Virtual Desktop Solutions

dbran

Hi there

We are currently using a virtual network using VMWare in the office as it means I can have the use and benifits of a server without having the expense of putting in the fixtures and fittings network points, power costs etc.

However it is relatively expensive and I am also finding that I am having to be constantly onto support sorting out problems with dropped printers, disappearing email servers. Very unhappy with the service in fact.

I guess my question is, is having all of your data and programes in the cloud really the way to go or is it really just a technology that is prone to these sort of issues due to internet speeds etc.

Does anybody else use a virtual network. Do they find it reliable

best regards

Dbran

seamus

At the end of the day it comes down to who is providing the virtualised service and how good they are at it. And also, what you need it for.

It does seem to me that for a small office, having a cloud-based virtual server seems fraught with difficulty when your primary concern is accessing files and printing to printers. This is functionality that can be provided by a small NAS / Server, without the need to have a whole server room and network infrastructure for it.

dbran

seamus wrote: »

At the end of the day it comes down to who is providing the virtualised service and how good they are at it. And also, what you need it for.

It does seem to me that for a small office, having a cloud-based virtual server seems fraught with difficulty when your primary concern is accessing files and printing to printers. This is functionality that can be provided by a small NAS / Server, without the need to have a whole server room and network infrastructure for it.

I needed a virtual server because some of the software i use would not run on a network unless it was a full server software and I did not want to have a load of stand alone machines with the resulting duplicate or invalid data.

With a lot of the the software that I use now themselves moving to the cloud and offering a cloud version as well as (or instead of) a desktop version then perhaps I could get a NAS/server to just hold word and excel docs.

dbran

ED E

dbran wrote: »

I needed a virtual server because some of the software i use would not run on a network unless it was a full server software

This statement isn't super clear.

For example say its a heavy GIS application. Pop a dual Xeon tower from Dell/HP in the corner of the office, use RDP to access from all machines that need it. Eat through it.

seamus

I've a large amount of IT experience with dbran's industry. There are a lot of very esoteric software providers who have in the past gone to great lengths to ensure that their software is being used correctly and the licences have been paid for.

I recall we had one piece of software that we tried to migrate from an old server to a new one, but it freaked out on install. The old server had two single-core CPUs, the new one had two quad-cores. They had tied licencing to the number of CPUs in the server (presumably more CPUs == more users?), and it couldn't handle the "new" multi-core architecture. It saw 8 CPUs instead of 2. They had to release a patch to get it working.

Certainly I've seen other packages that will only allow multi-user scenarios where you install a server component. And that component checks the OS version and will only allow itself to be installed on server OSes.

Realistically the software likely doesn't need a powerful server at all. And old desktop would do fine. In any case, most of the big software companies are running their own cloud instances of their software now.