Not sure I agree with the "most of the time in a tunnel will make it useless" stance.
When services are running OK (yea, I know..) you actualy spend a fair bit of time in stations waiting for people to alight etc. Certainly enough time to refresh my emails, RSS and twitter feeds, and for those apps that do provide service running info to update their data.
Yea, if you're expecting to have a great interactive browsing session, or listen to Spotify, you'll be dissapointed, but the service isn't aimed at that.
As a Virgin Media customer, I'm quite pleased this'll be included in my "bundle" and will certainly improve my Smartphone experience whilst in and around London.
Whist there are plenty of internet-facing Windows servers out there (ever request a Windows VPS from one of the myriad of VPS hosting companies out there and you'll end up with a Windows server on the internet using RDP as the primary access method) the risk is much bigger than this.
If someone was to comprimise any internal or DMZ hosts (whatever the OS), this vulnerability leaves all your valuable Windows hosts (Exchange, SQL etc) open to also be pwned using the published RDP vulnerability without having to be internet facing.
When you consider your entire internal network as potentially hostile (as one should) then having such a vulnerability that can be remotely executed against a commonly-enable port/service is BAD NEWS.
Having up-to-date maps available won't mean everyone uses them.
I asked our Honda dealer for an update DVD for the 2 year old built-in Navman GPS in my CRV but they wanted £349 for it. I did point out to them I could buy a completely new GPS system for less than that but they just did the "dealer shrugg" and I walked out empty handed.
Fully with you on the profiles (although the articles focus was on storage and networking); it's an important aspect that shouldn't be overlooked when doing desktop virtualisation.
Different profile solutions (roaming, hybrid, streaming, mandatory etc) can also have a big impact on the VM storage I/O generated, and doing crazy things like redirecting AppData folders onto the network can kill many an application dead in its tracks performance-wise.
It was my secondary school having a room-full of BBC B's that got me hooked on computers (and changed my eventual career path)
Not being able to afford a BBC at home, I opted for a C64, but learn both varients of BASIC.
My parents would leave me in the home computers isle in the supermarket whilst they did the weekly shopping, and return an hour later to see what I'd written. "Look mum I've written a database". So frustrating not being able to save it to tape and having to start over the next Saturday!
Having written my GCSE and then A'Level computer studies projects in BASIC on the Archimedes I eventually pursuaded my parents to combine several birthday and xmas presents to buy an A3000 for home.
After a short stint working for Acorn themselves in the 90's, it's nice to see the tech live on in the form of ARM that lies at the heart of practically every smartphone on the planet.
She obvsiously didn't mind copping an eyefull if she was looking at it for a whole minute...surely once glance should of been sufficient to confirm the kind of content.
Lots of comments but few people actually discussing the question being asked (a reminder: “How is desktop virtualisation likely to impact my existing network and storage infrastructure)
For larger enterprises, VDI is often the straw that breaks the camels back when it comes to storage infrastructure. Desktop workloads are vastly different to server workloads (e.g. logon storms) and many companies who have utilised existing storage that has quite happily being hosting their virtual servers find it now can no longer cope. This either requires expensive storage upgrades, or addition of some of the new IOPS "sink" technologies like Whiptail or Atlantis ILIO (still both expensive)
Another option is to utilise local storage and leave your expensive SAN/NAS for your virualised servers. Kaviza VDI-in-a-box (now Citrix VDI in a box) is a good candidate for this, as it uses commodity hardware, and just scales out using local storage as you need to add capacity.
Network-wise, the increased demand for storage bandwidth (if you aren't using local) may force you to investigate 10Gig ethernet. VDI is also 100% network dependant, so having reliable WAN and Internet links is paramount. There's no "offline working" scenario with hosted desktops, so multiple-resilient links are a must if you have business criticial offices connecting to centralised VDI infrastrucutre. And they don't come cheap.
Also, if you're delivered a "rich user experience" including videos on your VDI infrastrucutre over the WAN, then you might want to consider WAN acceleration and caching devices such as Riverbed or Citrix branch repeater.
How much you need to invest/upgrade will depend on the size of the organisation and the product sets you choose. It's a minefield, and can easily blow up in your face (hence the icon), so be careful out there.
Whilst I agree that your server should be Gigabit networked, theres no reason why having 100mbit down to the end user device should impact performance. VDI protocols like RDP and ICA/HDX work all the way down to GPRS bandwidths, so 100mbit is more than ample for a virtual desktop.
Microsoft have a great protocol technology called RemoteFX they are currently licensing to TV, STB and monitor manufacturers. I think this will be used to offer a cloud-based XBOX Live service.
If MS give you the ability to play XBOX games "in the cloud" the age of the console under your TV is dead - all your TV needs is the RemoteFX decoder chip, an ethernet port and way to connect the controller (Bluetooth/Wireless?)
Games developers will be released from the physical constraints of the console hardware - their games can scale up, and down as needed and consume as much, or as little, CPU and/or memory as "the cloud" can provide.
Uses won't need to fork out for expensive consoles that are obsolete in a few years, break down, get hacked, develop red rings etc. All you'll need is the TV and a fast broadband link.
It's gonna happen, trust me.
/Mine's the one with the wireless controller in the pocket.
If Streetview is "about buildings and streets" why do they have bikes with cameras capturing all the locations that the cars can't reach?
I was at Lands' End in Cornwall last week and up popped the Google bike with camera cycling up and down the footpaths .
The temptation to push him off the cliff just to see if the image of me standing victorious at the cliff top would make it into the Streetview when searching for "bottom of Atlantic near Lands end" :-)
This type of expansion will become increasingly common once Microsoft release RemoteFX for VDI deployments which will allow this bank of GPUs to be shared amongst hundreds of Virtual Desktops.
Has everyone on this site been living in a cave the last few years and really had no clue on how much the full Office suite really costs?
And as to those who are saying "who the hell will buy Office?" I think you'll find the answer is "majority of large corporates and most of the public sector"
You don't think Microsoft makes a large percentage of it's overall revenue by giving away Office for next to now't now surely?
I've used Citrix Provisioning Server (part of the XenDesktop suite) to boot servers from a single central image. This gives great agility when provisioning, and re-provisioning servers to particular roles.
It allows the hardware to be seen more as a resource, rather than dedicated "web server" or "file server". It takes IT deps a while to get their heads around this concept that a piece of tin can change its role as fast as it takes to reboot, but once they realise the agility this gives them - especially with rapid upgrades, easy rollback etc they generally quickly come on site.
This provisioning technology of course works best when you've virtualised your servers as it removes the hardware dependacy in the images but can be applied to "legacy tin" to achieve similar benefits.
I found the contact email address with ONE click. On the very front page of the www.hmrc.gov.uk site:
Online security
Online protection advice, including reporting phishing scams
Click through and you will see:
If you have received an email from HMRC that you consider to be fraudulent, please forward it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk. HMRC cannot reply to every email, but action is taken on each report received.
All my Amazon stuff arrives via "Home Delivery Network" which appears to be a network of home-workers who act as couriers in their local area. My stuff gets dropped off by someone in a old Volvo...but at least it arrives unlike the farce that is Royal Mail.
I find it bizarre that everyone is berating Gordon for not being able to express himself without the excessive use of expletives, whilst filling their posts with an incredulous amount said expletives themselves.
Why does everyone need to feel the need to stoop to the same level to prove thier point?
I run several online eCommerce sites, and regularly get obviously fraudulent orders placed with stolen credit cards. Despite have the "perps" contact details via the delivery address, the police just arent interested in me reporting these incidents having tried several times.
The "Select" button on my Sony Vaio laptop wore out after only 6 months of use. (Fixed under warranty.)
I was also p*ssed that I couldnt enable the CPU Virtualisation extensions that the chipset supports but Sony disable in the BIOS so I could run HyperV under Windows 2008.
So these guys are sending up $2500 worth of equipment every day and just hoping that someone will retrieve it for a $100 bounty?
How sustainable is that? Also, what percentage of fallen balloons are recovered? Their "green" credentials wont be that great if there are hundreds of lost transmitters, all with batteries presumably, decaying away across the countryside.
Yes, not all businesses that deal with HMRC are registered companies. There are also sole traders, partnerships etc - all of which have to pay tax, and VAT if their turnover is high enough.
I'm confused how having "the padlock" symbol (ie you credit card details are transmitted over SSL) would help in this situation.
When you have fraudsters that have setup a fake website selling non-existant goods to harvest credit card details, whether your card details are encypted or not when they are winging their way to the fraudsters is surely irrelevant?
The only thing you'll gain is the knowledge that they won't be intercepted by any other fraudsters out to defraud the original fraudsters!
Register
36 posts • joined Thursday 17th May 2007 11:16 GMT
Re: Garbage
I knew a guy who used to quote statistics about how urban legends start under the guise of "true facts"
I think it'll be useful
Not sure I agree with the "most of the time in a tunnel will make it useless" stance.
When services are running OK (yea, I know..) you actualy spend a fair bit of time in stations waiting for people to alight etc. Certainly enough time to refresh my emails, RSS and twitter feeds, and for those apps that do provide service running info to update their data.
Yea, if you're expecting to have a great interactive browsing session, or listen to Spotify, you'll be dissapointed, but the service isn't aimed at that.
As a Virgin Media customer, I'm quite pleased this'll be included in my "bundle" and will certainly improve my Smartphone experience whilst in and around London.
Internet facing doesnt matter
Whist there are plenty of internet-facing Windows servers out there (ever request a Windows VPS from one of the myriad of VPS hosting companies out there and you'll end up with a Windows server on the internet using RDP as the primary access method) the risk is much bigger than this.
If someone was to comprimise any internal or DMZ hosts (whatever the OS), this vulnerability leaves all your valuable Windows hosts (Exchange, SQL etc) open to also be pwned using the published RDP vulnerability without having to be internet facing.
When you consider your entire internal network as potentially hostile (as one should) then having such a vulnerability that can be remotely executed against a commonly-enable port/service is BAD NEWS.
Is there a right and wrong stereo?
Despite always checking that I have my L and R earbuds in the correct ears, does it really matter?
The only time it be apparent you had them in backwards would be watching movies where on-screen action is synced to the correct audio channel.
For the majority of music listening shirley either way round would work no?
Word and Excel
Yea, pointless learning these as it's not like the majority of white collar workers use them for their daily jobs. Oh wait..Map update rip-off
Having up-to-date maps available won't mean everyone uses them.
I asked our Honda dealer for an update DVD for the 2 year old built-in Navman GPS in my CRV but they wanted £349 for it. I did point out to them I could buy a completely new GPS system for less than that but they just did the "dealer shrugg" and I walked out empty handed.
VDI
VDI rarely if ever saves money in the enterprise (SME's are a different matter, but this is in the Enterprise IT section)
I've you've been sold a VDI solution on some cost-saving premise, I'd cancel your PO immediately.
Profiles
Fully with you on the profiles (although the articles focus was on storage and networking); it's an important aspect that shouldn't be overlooked when doing desktop virtualisation.
Different profile solutions (roaming, hybrid, streaming, mandatory etc) can also have a big impact on the VM storage I/O generated, and doing crazy things like redirecting AppData folders onto the network can kill many an application dead in its tracks performance-wise.
BBC B got me into IT
It was my secondary school having a room-full of BBC B's that got me hooked on computers (and changed my eventual career path)
Not being able to afford a BBC at home, I opted for a C64, but learn both varients of BASIC.
My parents would leave me in the home computers isle in the supermarket whilst they did the weekly shopping, and return an hour later to see what I'd written. "Look mum I've written a database". So frustrating not being able to save it to tape and having to start over the next Saturday!
Having written my GCSE and then A'Level computer studies projects in BASIC on the Archimedes I eventually pursuaded my parents to combine several birthday and xmas presents to buy an A3000 for home.
After a short stint working for Acorn themselves in the 90's, it's nice to see the tech live on in the form of ARM that lies at the heart of practically every smartphone on the planet.
Took a whole minute
She obvsiously didn't mind copping an eyefull if she was looking at it for a whole minute...surely once glance should of been sufficient to confirm the kind of content.
Not true - people from some countries in the European Union (such as Romania) are not entitled to work in the UK without a visa.
Attention to detail, as the chap stated :)
Storage and network
Lots of comments but few people actually discussing the question being asked (a reminder: “How is desktop virtualisation likely to impact my existing network and storage infrastructure)
For larger enterprises, VDI is often the straw that breaks the camels back when it comes to storage infrastructure. Desktop workloads are vastly different to server workloads (e.g. logon storms) and many companies who have utilised existing storage that has quite happily being hosting their virtual servers find it now can no longer cope. This either requires expensive storage upgrades, or addition of some of the new IOPS "sink" technologies like Whiptail or Atlantis ILIO (still both expensive)
Another option is to utilise local storage and leave your expensive SAN/NAS for your virualised servers. Kaviza VDI-in-a-box (now Citrix VDI in a box) is a good candidate for this, as it uses commodity hardware, and just scales out using local storage as you need to add capacity.
Network-wise, the increased demand for storage bandwidth (if you aren't using local) may force you to investigate 10Gig ethernet. VDI is also 100% network dependant, so having reliable WAN and Internet links is paramount. There's no "offline working" scenario with hosted desktops, so multiple-resilient links are a must if you have business criticial offices connecting to centralised VDI infrastrucutre. And they don't come cheap.
Also, if you're delivered a "rich user experience" including videos on your VDI infrastrucutre over the WAN, then you might want to consider WAN acceleration and caching devices such as Riverbed or Citrix branch repeater.
How much you need to invest/upgrade will depend on the size of the organisation and the product sets you choose. It's a minefield, and can easily blow up in your face (hence the icon), so be careful out there.
Whilst I agree that your server should be Gigabit networked, theres no reason why having 100mbit down to the end user device should impact performance. VDI protocols like RDP and ICA/HDX work all the way down to GPRS bandwidths, so 100mbit is more than ample for a virtual desktop.
Perhaps it could run BBC BASIC?
Given it's based on an ARM CPU, the now-open source RISC OS could potentially be a suitable target OS, and that includes the original BBC BASIC
https://www.riscosopen.org/
XBox in the cloud
Microsoft have a great protocol technology called RemoteFX they are currently licensing to TV, STB and monitor manufacturers. I think this will be used to offer a cloud-based XBOX Live service.
If MS give you the ability to play XBOX games "in the cloud" the age of the console under your TV is dead - all your TV needs is the RemoteFX decoder chip, an ethernet port and way to connect the controller (Bluetooth/Wireless?)
Games developers will be released from the physical constraints of the console hardware - their games can scale up, and down as needed and consume as much, or as little, CPU and/or memory as "the cloud" can provide.
Uses won't need to fork out for expensive consoles that are obsolete in a few years, break down, get hacked, develop red rings etc. All you'll need is the TV and a fast broadband link.
It's gonna happen, trust me.
/Mine's the one with the wireless controller in the pocket.
Streeview bikes
If Streetview is "about buildings and streets" why do they have bikes with cameras capturing all the locations that the cars can't reach?
I was at Lands' End in Cornwall last week and up popped the Google bike with camera cycling up and down the footpaths .
The temptation to push him off the cliff just to see if the image of me standing victorious at the cliff top would make it into the Streetview when searching for "bottom of Atlantic near Lands end" :-)
@Nigel11
Note quite mATX buy check out http://beagleboard.org/
They provide small motherboards with networking, USB etc based on the ARM PCU.
Alternatively, buy yourself an old Acorn or Iyonix system to play with.
Perfect for RemoteFX
This type of expansion will become increasingly common once Microsoft release RemoteFX for VDI deployments which will allow this bank of GPUs to be shared amongst hundreds of Virtual Desktops.
Other tools available
Both AppSense and RES PowerFuse enhance the functionality provided by AD GPOs. Neither are cheap mind you.
Versioning
Can't believe people base still base their judgements on "how much has changed" based on a single build version string. Very short sited commentards!
Velcro also popular on the ISS
See this photo:
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/456834main_iss023e047254_hires.jpg
Also used to hold Laptops to the ceiling/floor
Where have you all been?
Has everyone on this site been living in a cave the last few years and really had no clue on how much the full Office suite really costs?
And as to those who are saying "who the hell will buy Office?" I think you'll find the answer is "majority of large corporates and most of the public sector"
You don't think Microsoft makes a large percentage of it's overall revenue by giving away Office for next to now't now surely?
Citrix provisioning server
I've used Citrix Provisioning Server (part of the XenDesktop suite) to boot servers from a single central image. This gives great agility when provisioning, and re-provisioning servers to particular roles.
It allows the hardware to be seen more as a resource, rather than dedicated "web server" or "file server". It takes IT deps a while to get their heads around this concept that a piece of tin can change its role as fast as it takes to reboot, but once they realise the agility this gives them - especially with rapid upgrades, easy rollback etc they generally quickly come on site.
This provisioning technology of course works best when you've virtualised your servers as it removes the hardware dependacy in the images but can be applied to "legacy tin" to achieve similar benefits.
@Dave93
I found the contact email address with ONE click. On the very front page of the www.hmrc.gov.uk site:
Online security
Online protection advice, including reporting phishing scams
Click through and you will see:
If you have received an email from HMRC that you consider to be fraudulent, please forward it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk. HMRC cannot reply to every email, but action is taken on each report received.
Simples...as our Meercat friend would say!
HDN
All my Amazon stuff arrives via "Home Delivery Network" which appears to be a network of home-workers who act as couriers in their local area. My stuff gets dropped off by someone in a old Volvo...but at least it arrives unlike the farce that is Royal Mail.
Neil's response
Hi, I'm the "Neil" quoted in the article.
The "tagline" on the online adverts read:
"Purchase any eligible Windows Vista® Home Premium, Vista Business or Vista Ultimate PC and get a free upgrade to Windows 7"
Note the word "free".
There is a line in the terms and conditions that read:
"Each vendor will charge shipping and handling fees. These charges vary by vendor."
Still, I consider HP's charge of £27 for shipping and handling obscene when I'm capable of downloading the same thing for free.
SPAM delays
More email marketing campaigns delayed...am I the only one not crying into their keyboard?
ICA client
How does Citrix get around this condition with their ICA client for the iPhone? That involves running other code elsewhere "outside of iTunes"
Double standards
I find it bizarre that everyone is berating Gordon for not being able to express himself without the excessive use of expletives, whilst filling their posts with an incredulous amount said expletives themselves.
Why does everyone need to feel the need to stoop to the same level to prove thier point?
Mine's the one with "chef" on the pocket..
Police not interested in online fraud
I run several online eCommerce sites, and regularly get obviously fraudulent orders placed with stolen credit cards. Despite have the "perps" contact details via the delivery address, the police just arent interested in me reporting these incidents having tried several times.
Car..
Anyoneone know where this abandoned car is? I'll happily "uplift" it :-)
Sony quality
The "Select" button on my Sony Vaio laptop wore out after only 6 months of use. (Fixed under warranty.)
I was also p*ssed that I couldnt enable the CPU Virtualisation extensions that the chipset supports but Sony disable in the BIOS so I could run HyperV under Windows 2008.
Paris 'cus I've not used her icon before..
Business model
So these guys are sending up $2500 worth of equipment every day and just hoping that someone will retrieve it for a $100 bounty?
How sustainable is that? Also, what percentage of fallen balloons are recovered? Their "green" credentials wont be that great if there are hundreds of lost transmitters, all with batteries presumably, decaying away across the countryside.
@Andrew
Yes, not all businesses that deal with HMRC are registered companies. There are also sole traders, partnerships etc - all of which have to pay tax, and VAT if their turnover is high enough.
GTA..
"I remember when they tried to ban Grand Theft Auto thinking that people will start highkjacking cars"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/7056843.stm
"...drive-by shootings",
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7055814.stm
"...running people over"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7006712.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/7037325.stm
"hiring prostitutes then killing them to get your money back."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6166635.stm
At least with the traffic nowerdays there are no town centres that you can scream round at high speed...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6991597.stm
oh..
What has the secure symbol got to do with fraud?
I'm confused how having "the padlock" symbol (ie you credit card details are transmitted over SSL) would help in this situation.
When you have fraudsters that have setup a fake website selling non-existant goods to harvest credit card details, whether your card details are encypted or not when they are winging their way to the fraudsters is surely irrelevant?
The only thing you'll gain is the knowledge that they won't be intercepted by any other fraudsters out to defraud the original fraudsters!
Cheers,
Neil
www.purleyhosting.com