By Fredrik Brattstig – @virtualbrat
Last week, during Microsoft Ignite, Scott Manchester (Microsoft) and Jed Ayres (IGEL) announced that IGEL OS will support Windows Virtual Desktop. You might think, “whats big with that?”, the big thing is that Microsoft has embraced Linux and thin clients for the edge, AND they choose IGEL.
Never before in IT history has there been a initiative from Microsoft to create a Linux client for Windows Remote Desktop. At the current stage Microsoft creates a SDK, which IGEL Technology is the first and exclusive adopter too. This means that IGEL will have the first complete client when the SDK is announced GA (General Availability).
IGEL OS can now connect to Windows Virtual Desktop environment running in Azure. IGEL is implementing the functions in the SDK, building it’s own Windows Virtual Desktop and Remote Desktop client on top of it. And we do a lot of progress!
Me personally have the benefit of being part of the team that is engaging with Microsoft on this development. I have been testing the WVD RDP client since quite early stages, and it is actually progressing very good. All implemented functions does work. Of course, as the SDK is being created there are missing functions, but those are added at rapid speed.
At the current stage, I’m impressed on the stability and performance of the WVD RDP client. Connections are quick. There is a very low latency and video and audio rendering works very well. You can see that in the attached video below.
The way WVD is built in azure blows my mind a bit. It is so easy to provision virtual machines, and apps to users. For me that started working with remoting technologies (read Citrix) 20+ years ago, having the possibilities to dynamically grow and shrink the environment would have been amazing at that stage. Especially then, when all servers were physical boxes per worker. Now you just deploy more machines, and you can easily jump between different virtual hardware sizing’s.
Well, the negative word on Azure (or any cloud based VM), all is complaining about the price. It is billed by the hour use (or even by the second’s use. You might think that a 2CPU, 8 GB VM with windows and WVD services is expensive with it’s 60 $/month (approx). spin up 10 of those and you will use 20 vCPU’s, and 80 GB of RAM. or go for larger machines, more vCPU’s and loads of RAM, + you can add Nvidia GPU’s too, at the blink of a eye. Try to do that in your on-prem datacenter.
How much would you get for those 600$ per month? Calculate: Power consumption, cooling, security, the data center square meter cost, servers, racks, power distribution panels, KVM switches, licenses, fire protection, redundant internet connections, LAN switches, cabling and whats not. those 600$ would get eaten quite quick right? or 7200$/year or 36.000$/5years. Sure, the azure (any cloud) cost is quite linear when you grow, but i can assure you that the cost for your datacenter is not linear..
Plus, the 60$ is if those VM’s is running 24/7. Add a power control schedule and you will cut the cost radically.
Enough selling Azure consumption 🙂
Using IGEL OS, you can utilize your existing hardware estate, reinstall those using IGEL OS, and you will certainly save a bunch of money to cover the Azure consumption. Maybe you already have existing Thin Clients form other brands that cant do WVD? Keep them! Reinstall with IGEL OS and you will be able to!
Plus, you do a good deed for the environment! That’s a big benefit!
Ohh, by the way, when will WVD client on IGEL OS be GA? I can’t say, but i encourage you to visit https://disrupteuc.com and sign up, we migh have news to present there!
A quick demo of WVD on IGEL OS, enjoy with Popcorn!
Best
@virtualbrat
VirtualBrat 