Building a Flexible (yet secure) Desktop Solution

Many of you are already familiar with server virtualization and VDI and you might be looking for a virtualization approach that will help more easily secure and control desktop environments in a wider range of environments, i.e. bring-your-own-laptop, offline access, remote employees, etc.

In this post, I am going to describe one way to build a desktop environment which provides a lot of flexibility to users but still lets IT maintain control.

Consider an alternative approach to VDI: instead of running the VM image on a centralized server, the VM is running locally on the end-user's machine. The mantra is: "Manage centrally, execute remotely." This new model provides a great platform for IT organizations to customize solutions to fit their needs.

First, let's look at application virtualization and how that might fit in. Some of you maybe familiar with it - the big names in this space are: Microsoft AppV (formerly SoftGrid), VMware ThinApp (formerly Thinstall), and Citrix XenApp. In this model, an application is packaged up in a bundle and the user runs the application from this bundle in a sandbox environment on their unmanaged desktop. This is a great solution for delivering single applications to users because the application does not need to be installed manually on the local machine and it is delivered on-demand to the user. IT does not get involved in managing the OS and data on the machine.

However, not managing the OS or the rest of the desktop makes the computing environment vulnerable. In most cases, it's imperative to properly manage the environment to make sure the computer doesn't crash due to a missing security patch or that business data is not left unsecured. This is one of the reasons the desktop virtualization approach "manage centrally, execute locally" really shines - by easily securing the environment around a virtualized application:

Let's use the below image to explore the MokaFive layer approach to managing a virtual desktop, from bottom to top:

• On the lowest layer, there is the host PC or Mac operating system. The Mokafive Player, to download and run the virtual "LivePC" desktop, can be run on either platform, so you don't need to worry about cross-platform support in your solution. We take care of that.
• The layers above the host platform is the MokaFive Player and the Hypervisor. This allows you to manage the next layers above and control various security settings. IT can control what the user can or cannot do in the virtual desktop by setting policies on the central, Web-based management console.
  
• Then there is the base OS that runs inside the virtual machine (Windows XP or Vista).
  
• You can also install any corporate applications, i.e. Outlook, Word, a CRM or ERP application, etc. Together with the base OS, this can be your standard base virtual desktop image for your company or one base image for a specific department. By default, the base image is locked down by the MokaFive Player so it can't be tampered with.
  
• The top layer is where the magic happens. You can deploy additional applications to your users, based on their needs, using application virtualization technology. You can have users run applications from the server or you can have the applications streamed down to the virtual desktop, depending on performance needs. If you have an existing virtualized application installation, the MokaFive solution fits right now.
  
• Also on the top layer is the user installed applications. Using the personalization feature that is built into the MokaFive 2.0 technology, you can allow users to install their own applications on top of your standard managed image. You give your users flexibility to do whatever they want on the top layer while you maintain control on the lower layers.
  

We have tried this configuration with XenApp, AppV and ThinApp. I think this configuration provides the most flexibility to both IT and end users while at the same time, IT still maintains control.

Back from Briforum

Back from last week’s Briforum conference in Chicago, and I must say it was an enriching experience. How many people can say they rode to dinner in a stretch Hummer with 30 other geeks?

The amazing thing about Briforum was the content-rich discussions. Unlike other shows I’ve been to, Briforum was a super concentration of the leading practitioners and researchers in the virtual desktop space. Moreover, there was a candid, open sharing of ideas -- and a sense that no one has this figured out, so let’s all push it ahead together. Very refreshing.

In particular, I really enjoyed Ruben Spruijt (Twitter, blog) and Shawn Bass’ (Twitter, blog) overview on application and desktop delivery solutions. Impressively, in 75 minutes, it covered the full expanse of virtual desktops and applications. I left with a much better sense of the “lay of the land”.

For MokaFive’s part, John Whaley (Twitter) and I held a session on the huge promise of layering in virtual desktops, and it’s ability to greatly improve manageability of VMs for IT on the one hand and the customizability of VMs for users on the other. We had a terrific turnout and many great questions from the audience, even though we started at 5:30pm and lasted way into the dinner hour. A testament to dedication and fortitude of Briforum attendees!

Update: John just posted a short video demo where he gives an inside view of our layering technology. This is a "short and sweet" clip of what we showed during Briforum.



For more photos of BriForum, check out Brian Madden's Flickr stream and the fan section of MokaFive's page on Facebook.

Burt Toma

Tachibana teams up with MokaFive in Japan

Today we announced Tachibana Eletech Co. Ltd as a MokaFive distributor in Japan. With nearly 90 years under its belt, Tachibana is one of the most respected and well-established Japanese technology firms and will be a solid partner to bring MokaFive solutions to market.

Security and cost are two of the most important factors influencing the deal, according to Masao Hamamura, operating officer, Information & Communication Systems at Tachibana. His statement for our press release today was, "Security is a top concern for our enterprise clients, and MokaFive provides the best solution to secure desktop environments in a wide variety of secure remote computing scenarios. Another major factor that makes MokaFive Suite platform superior to competitive products is that it does not require our customers to invest in new hardware."

This is MokaFive's first major international channel partner announcement and with MokaFive Suite available as an easy-to-install platform, building out the channel network will be a primary focus for us. In addition to consulting, reselling, and developing systems using MokaFive, Tachibana will also use MokaFive technology to develop new products to extend its thin-client business unit, TC Cube.