IT infrastructure. Furthermore, the ability to take corrective action at any moment of the operation cycle of a device within the network can be referred to as a competitive advantage. Starting from the application deployment process to the daily maintenance, IT administrators shall be able to influence the system in a non-disruptive way.
Looking back at application management, different application containers (MSI, EXE, AppV, etc.), application re-packaging, fine-tuning of unattended setups and conflict management shall all be supported. IT professionals shall be able to adjust the application to such an extent that the end-user simply needs to double-click on an icon and start using the software product. Real-time
application distribution has to become a must. The ability to push applications to the end-user, the moment they are ready for shipment, successfully resembles the flexibility and reliability of a modern IT infrastructure. On the other hand, such processes shall not disturb the normal work cycle of the client. In a more concise manner, IT shall be able to deliver the right applications, anywhere, at anytime.
Another popular demand is the support of roaming user profiles. Recently the definition of user profiles has expanded, encompassing the application specific configurations. In plain English, end-users get the applications with the
configurations they have set. One of the most emphasized requirements, similar to the whole software industry, is security. User mobility implicitly demands high levels of protection against incidents due to leftover data, for example. There is no need to go into details about the huge costs that can occur in such events. Following these guidelines, it can be said that full control is equivalent to full efficiency.
User freedom
End-users are human beings and they also deserve a decent level of freedom. Tightly locked workstations do not have a positive effect on the motivation or efficiency of the employees. Solutions that aim at allowing employees to customize their desktops or install their own software without jeopardizing the stability of the system are the management platforms of the future. This way the perfect balance can be achieved – IT administrators are confident that all corporate applications will work meaning every user will have a fully functional workstation and employees are able to enjoy setting up their workspace the way they like it.
Furthermore, users should be able to perform some maintenance tasks themselves, which is a nice stimulus to be proactive and take care of mundane repair tasks. Ideally, application repairs, reinstallations, shortcut repairs and file type associations should be delegated to the end-user (he/she initializes the procedure, and from then on the system takes care of everything).
Efficient workspace management in
complex IT environments.
The solution IT Managers
should be looking for
-continued
Optimization & efficiency
The constant strive for maximum resource utilization has a permanent place in the IT management agenda.
The full control, that we mentioned earlier, can play a significant role in this field of creativity and flexibility. The demand in this section will include the ability to distinguish between different events in the user session, for example, when the user launches an application, leaves the computer inactive, install an application, close an application and so on. If managers can take actions once such an event occurs, this is the perfect opportunity for complete resource optimization and high level of efficiency. The management requirements shall include such Full Session Control capabilities. This will enable them to completely grasp the management of system resources.
The philosophy behind should imply that system resources shall be deployed and utilized only when needed. Such set of mind will provide for high efficiency and resource sharing.
Environment awareness
Location, time, user identity, type of device are some of the user environment characteristics that a system should recognize and understand. Especially when considering user mobility (anywhere computing). Based on these characteristics the best desktop configuration could be determined and implemented.
A portable/mobile workspace is a vision that can be easily achieved with the right software platform as a starting point. The rest of this whitepaper discusses one of the solutions to consider: Scense User Workspace Management.
7
Efficient workspace management in
complex IT environments.
Scense User Workspace
Management
Scense has been around for over 10
years. The main goal of developing
Scense has been and will be the
delivery of personal, stable and fully
functional workspace environments to
end users wherever they are. Scense
addresses this by developing solutions
with a strong focus on the end user
while eliminating all complexity in
workspace management.
Before discussing how Scense
addresses the workspace management
challenges mentioned in this
whitepaper, we will address a typical
Scense implementation process.
Scense implementation process
A typical Scense implementation process consists of the following steps: 1. Scense Installation. Installing the various Scense components within the
organizations IT environment.
2. Application delivery. Storing all applications in the Scense database. 3. Desktop configuration. Making sure all desktops are configured in the
right way at the right time.
4. Desktop management. Implementing IT policies on the desktops. After step 4, the IT administrator will have an environment in place with one central management console that will give him control over all desktops (fat clients, laptops, virtual desktops, Terminal Server sessions etc.) and applications (.exe, msi, ThinApp, App-V, SVS etc.). End users will have their own personal desktop with their own applications wherever the logon.
Scense Architecture
Before going into the details of installing Scense, let’s look at the architecture of the platform. Scense consists of the following components:
Scense Client - This component executes tasks on the desktop and gives feedback to the user by means of a progress indicator. The Scense Client component also provides a user interface which enables the user to execute several tasks on the workstation.
Scense Executive - This component actually executes the tasks at the user’s workstation. After receiving these tasks Scense Executive communicates with the Scense Engine.
Scense Engine / Repository - These server components form the heart of the Scense system. Through DCOM, these COM+ objects are used by Scense Executive. Scense Engine receives tasks from Scense Executive and then communicates with the database engine. The Scense server components make maximum use of the scalability of COM+. Network Load Balancing can also be used for the Scense server components.
Scense Database \ Local Cache - The Scense Database contains all necessary data for Scense to function properly. Scense is compatible with Microsoft SQL Server (7.0 or higher), and Oracle (8i or higher). The database engine receives queries from Scense Engine. To ensure a functional desktop when a connection to the central database is not available, information about the desktop is also stored in a local cache.
Scense Explorer - The administrator uses Scense Explorer to manage and control the Scense data stored in the Scense database.
Efficient workspace management in
complex IT environments.
Scense User Workspace
Management
– continued.
Step 1. Scense setup
The installation of Scense, including the creation of the Scense database, will take little effort. The setup application will install all components unattended. Administrators will also be able to implement a tailor made installation. After installation the server components, database and the management console are fully operational and the administrator is ready to give Scense instructions to deliver the client software to the workstations.
Step 2. Application delivery
During the second step, the administrator will prepare the unattended, on demand delivery of applications to end users. All applications in use within the organization need to be stored in the Scense database as application objects. Scense 6 will support Microsoft Installer (MSI) based install procedures as well as applications virtualized with Symantec Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) or Microsoft App-V. Other deployment techniques like Generic Installer and ThinApp are also supported.
As of version 6.0, Scense has the option to use the Scense Easy Delivery to prepare and deliver applications to end users. Administrators will be able to create application objects within Scense in a very limited amount of mouse clicks. The process of creating the application object including shortcuts, installation-options, user entitlements etc. is fully automated.
Administrators will be able to deliver applications to end users in seconds. Application objects created with Easy Delivery can be modified and managed afterwards by using the Scense Explorer. Administrators will also be able to add applications to Scense by using the Enhanced or Standard Presentation mode. By using these modes to add applications, more functionality will be available to manage the delivery process.
Step 3: Desktop configuration
Scense administrators use task sets to configure the desktop. Desktops and applications need specific configurations to function properly often based on the contact of the end user. By using task sets, administrators are able to define desktop management actions like the creation of network mappings, connecting of printers, managing the registry etc.. Actions like these can be defined during all instances of the user session: startup of the machine, logon of the user, starting of an application, when the machine is idle, on a scheduled time, during logoff etc. Scense will take into account the context of the user while executing these tasks: user-id, platform, type of desktop, time and location, etc.
Step 4. Desktop management
The objective of Dynamic Workspace Configuration (DWC) is to define an environment for the end-user that is adapted to the desktop management policy for your organization. You can choose to lock-down certain aspects of the desktop according to rules such as security group membership or machine type such as Terminal Server, desktop, XP, VISTA but you will also be able to configure certain aspects of the users workspace to increase usability.
The user’s workspace is configured by creating user or computer groups (scopes) and enabling or disabling Configuration Settings linked to that scope. Predefined settings are shipped with the Scense installation package, future settings will be available for download on the website. Scense customers will also be able to define their own settings.
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Efficient workspace management in
complex IT environments.
