Comments on: Virtualization Concerns http://preilly.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/virtualization-concerns/ Learning is a journey of the mind, the body, and the heart. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:04:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Joe McGrath http://preilly.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/virtualization-concerns/#comment-10166 Joe McGrath Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:33:16 +0000 http://preilly.wordpress.com/?p=336#comment-10166 The general experience has been that graphic heavy apps such as movie making, photo shop, etc need to be workstation specific. Even with 1GB to the desktop and 720 backplane speeds, the processing power on the server would need to be intense to support movie making. I agree with Pete that the hybrid model is the way to go from a managment point of veiw. What gets tricky is that if you need to have a workstation beefy enough to support high graphics, it could certainly support office and web applications without the need for VM ware. I envision the 1:1 initiative will be a wireless one using virtualization. I have seen a few potentional student machine models out there but they don't support the heavy graphic apps. - The choice as we have seen before is portability Vs power. The general experience has been that graphic heavy apps such as movie making, photo shop, etc need to be workstation specific. Even with 1GB to the desktop and 720 backplane speeds, the processing power on the server would need to be intense to support movie making. I agree with Pete that the hybrid model is the way to go from a managment point of veiw. What gets tricky is that if you need to have a workstation beefy enough to support high graphics, it could certainly support office and web applications without the need for VM ware.

I envision the 1:1 initiative will be a wireless one using virtualization. I have seen a few potentional student machine models out there but they don’t support the heavy graphic apps. - The choice as we have seen before is portability Vs power.

]]> By: Heidi http://preilly.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/virtualization-concerns/#comment-10155 Heidi Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:00:28 +0000 http://preilly.wordpress.com/?p=336#comment-10155 Hi again, About your discussion of hybrid solutions: With the schools you're working with, are they content with having only certain machine capable of running the movie making type apps? What I've been hearing during my tech planning meetings is that they feel it's necessary to have movie making, etc... type apps on ALL workstations in a school, as digital storytelling is a key tool for integration. I've tried a couple of the web tools for movie making or comicstrip creation, etc... 1. haven't found the performance that great yet - lots of waiting. 2. they require students sign up for accounts and Districts are wary of student names/info on external servers. What's your experience? Thanks! Heidi Hi again,

About your discussion of hybrid solutions:
With the schools you’re working with, are they content with having only certain machine capable of running the movie making type apps?

What I’ve been hearing during my tech planning meetings is that they feel it’s necessary to have movie making, etc… type apps on ALL workstations in a school, as digital storytelling is a key tool for integration.

I’ve tried a couple of the web tools for movie making or comicstrip creation, etc…
1. haven’t found the performance that great yet - lots of waiting.
2. they require students sign up for accounts and Districts are wary of student names/info on external servers.

What’s your experience?

Thanks!
Heidi

]]> By: Pete Reilly http://preilly.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/virtualization-concerns/#comment-10151 Pete Reilly Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:16:02 +0000 http://preilly.wordpress.com/?p=336#comment-10151 Heidi, The infrastructure that is in place now pretty much works. It takes a lot of effort; but we are holding it together fairly well. I think the foundation of the business case going forward is the desire to move to much more access for students, both in school and at home. If we take a 1,200 machine school district and go to a 'one to one' scenario over a 5 year time frame, we will be supporting 4,800-5,000 computers. Using the current 'distributed' model, this would be an expensive nightmare. It would also be difficult to imagine getting to a 'one to one' without moving to the Asus, HP, XO, low cost, diskless, mobile devices; in which case we'd want as much software as possible stored centrally. I think your point about the WAN is accurate. Distributing application servers in buildings is not optimum. It's best to have server farms. Something to think about...as time goes on, more and more software is becoming web-based anyway. It's easy to envision a time when most of our software is coming from somewhere other than the hard drive of our workstation. Let's keep the conversation going. pete Heidi,
The infrastructure that is in place now pretty much works. It takes a lot of effort; but we are holding it together fairly well. I think the foundation of the business case going forward is the desire to move to much more access for students, both in school and at home.

If we take a 1,200 machine school district and go to a ‘one to one’ scenario over a 5 year time frame, we will be supporting 4,800-5,000 computers. Using the current ‘distributed’ model, this would be an expensive nightmare.

It would also be difficult to imagine getting to a ‘one to one’ without moving to the Asus, HP, XO, low cost, diskless, mobile devices; in which case we’d want as much software as possible stored centrally.

I think your point about the WAN is accurate. Distributing application servers in buildings is not optimum. It’s best to have server farms. Something to think about…as time goes on, more and more software is becoming web-based anyway. It’s easy to envision a time when most of our software is coming from somewhere other than the hard drive of our workstation.

Let’s keep the conversation going.

pete

]]> By: Heidi http://preilly.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/virtualization-concerns/#comment-10150 Heidi Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:25:03 +0000 http://preilly.wordpress.com/?p=336#comment-10150 Hi Pete, I can see that my assumption was that there would be a centralized server farm - in which case the WAN stability has a major impact. You're right that if application servers are located at each school then there is a very low risk of lost productivity due to program inaccessiblity. I can see this being cost-justifiable at secondary schools, where there is a larger concentration of workstations. At elementary schools, however, it's going to get pretty expensive to locate a server at each one. I think that starts to impact the business case for virtualization if you have to support every site's server, rather than have one farm. Would you have to upgrade applications on each server individually? I wonder if Windows Server 2008 version of Terminal Services allows Citrix-like functionality of upgrading an application once on a server farm - where the farm is spread across multiple locations? Something to reseach... I look forward to seeing your examination of costs. It's a great technical model - it would come down to how to cost justify it, wouldn't it? By the way - have you seen the new HP 2133? I just saw a demo model & it's looking pretty slick. It's along the lines of the ASUS, but has a 95% size keyboard (so easier to type on with adult hands) and comes in either Linux or Vista capable models. I think lots of business people and bloggers are going to buy this one! Take care, Heidi Hi Pete,

I can see that my assumption was that there would be a centralized server farm - in which case the WAN stability has a major impact.

You’re right that if application servers are located at each school then there is a very low risk of lost productivity due to program inaccessiblity. I can see this being cost-justifiable at secondary schools, where there is a larger concentration of workstations.

At elementary schools, however, it’s going to get pretty expensive to locate a server at each one. I think that starts to impact the business case for virtualization if you have to support every site’s server, rather than have one farm.

Would you have to upgrade applications on each server individually? I wonder if Windows Server 2008 version of Terminal Services allows Citrix-like functionality of upgrading an application once on a server farm - where the farm is spread across multiple locations?

Something to reseach…

I look forward to seeing your examination of costs. It’s a great technical model - it would come down to how to cost justify it, wouldn’t it?

By the way - have you seen the new HP 2133? I just saw a demo model & it’s looking pretty slick. It’s along the lines of the ASUS, but has a 95% size keyboard (so easier to type on with adult hands) and comes in either Linux or Vista capable models. I think lots of business people and bloggers are going to buy this one!

Take care,
Heidi

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