nComputing M-Series Virtual Desktops: 45 Users Share a Single PC

nComputing is a desktop virtualization solution that allows organizations to share the power of a single PC with multiple users, where each user gets his own computing session. It reduces the need for a company to purchase full-fledged PCs for their office, thereby saving cost of hardware, maintenance, and power consumption, among other things.

There are three series of products offered by nComputing --X-Series, M-Series, and L-Series. We reviewed the M-Series. This comes as a set of 3 units --one larger unit that connects to the main power supply and your LAN, and two smaller units that connect to the larger one over Direct Connect Ethernet cables. Each unit allows you to connect a monitor, mouse, and keyboard to it.

How does it work?

Simplicity of setup is a key highlight of the M-Series. Simply take a machine that would be the shared host and install vSpace server on it. With the M-Series, you can share a machine with up to 45 clients. Connect this machine to your LAN and your server side installation is over. On the client side, simply attach a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the large client and attach it to the same LAN where your host PC with vSpace Server is connected. You'll be prompted to connect to server. Simply enter the IP address of the vSpace Server, hit connect and you are done. From the large client, connect Ethernet cables to the small clients and you are ready with 3 machines in less than 5 minutes. One thing to note however is that the larger client has to remain on and connected to the server if you're using any of the smaller clients, because connectivity happens through the large client. Another point to note is that if you want USB 2.0 functionality on the smaller clients, then you have to connect a USB cable from the larger device to these devices. Ethernet and USB cables are not provided with the pack and have to be procured separately. So while finding long Ethernet cables is not really an issue, finding long USB cables could be a bit difficult. The maximum distance between the large client to each of the small clients is 5m. Another thing to note is that you can't use just about any USB 2.0 compatible device with the M-Series. Only non-isochronous USB devices can be used which means audio and video streams cannot be used through this port.

The overall experience on clients is dependent on the server/machine configuration where the vSpace server is running. One good thing here is that you can get enhanced multimedia experience because each nComputing device has a Numo 2 System-on-Chip, which does some amount of processing locally, thereby allowing you to run 720p video on each client simultaneously without any hiccups.

The IT team at CyberMedia evaluated this solution for a 50 user environment. For this, they took two servers running virtualization software in a failover cluster mode. A virtual machine was created as per the departments' needs it was going to cater to. The vSpace Server from nComputing was installed on this virtual machine, so that it acted as a standard image for all users of that department. On server and client end following resources were used:

1. Servers config for 50 users: Two server with Two-way, quad core CPUs, 24 GB Ram and 2 TB storage
2. 50 nComputing client devices with USB keyboard and mouse (with old monitors to be used).
3. Window 2008 R2 64-bit installation CD and office applications.

Cost Considerations

1. 50 nComputing device: Rs 50 x 5000 = Rs. 2, 50,000
2. 50 keyboards and mouse: Rs 50 * 450 = Rs. 22,500 (monitors not included)
3. Servers: 2* Rs 2, 00,000 = Rs. 4, 00,000.
4. Windows 2008 R2 Standard Editions = Rs 44,000 approx.
Total approximate cost of deployment for 50 users:
Rs. 716,500

IT Team's Feedback
Pros
1. Easy and fast deployment of client end machines.
2. Almost no downtime for users.
3. Ease of manageability and troubleshooting.
4. Decrease in man power in IT support.
5. No AMC for desktop is needed, only servers side AMC is required.

Cons
1. Server becomes too critical as it is single point of failure. Therefore, it has to be used in failover mode.
2. If you have existing firewall rules based on IP/MAC based filtering, then you need to upgrade/change your firewall to one capable of user level rules.
3. Transferring data from USB drive to machine might take time, as data is actually being transferred over the network.

User feedback

We also asked some users who were given these devices as to how they found nComputing as compared to using their regular desktop. Here is the feedback from them:

Who can use it?

Given its configuration, the device can be used by any company that doesn't want to spend money buying more PCs. Unused compute power in existing desktops can be used to give access to additional users. A lot of organizations today are also deploying VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), where the desktop resides in the data center, and is accessible remotely from anywhere. The nComputing solution is different, because it's a combination of thin client hardware, and its own virtualization software that allows creating multiple sessions for different users from a regular desktop OS.

How much cost saving to expect?

This would vary for different organizations, so there's no single answer to this question. In fact, our own company's IT team deployed it for their specific requirements to check its feasibility. We've provided that as an illustration in the box to give you some idea. One thing to note is that cost savings from this solution would result over a period of time. Some of the areas where you could see cost saving happening are as follows:

• Lower electricity consumption by clients
• Lower IT team costs as manageability becomes easy
• Enhanced productivity of staff as downtime can be minimized by keeping few devices in buffer in case of hardware faults
• Incremental cost saving of PC, since you're replacing it with this device, which is cheaper

There could be other cost savings as well, and you would have to apply them to your own setup to figure out how much you could save from this solution.

Bottom Line: It's definitely an innovative solution, but its true benefits would have to be evaluated by organizations as per their own setup. A cost calculator is provided on the vendor's website for people to assess the cost saving they can enjoy with this solution.