Sorry for the delay in posting this last part, but vacation took priority.  To finish the series out, I want to provide you with a short list of things not to do.  These are the things I’ve seen customers not do properly that eventually come back to haunt us and make us all look bad (IT staff and consultant).  Obviously, anything that would be opposite of any items above would fit here as well.

1. Don’t pay for a consultant to come in, then stick him in a room and say “come on out when you’re done.”  There’s no way he can understand your objectives or the special quirks your organization has.  This approach reduces the valuable knowledge transfer and experience you could gain by doing the work yourself while the consultant guides you through the process.
2. Make sure your house is in order first.  If your infrastructure is not prepared, don’t rush the project in.  Manny of these items have gone into my pre-engagement checklist.
3. Nothing in IT is perfect, so don’t expect VDI to be.  As much as we depend on computers these days, we should all realize by now that they don’t always work as we plan them to.  Be prepared for this and don’t blame anyone for it.  Work through it together.  Collaboration is key, because one person does not always have every answer.
4. Cutting corners saves money, but cutting the wrong corners too deep will destabilize the building.  Work with your partner to determine when, where and how much the quote can be cut back.

Many of the items in all three parts rely on you trusting your partner, which is why I put that at the very beginning.  Go back and read each of my recommendations and you’ll realize that most of them involve trusting your partner to some extent.  You may have a lot of expertise with virtualization and desktop management, but in this case 1 + 1 doesn’t equal 2.

Hopefully my role as a consultant doesn’t make you instantly dismiss my recommendations.  I have only spent the last two years as a consultant, so I can still put myself into the mindset of a customer.  While I was a customer, we did a mix of learning on our own and relying on consultants for many different non-VDI projects.  While most projects were successful, I always felt the ones that were the most successful were the ones where we had a trustworthy advisor.

VDI really is a paradigm shift and will require you to think in different ways.  That’s not to say you or any of the customers I’ve worked with couldn’t do it on their own, after all, I and every other VDI pioneer had to figure it out somehow.  The advantage a seasoned consultant can bring is experience, which manifests as quicker, more decisive success for you.

I previously posted that my company is cosponsoring the upcoming Omaha-Area VMware Users Group meeting on March 24, 2010.  I’m happy to announce that the schedule has been solidified!  Though registration is not yet open, you should keep an eye on your inbox and this site in the next couple of days so you can register as soon as possible (keep reading to find out why you’ll want to register as soon as possible).

Here’s the schedule of events:

	Lab 1	Lab 2	Lab 3 (self-paced)	Whiteboard Rm	Presentation Rm	Data Center
0900-1000	Registration & Networking
0930-1000	Data Center Tour
1000-1030	Intro
1030-1200	View	Lab Manager	ThinApp	Architecting vSphere	vCenter products	Tour
1200-1230	Lunch/Socialize
1230-1400	View	SRM	ThinApp	Architecting Security	Exchange on vSphere	Tour
1400-1430	Break/Socialize
1430-1600	AppSpeed	SRM	ThinApp	Architecting View	Cloud: What Does it Mean to You?	Tour

 

The first two sets of labs will be hands-on and instructor-led.  They will provide a great opportunity to experience these technologies first hand to help jumpstart your knowledge.   The third lab will be self-paced with a lab manual that will guide you through the process of packaging applications with VMware ThinApp.  All labs will be limited to 15 lab stations, each with 2 students for a total of 30 participants per lab session.  Register early to make sure you get the lab sessions you want (registration should be open soon)!

The Whiteboard Room sessions will provide attendees the opportunity to discuss how to architect the given topic with experts and other attendees.  These sessions will feature open discussion, featuring only a whiteboard and no PowerPoint.  So bring your tough questions, ask how to solve a particular requirement, have the group validate your plans, or share your current architecture with others to see if maybe there’s a different way to do it. 

Important note: VMware is flying in the regional View specialist and a US-wide Security specialist to lead the respective architecting sessions.  If you’re interested in either topic, I’d take advantage of these two guys.  I know several people who have asked me about security related topics, so we’ve arranged this rare chance to ask a true expert.

The Presentation Room will feature a series of topics that will be presented in a traditional PowerPoint presentation format.  But this does not mean they won’t include interactive discussion on that topic.  If you’re interested in learning more about the topic, ask the speaker and challenge them with your questions.  PowerPoint doesn’t have to be boring, simply engage with the presenter to get more out of the session.

At several times throughout the event, CoSentry employees will be conducting tours of their Data Center facilities, including the hardware that will be running all our labs.  Check out what we’ve put together for you and what CoSentry has to offer.  It really is an impressive facility.

Other notable happenings:

• Cisco may be bringing in their Solutions Express mobile briefing center (think big eighteen wheel truck with lots of geekiness inside)
• Door prizes galore
• Networking with over 100+ like-minded IT professionals
• Over 15 engineers from Vital, CoSentry and VMware will be on hand to lead all the sessions and be available for one-on-one conversations
• Morning snacks available when the doors open at 9a, lunch from the locally owned Jailbirds BBQ and afternoon snacks
• Chat with all four of Omaha’s vExperts in one venue (can you name all four of them?  Maybe we should have a contest to see who can get all four of their signatures, hmmm…)

Hopefully that’s enough incentive to get you to come out.  I’d like to invite everyone within at least two hours of Omaha to join us.  We’ll be there to talk geek, not to gain customers.  Fair warning: there will be sales guys there, but we’ll have them on short leashes and make them available when/if you would like to talk with them.  That being said, they’re all good guys and can usually hold their own in a technical conversation.

Besides lots of technical questions and a notepad to write the answers down on, we ask that you bring two other things: business cards (for drawings and sharing with others – remember this is also a social event) and a driver’s license (we will be in a secure facility that requires proper identification and a CoSentry badge).

More details and registration will be released soon.  Keep an eye on this blog and the Omaha-Area VMUG forum.  Please feel free to share this information with others who may be interested in attending.  

Finally, keep a look out for more blog posts that will cover more details of the event, including the infrastructure we’re building out for the labs.

I sincerely hope to see you there!  And don’t be a afraid to stop me and say “Hi”.

 

Update:

The Cisco Solutions Express truck will unfortunately not be able to make it for this event.

I recently had a customer ask me about ThinApp deployment options.  I figured that it would make a worthwhile blog post, so here we go.

There’s really three main ways to deploy a ThinApp package (with differences within each category).  Let me see how well I can explain them. 

Package location	Description	Execution Type	App Registration	Update approach	Sandbox location	Portability
Network share	Packages stored on central file server	Streaming	ThinReg utility (usually login script based), pre-configured shortcuts, or direct execution of package	Package replacement or side-by-side updates	%AppData% (stored locally, or on network w/roaming profiles or folder redirection)	Online, internal only.  Sandbox changes tied to OS unless redirecting to network.
					Network (predefined network location)	Online, internal only.  Sandbox changes move with user.
USB	Take the packages and copy them to a set of thumb drives, then distribute the thumb drives to the individual users	Deployed	Direct execution of package or autorun ThinReg script	AppSync, manual download or CD/USB distribution	%AppData% (stored locally, or on network w/roaming profiles or folder redirection)	Users can take their applications with them to any computer.  Sandbox changes will not follow.
					USB (same location as package)	Users can take their applications with them to any computer
					Network (predefined network location)	Users can take their applications with them to any computer (sandbox only accessible internally)
Local	MSI package delivery to hard drive of machine	Deployed	MSI package automatically registers ThinApp package	AppSync, manual download or CD/USB distribution	%AppData%	Apps available offline with mobile machine.

More details can be found in the ThinApp Users Guide and the ThinApp Deployment Guide

Make sense? Leave me comments to let me know whether or not this is clear or useful.