Virtual Software Applications for Students (166231110)

7/29/2019 Virtual Software Applications for Students (166231110)

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May 29th, 2013

Virtual Software Applications for Students

Mark McCallister

Craig Woolley Assistant Vice President, USF IT Support Services

Associate Director, UFIT Office of Academic Technology



Agenda

§ Why Virtualize?

§ Requirements

§ Our Solution

§ Outcomes

§ Recommendations & Future Vision

§ Wrap-Up / Q&A / Demo



Virtual Software Applications for StudentsWhy Virtualize?



Why Virtualize?

§ Students need access to university ownedsoftware

§ Students now work 24x7

§ Potential cost savings with decreasingphysical lab machines

§ Students use multiple technology devices

“Any time, Anywhere, Any device”



Tablets

7%

Netbooks

3%

Notebooks

23%

Desktops

13%

Smart Phones

54%

Worldwide Smart Phone and PC Sales, 2011

Why Virtualize?

Source: Canalys estimates © Canalys 2012



Why Virtualize?

0

200

400

600

800

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

157 155 156 156 153 152

200 209 210 215 217 218

1970

133216 282

352

S a l e s i n m i l l i o n u n i t s

Personal Computer Sales Forecast 2010-2015

Desktop PCs Notebooks Tablets

Source: IDC, Morgan Stanley



Virtual Software Applications for StudentsRequirements



Requirements:

§ Need the ability to leverage existing softwarelicenses

§ Students need to have a similar experience to

working in a physical computer lab

§ Solution needs to work and provide same user

experience on multiple platforms and operating

systems (device independent)



Virtual Software Applications for StudentsOur Solution



Our Solution: Citrix XenApp

§ Applications purely hosted in the datacenter onuniversity owned servers

§ Software as a Service (SaaS)

§ Citrix has clients for Windows, Mac OS, Linux,iOS, Android, Blackberry

§ Support is much easier since only the Citrix

client software is being installed

§ Allows older machines to work just as well as

newer ones



XenApp Architecture

WebInterface

UserDevice

XenAppServers

WorkerGroup1

XenAppServers

WorkerGroup2

DataCollectors

Zone1

LicenseServer DataStore

XenAppFarm

12

3



December 2009

Install &Configure Citrix

XenApp Servers

January 2010

Pilot GoesLive for 1,500

Students

March 2010

Pilot Expanded to

3,000 Students

September 2010

Pilot Expanded to 20,000 Students

January 2011

Go Live to47,000

Students and 13,000

Faculty &Staff

August 2009

Apply for TechFee Funding

Implementation Timeline



§ Physical Servers§ 10x 16 core, 96 Gb RAM

§ XenApp VMs

§ 40x 3 vCPU, 8 Gb RAM

§ Quickly add more VMs as needed

§ Citrix Provisioning Server

§ 2x Physical Servers

§ User storage§ Fast attached user storage crucial for performance

§ 800 Concurrent Licenses

Environment



January 2011

First Citrix

infrastructureonline in AT

April 2012

Applied for Tech FeeFunding

June 2012

Tech Fee

Funds Awarded

January2013

System Available

in Test

March 2013

Pilot Launched

June2014

Pilot Sunset

Implementation Timeline



Environment

§ Physical Infrastructure§ VMware ESX 5 Hypervisor running on Cisco UCS blades

§ EMC Isilon auto-tiered storage system

§ XenApp VMs

§ 6 x 4vCPU, 16 Gb Ram§ Quickly add more VMs as needed

§ XenDesktop VMs

§ 4 x 2vCPU, 2Gb Ram

§ Not part of UFApps

§ Citrix Provisioning Server

§ 2x Virtual Servers

§ Sassafras Keyserver

§ 130 Concurrent Licenses



Virtual Software Applications for StudentsOutcomes


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/virtual-software-applications-for-students-166231110 17/33Range: 08/27/13 through 12/24/13

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Open-UseLabComputers

393

167

Reduc;oninMachines

2008 2013

0

2

4

6

8

NumberofOpen-UseLabs

8

1

Reduc;oninLabs

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Open-UseLabHoursPerWeek

648

168

Reduc;oninLabHours

Open-Use Lab Statistics



$0k

$20k

$40k

$60k

$80k

$100k$120k

$140k

$160k

[VALUE]

[VALUE]

YearlyEquipmentBudget

2008 2013

$0k

$20k

$40k

$60k

$80k

$100k

$120k

$140k

$160k

$180k

$200k

$200k

$30k

YearlyStaffingBudget

$0k

$50k

$100k

$150k

$200k

$250k$300k

$350k

$400k $357k

$72k

TotalYearlyLabBudget

Open-Use Lab Statistics



Usage Statistics

Range: 08/27/13 through 12/24/13

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

FallSemester2013

Visits UniqueVisits



0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

SpringSemester2013

Visits UniqueVisits

Usage Statistics



MicrosoWord2010

IBMSPSSSta;s;cs21

SAS9.3

SolidWorks2011

AdobeAcrobatXProfessional

AdobePhotoshopCS5

CHEMCAD6.5

IBMSPSSSta;s;cs20

MATLABR2010a

ANSYS13

Application Launches

Range: 04/23/13 through 05/23/13

Usage Statistics



“I know I keep saying this but this portal is so

invaluable. It is just amazing.”

“I have now tested the virtualization portals

and find them extremely useful. I have also

asked fellow students if they would use such

a resource and there has been an

overwhelming positive response. I would

support any initiative to expand thecapabilities of this system to include more

users.”



Usage Statistics

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Week1 Week2 Week3 Week4 Week5 Week6 Week7 Week8 Week9 Week10

NumberofConnecJons&Users

ConnecJons Users

BreakWeek

FinalsWeek

Range: 10 Weeks beginning at Launch

DeadWeek

LaunchWeek



ArcMap

PDFReader

MSPowerpoint2010

AutoCad2013

Minitab15

AdobePhotoshopCS6

MSWord2010

MSExcel2010

SPSSSta;s;csv21

Application Launches

Range: 10 Weeks beginning at Launch

Usage Statistics



“Great - love it. Makes doing hw on SPSS so

much easier and it is a lot more reliable that

remote connecting to a computer on campus.”

“I am using AMOS for my dissertation and the

availability of this program via UF Apps has

been fantastic! I have never had problems

with the program. These applications are so

valuable to students in my department and Ihope that the project is continued in the

future!”

“IT’S AWESOME. THANK YOU.”



Virtual Software Applications for StudentsRecommendations & Future Vision



§ Do your homework§ Setup: In-house or Consultants?

§ Production: Hosted or Private?

§ Look at existing implementations§ Leverage existing expertise where possible

§ Hypervisor selection: VMware, XenServer,

Hyper-V.

§ Storage experts in data center

§ Utilize expertise for application support

§ Have a good marketing plan

Recommendations



§ Persistent Profile Data

§ Administrative uses

§ GPU support

Future Vision



Recommendations

§ Integrate with existing systems & providers§ Authentication

§ Application metering

§ Coordinate with other campus IT staff

§ Communicate with your constituency§ Manage communication channels

§ Provide for easy feedback

§ Prepare for support issues

§ Seek out colleagues with similar deployments§ Data from USF and others guided UF’s decisions



Future Vision

§ Bridge to the Consolidated Cloud§ Additional Use Cases:

§ Software mobility for students ✔

§ Software mobility for faculty and staff § Staff workstations VDI

§ Classrooms & academic computer labs

§ Public workstations

§ Task specific kiosks ✔ § IT sandboxes ✔



Production Support

§ Common user support issues:§ Hung sessions

§ Storage confusion

§ Client installation issues§ Performance

§ Help Desk

§ XenApp console access

§ Training



Software Licensing Issues

§ Must be converted to concurrent use or sitelicenses when possible

§ License consolidation across campus

§ Don’t assume all vendors will be happy with

their app on XenApp

§ Metering and reporting tools



Wrap-Up / Q&A / Demo

Craig Woolley, University of South Florida,[email protected]

Mark McCallister, University of Florida,[email protected]

Documents

Virtual Software Applications for Students (166231110)