Dell and Citrix have taken VDI adoption and ease-of-deployment to the next level with the DVS Simplified Appliance. Dell has continually focused on bringing a VDI appliance to market that served as a true end to end solution to meet customers’ demands for simplicity and flexibility and the DVS Simplified Appliance does just that. With its combination of Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell Wyse end points, Citrix XenServer hypervisor and Citrix VDI-in-a-Box software all backed up by Dell ProSupport. the appliance is simple to install, configure and manage. Conscious of today’s constrained IT budgets, Dell’s appliance delivers a compelling virtualized desktop experience with Citrix’s VDI-in-a-Box software at less than $500 per user which is comparable to the price of a traditional PC but with all the added benefits of VDI.  The reception of the DVS Simplified Appliance has been so enthusiastic that Dell has made it the first desktop virtualization solution to fully launch in our recently announced DVS channel program. To keep customers on the leading edge of the technology, Citrix has taken the next step in VDI appliance software with today’s launch of VDI-in-a-Box 5.1 software.  Some of the 5.1 features we are most excited to share include:

New Features:

• Personal Virtual Desktops – Enables full end user personalization while leveraging a common golden image
• Increased Scalability – certified to scale for up to 2,000 desktops
• High Availability (HA) – end-to-end HA without a load balancer which can be extended to work with your HA Active Directory
• Increased Performance – dual datastores to improve your I/O performance and increase your server density
• Easier to Deploy and Manage – touchless DTagent auto installed on gold images
• Multiple virtual CPU’s – expands support for applications such as Google Earth that run on multiple CPU’s
• Full Support for Windows – gives you early access to Windows 8 desktops (beta) and Windows server 2008 R2 desktops (beta)

Citrix has brought to you the best VDI appliance software on the market but a VDI appliance isn’t complete without compelling hardware to power the software. DVS Simplified appliance brings the latest server technology, Dell-Wyse end points and services to deliver the perfect solution. 

Dell Hardware and Services

• Dell PowerEdge R720 server:  Powers the solution. The R720 server is pre-configured and optimized to achieve an ideal balance of price and performance supporting 129 basic users per appliance for unparalleled balance of price, performance and user density.
• Dell Wyse Fully Certified VDI-in-a-Box end points with HDX technology support:
  • Fully Certified VIAB end points include the Dell Wyse C10LE, Xenith, R10L and R90LW.
  • Dell ProSupport:  Delivers comprehensive three-year hardware and software support, including access to experts 24x7x365. Dell ProSupport is included in the DVS Simplified Appliance.
  • Optional Dell JumpStart services include remote and on-site installation/configuration, infrastructure assessment, image migration and network optimization.

I don’t want you to only take my word on how VDI-in-a-Box can drastically improve your IT infrastructure. We have feedback from our customers on how VDI-in-a-Box has stepped up to the plate to meet their challenging business needs.

Successful Customer Deployments: A public school system came to us with the business challenge of migrating to Windows 7.  They had a limited IT budget and a staff of only two IT generalist.  Their goals were to simplify PC maintenance and lifecycle management, upgrade to Windows 7 without refreshing each PC and avoid the complexity that comes with most datacenters and storage area networks (SAN).  We knew based on these goals that VDI-in-a-Box was the perfect product to meet their needs.  Dell was were able to accelerate the project by one year, migrate them to Windows 7 under budget and allow two IT personnel to effectively manage 735 devices with the combination of Dell hardware and VDI-in-a-Box software.

Another example of a unique business challenge was a real estate management firm that needed to provide secure reliable desktop access for contractors and offshore branch locations.  The real-estate firm only had days to deploy a solution and they wanted the ability to incrementally grow their deployment in the future.  Once again we knew that VDI-in-a-Box would be up to the challenge and once again it didn’t disappoint.  We provided them secure contractor access with no data at the endpoints for added security. We eliminated the latency they were experiencing between their Dubai and London offices all while providing easy scalability for future growth with the grid architecture that VDI-in-a-Box provides.

So what does all this mean for you? 

Dell’s DVS Simplified solution allows you to rest assured that you are getting a comprehensive and compelling all-in-one solution that will enable end users to be more flexible, more productive, and most importantly more secure. The combination of Dell’s DVS Simplified Appliance with Dell Wyse end points and Citrix VDI-in-a-Box 5.1 software are the perfect option for either small or medium-sized businesses looking for a solution that is fast and easy to deploy and that simplifies the management experience of desktop virtualization.  If you want to take the first step into the desktop virtualization realm consider a test deployment of DVS Simplified Appliance and the latest release VDI-in-a-Box software from Citrix.

To learn more about Dell Desktop Virtualization Solutions visit www.dell.com/desktopvirtualization