SOLUTION BRIEF

VDI Success at
the Branch Office
How VERDE VDI
Addresses Branch
Users
Serving the needs of users in branch offices

is one of the most challenging aspects of

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. For the first

generation of VDI technology, delivering a

high-quality desktop experience to branch

office users, while still retaining control of

applications and data, has proved virtually

impossible. VERDE’s, purpose-built second

generation VDI technology re-engineers VDI

from the ground up. The result: a LAN-like

experience for the branch office user, while

retaining central control for IT.

VERDE VDI® provides the most secure, easy-

to-use, enterprise-grade virtual desktop
infrastructure at an affordable price.
SOLUTION BRIEF

VDI Success at the Branch Office

How VERDE VDI Addresses Branch Users

Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Branch VDI: Best of Both Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Setup in Three Simple Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Administrator Experience with VERDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Creating Gold Master images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Creating and editing an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Assigning attributes to the image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Publishing the images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Using Deployment mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Managing administrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
General administrative tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The User Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

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VDI Success at the Branch Office

Introduction
The desktop management pendulum has undergone several swings over the past 20-plus
years. In that short period, we’ve moved from a highly-centralized model of computing to
a decentralized model. On the plus side, that move has introduced significant productivity
gains. At the same time, however, the typical organization has become highly distributed,
leading to management issues with desktops including latency, the high costs of managing a
decentralized model, security risks of distributed data – including viruses and malware at the
uncontrolled endpoint – and a general lack of control for IT.

In response to those challenges, the pendulum has now swung back again, and we’re seeing
the beginning of the end of that decentralized management model. With recent advances
in virtualization, especially in the server world, the computing world is seeing success in
uncoupling the hardware from the software, beginning with the operating system, and
following with layers of application software and data.

This centralized model, however, presents some new challenges. What about the user
experience in a centralized model, as control again returns to the datacenter, along with
processing? There are also added requirements of network bandwidth, network reliability,
and network availability. In order to be productive, the user’s endpoint device now must
always be connected to a network. There is also a perceived loss of flexibility in having a
central management model that may lack flexibility at remote locations. Many of today’s
office workers are highly mobile and don’t work out of a single office. When they travel, or
visit a branch office, the challenge becomes maintaining a consistent user experience.
When there are many remote locations, the challenges of the centralized model become
even more difficult. User expectations are high, because users expect the performance they
are used to from running local applications on desktop computers. IT needs to provide virtual
desktop infrastructure in remote locations, but the challenge of providing a true desktop
experience is heightened by often-inadequate performance over a wide area network.

Most solutions available today to solve the branch user problem require intensive IT
management during the installation and configuration processes, along with ongoing
management and operations work.

Available solutions for remote users are typically very network- centric – usually either WAN
accelerators or compression engines. Essentially, these approaches take inadequate existing
solutions and attempts to make them work to deliver an adequate desktop experience for
the branch user.

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 VDI Success at the Branch Office

Branch VDI: Best of Both Worlds

A true solution to the branch user problem would offer the best of both worlds – keeping a
centralized management model with its significant advantages, while addressing the issues
introduced by a decentralized model. At the same time, a solution would allow IT to provide
flexibility, and to preserve the experience users have become accustomed to with the
decentralized model.

There is a best of both worlds – branch VDI technology based on a VERDE VDI solution.

Branch VDI technology:

nn Reduces the complexity and cost of managing the branch office infrastructure
nn Improves network performance by moving processing away from the WAN
nn Provides a LAN experience to users
nn Gives users a consistent desktop experience wherever they choose to work
nn Brings tremendous business agility, since IT can easily create and expand to new branch
offices much faster than with old-style VDI or conventional network models.
Figures 1 and 2 show the overall NComputing VERDE solution architecture, which includes
a VERDE cluster and VERDE console – the infrastructure installed in the datacenter central

Figure 1: Extending VDI to the

Branch office with VERDE VDI
technology from NComputing. As
shown, both gold master desktops
and persistent user data are stored
Headquarters
on the remote branch server. A Mobile Branch Office / SMB
branch office server provides users
Classroom/Call Center Home/Telecommute
with an immediate connection to
the local area network, resulting
Dynamic Desktop Sessions
in a LAN-like experience during
dynamic desktop sessions. Distributed Connection Broker

Desktops and user data are

updated periodically over the
WAN; users can be running CLUSTER
Windows or Linux operating
systems.

Windows 10 Windows 7 Windows XP

Gold Master Provisioning Directories and User Groups Persistant User Data

location. The cluster attaches itself to the main controller, or directory or authentication
service, which holds all user data and policies. The cluster also attaches to shared storage,
which is where the VERDE gold images are stored – a set of master images of user desktops in
Windows or Linux.

A key difference between the VERDE branch solution and other technologies is that the
desktop image is split into two pieces. One piece is a standard operating system image,
which might be shared across many users including those in the datacenter, a central
location, and the branch office. The same image can be shared across multiple users because
user data is separated from the desktop image. What NComputing refers to as persistent user
data, or a ‘dynamic’ image, is personalized for each individual user, is also stored in the shared
data store, which is connected to the VERDE Cluster.

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 VDI Success at the Branch Office

Setting up a user in a branch office is very simple – the administrator sets up a branch server
as shown in Figure 2, making sure that the branch server is connected to all the endpoints in
the branch office. If there are 24 users in a branch office, there will be 24 endpoints, all
connected to the branch server.

The branch server is installed, configured, and connected to the VERDE central server.
NComputing’ SmartSync protocol does the rest, downloading the user’s desktop images
and persistent user data. Users simply connect to the branch office server for their desktops.
Because they are in fact connected to a branch of the server over a local area network, they
receive a true LAN experience.

BRANCH Home
LEAF

SmartS ync™
ync™ SmartS Mobile
CLOUD
Branch Office WAN/INTERNET True Offline VDI

DATA CENTER Gold Master Technology

Windows 10 Windows 7 Windows XP

Employee
CONSOLE ADMIN

Persistant User Data

LAN Shared Datastore
(NAS/SAN)
CLUSTER

Contractor

One or more servers with Hypervisor, Distributed

Connection Broker, and Direct Attached Storage. Directory/
Authentication Services

Figure 2: VERDE Branch technology. An overall VERDE solution architecture is shown here, including a VERDE cluster, console, and branch office. The VERDE
console is the infrastructure installed in the datacenter central location; NComputing SmartSync technology connects branch office to data center.

If the wide-area network is down, users aren’t affected, since they can continue to run their
desktops from the branch server. Once network service returns, SmartSync makes updates to
the branch to re-sync desktops to the gold masters in the remote data center.

As Figures 1 and 2 show, VERDE VDI and cloud computing can eliminate the need for a
high-performance wide area network to serve remote users. The connection between
the branch office and the datacenter need not be high performance or highly available,
because the connection is used only to synchronize the desktop Gold Images with user data
using SmartSync.

IT can thus address reliability and availability issues on the wide-area network, while
still preserving a good user experience. User data and user identity are still managed as
images in the datacenter, keeping both application and data management within the
datacenter envelope.

In short, VERDE Branch Technology in the cloud truly provides the best of both worlds. It
pushes processing power back out to remote locations, while keeping management of the
branch server within the datacenter and those administrators. The branch office needs no
administrators, so the management burden is removed from remote locations.

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 VDI Success at the Branch Office

At the same time, this solution provides visibility into branch usage from the central location.
From the VERDE console in the central location, IT can track utilization in the branch office.
And the user experience is preserved, because users are on a local area network.

Setup in Three Simple Steps

A VERDE Cloud Branch office can be set up in three easy steps:

1. IT first sets branch desktop policies at the central server, associating gold images of user
desktops with the branch office. This step is performed through the VERDE Console at
the central server.
2. After installing and configuring a VERDE Branch server in the branch office, IT simply
joins this branch server to the central server, as well as to the domain controller.
3. VERDE SmartSync protocol takes care of synchronizing. Branch office users simply type
in the address of the branch server using their browsers or VERDE Client app, and point
to the branch server to find their desktops and begin working.

The Administrator Experience with VERDE

As explained, the VERDE Cluster and infrastructure are managed from the datacenter
through the VERDE Console or if Remote Branch Authorization Control (RBAC) is provided to
a local administrator at the branch, An IT technician logs onto the console, shown in Figure 3,
through any standard Web browser.

Figure 3: The VERDE Console dashboard

displays critical system information for the IT
administrator, including CPU consumption,
number of sessions currently running, cluster
session counts, and memory use.

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 VDI Success at the Branch Office

Creating Gold Master images

An initial step using the management console is setting up gold master images; these are
operating system images for user desktops in Windows or Linux.

Pulling down the Configuration tab and selecting Gold Images displays the screen shown in
Figure 4, with creation of a new Gold Image in process.

Figure 4: The administrator uses this screen

to set up a new Gold Image for a set of user
desktops. A pop-up wizard steps through
the process. In this screen, several Gold
Images have already been created and the
administrator is about to create a new Windows
10 image.

Creating and editing an image

Once an image has been created, it can be edited by clicking on the Check Out button, as
shown in Figure 5. Before changes can be made, the image is “checked out” from the console;
once changes are complete, it is checked back in. If the image is checked out, users access the
current (older) version of the image, without updates. This gives IT staff control over making
updates visible to users.

Using the Clone icon, the administrator can make a copy of the image. A cloned image can
then be edited, saving setup time if desktop attributes are similar. The cloning process is
useful once a baseline image has been created and applications uploaded to the image.

Figure 5: Once an image has been created,

it can be edited by highlighting it in the list,
then selecting the Checkout button publishes
the image for the end users with valid login
credentials.

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Assigning attributes to the image

The next step in creation of a new Gold Image, as shown in Figure 6, is to associate the image
with settings or attributes; these also allocate resources to the image. Figure 6 shows some
basic system settings associated with the image, including the amount of RAM and disk
space, number of CPUs, allocated to this image, and more.

Additional tabs associated with session settings include a Network tab, for setting up the
network configuration for the Gold Image; a Security tab; a Protocol tab to indicate what
type protocols will be allowed for this Gold Image; and a setting to determine whether USB
devices can access the image.

Figure 6: In this step, using a wizard, session

settings and attributes are assigned to the
Gold Image.

Publishing the images

Once the Gold Image (or Images) have been prepared, along with session settings associated
with the images, the Desktop Policy page is used to publish the images and to provision
them to the users. Users can be specified by name at this step, or by group name – a “%”
prefix indicates a group such as Sales, for example or by Active Directory organization (jack@
myorg.xyz)

One or more images can be made available to a group of users. Having more than one image
can be useful during an operating system migration. Users can be allowed access back to a
Windows 7 image when they need to run that operating system, perhaps to access software
that is not yet compatible with Windows 10.

Using Deployment mode

Using Deployment Mode, any image can be made available for branch office users or not.
VERDE supports multiple deployment modes, including the Branch mode discussed here.

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For security purposes or other reasons, images can be restricted to the central office. In those
cases, the SmartSync Protocol will not download the images to the branch office.

The VDI setting indicates the virtual machine is running locally rather than on the server.
Note that the Gold Master image is the same whether the image is run locally or remotely.

Once setup is complete and the images are made available to be used in a branch office, the
process is nearly complete.

The final step is to set up the branch server; the VERDE SmartSync Protocol does the rest,
using the preconfigured policies for each image to be made available to the branch office.

Managing administrators
Figure 7 shows an administrative screen that allows for multiple administrative roles to be
assigned to local and/or branch administrators.

Figure 7: VERDE console administrators

are managed from these screens. A master
administrator can create or delete admins,
and can halt the check-out of a Gold Image
desktop.

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 VDI Success at the Branch Office

General administrative tasks

Figure 8 shows a general section of the management console that allows setup of global.

Figure 8: Global attributes are set on this

General screen, including how to import your
own TLS secure signed certification.

Reporting
The Reporting tab offers rich setup functionality. as the dashboard shown in Figure 9 shows.

At a glance, the dashboard gives IT technicians an indication of the overall health of the
system; key statistics including session count, CPU consumption, and memory utilization.

Figure 9: The Reporting tab displays a

detailed set of events and statistics captured
by the VERDE console.

Figure 10 shows audit information about desktop usage, including when users logged in and
back out, what they did, and what mode they used when logging in. Additional detail behind

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 VDI Success at the Branch Office

each event is stored in the NComputing database and can be imported into a variety of tools
for further use. That information can be useful for departmental billing and chargeback
purposes, for example.

Figure 10: The Reporting tab can also be used to

display information on user sessions, including
time logged in and out, server and cluster
accessed, user name, and Gold Master image.

The User Experience

Regardless of whether the user is in the central office or a branch office, the user experience with VERDE
Branch technology is superb, echoing the experience users are accustomed to on local area networks.
With VERDE Branch technology, users simply login using the VERDE supplied software client or standard
HTML 5 Web browser on either a thick or thin client device to access their desktops. IT sends each user
a URL that points them to either the central server or a branch server. A login screen asks for domain
credentials – the same credentials are used to access desktops locally or remotely.

Because the VERDE infrastructure is connected to the domain controller, VERDE authenticates using the
domain controller, then presents the user with all available desktops. In the example shown in Figure 11,
the user has two desktops available and can choose either.

Figure 11: Regardless of whether the user

is local or remote, logging on through a
standard browser, or a client application
VERDE presents available desktops and other
options, depending on how the administrator
sets up the system. This screen can be
customized so that the user is presented with
no choices at all.

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VDI Success at the Branch Office
Summary
This paper discussed NComputing VERDE Branch solution, including VERDE architecture,
and shows how VERDE Cloud Branch technology solves the challenge of the remote user.
Through VERDE VDI technology, IT can retain the centralized computing model that makes
management of desktops and data safe and efficient. At the same time, the VERDE VDI
model preserves the advantages and flexibility of a decentralized model. Key differentiators
with NComputing include the ability to serve branch users with a LAN-like experience while
maintaining an offline mode.
In summary, VERDE VDI means that the virtual desktop can be delivered from a single
management console as a single product, without the need to buy multiple products to
serve local users and branch users. With VERDE VDI NComputing Branch technology can
serve every user in the enterprise, even over a slow wide-area network connection – and at
half the cost of traditional VDI solutions.
Additional Resources
Articles
ƥƥ Understanding Successful VDI Implementation
ƥƥ How Government Entitites Can Deploy Linux and Windows Virtual Desktops
ƥƥ Managing User Profiles within Traditional or Virtual Desktop Settings
Case Studies
ƥƥ U.S. Department of Defense: The solution for the mixed world of Windows and Linux
ƥƥ Chuo University: A Desktop Cloud Environment for Anywhere, Anytime Learning
ƥƥ Gruppo api: Reducing Operating Costs by 30% with VDI
ƥƥ LMU Munich: Streamlines IT operations and improves service to students
Documentation
ƥƥ VERDE VDI Datasheet
Whitepapers
ƥƥ How VDI Secures Your Data
ƥƥ Cut your Storage Costs in Half
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