Prompted by the need for workers to access company resources remotely, there’s been renewed interest in hosting desktop environments on a central server. Building a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is one of the tried and true ways to approach supporting a remote workforce. However, if we’re being honest, it’s certainly not the simplest. That’s because starting your VDI initiative from scratch requires a significant investment in IT resources – including hardware/software and also technical know-how. For years, this level of complexity was a hinderance for adoption and the primary reason VDI was never able to go mainstream.

The good news is that with recent advancements in hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), it is now possible to reap the benefits of VDI — without the initial costs and headaches. Rather than procuring the compute, network, and storage resources separately — as is the case in a traditional VDI deployment — HCI gives organizations a head start by combining the virtualization components into a single solution.

Here at Leostream, HCI is something that we’re very excited about. Leostream has been a pioneer in the virtual desktop space for as long as VDI has been around and we believe HCI brings some powerful advantages. In fact, we’ve seen so much demand for hyperconverged infrastructure as a VDI enabler, that we recently integrated with Nutanix, the industry leader in HCI.

Nutanix sets the gold standard for deploying VDI on hyperconverged infrastructures. By joining the Nutanix Elevate Technology Alliance Partner Program, the Leostream Platform has received Nutanix Ready: Integrated Validation. This validation is awarded to products that natively utilize and integrate with the rich set of Nutanix APIs for management and virtualization. This integration enables organizations to accelerate hosted desktop deployments and build highly scalable, performant and automated environments using our software alongside Nutanix.

 

Scaling a Virtual Desktop Environment with HCI using Leostream and Nutanix

When it comes to scaling large environments, having the right backend infrastructure is a critical part of the equation.  By design, Nutanix is positioned to scale VDI. Unlike typical data center concepts which operate in component silos, HCI combines the virtualization pieces into a single solution. Having a complete HCI platform pre-built saves time and the difficulties associated with testing various software/hardware and the compatibility issues that can arise. This means customers can deploy in a matter of days.

What’s unique about HCI is its ability to horizontally scale simply by adding nodes. This makes introducing capacity when needed easier without the risk of under or overprovisioning storage resources.

The introduction of Leostream into the solution provides a granular level of control that IT administrators need to effectively manage a high volume of remote desktop connections. The Leostream Platform is uniquely customizable and offers a range of functionality for provisioning desktops, setting access control policies, monitoring connections and optimizing resource allocation.

Through a single-pane-of-glass console, Leostream integrates the complex array of clients, hosting platforms, guest operating systems, and display protocols that are often found in enterprise deployments. Whether your environment has 100 users or 100,000, the Leostream Platform ensures the right person has access to the right resource when and where it is needed.

 

HCI for Enterprise VDI

The benefits of VDI for enterprises have been well documented for both IT staff and end users: simplified and centralized management for administrators and more flexibility for a mobile workforce. Since HCI offers a flexible infrastructure and is capable of being rolled out to thousands of workers while satisfying a variety of use cases, it can be an ideal choice for large organizations.

In fact, our collaboration with Nutanix is aimed squarely at enterprises and large organizations looking to harness the power of HCI to build a secure hosted desktop environment that is easy to monitor, manage, and scale.

The Leostream/Nutanix integration facilitates a wide range of workflows that are commonly seen across large organizations and delivers the following benefits:

 

Choose from a variety of remote display protocols

Not only can users connect to their desktops and applications from commodity display protocols like RDP, VNC, and SSH, but integrations with high-performance protocols, including those with GPU acceleration, ensures an optimal end-user experience.

 

Connect users from their preferred client device

Connections can be launched from any device including thin clients, zero clients, Chromebooks and mobile devices.

 

Provide VPN-less access for seamless connections

By using the Leostream Gateway for seamless in-browser connections, remote users gain VPN-less access to VMs hosted on Nutanix clusters.

 

Prioritize security and authentication methods

There are many ways to lock down corporate resources and stay compliant by leveraging advanced security features like multi-factor authentication, rogue user management, high-availability failover, etc.

 

Manage multiple virtualization hosts side-by-side

For those running Nutanix with VMware vSphere or OpenStack underneath, Leostream offers a way to manage everything from within a single interface.

 

Next Steps

Please contact our sales team at [email protected] if you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of VDI and how to leverage hyperconverged infrastructure with Leostream and Nutanix. We are available to discuss your organization’s use case and your options for centrally managing hosted resources for VDI and remote access.