Cisco announces desktop ambitions

Following the introduction of Cisco’s virtualization friendly UCS platform in March 2009, Cisco quickly established itself as a disruptive force in the data center. Then in June 2010 Cisco signaled its intention to move into the enterprise tablet market with the announcement of Cius. Given this background it was hardly a surprise to hear last week that Cisco has now turned its attention to the virtual desktop with the launch of the Cisco Virtualization eXperience Infrastructure (VXI).

Why the interest in desktops? Cisco is moving from a being exclusively a networking company to a company with as much, if not more, interest in creating and consuming data as it is in moving data from point to  point. According to Barry O’Sullivan, Cisco senior vice president of voice technology. Cisco sees both its core and emerging markets as intertwined and complementary. Most of its new products run atop the Internet and thus drive more traffic on the underlying network equipment, O’Sullivan says. For every $1 that Cisco sells in new voice communications gear, it gets $2 more in sales of network products to support that traffic, says O’Sullivan. For every $1 in video sales, he says Cisco receives $5 in network gear sales. “We look for adjacencies that are linked to our core network business,” O’Sullivan said. “The real reason is that we want to drive more traffic on the Internet.”

Moving into desktop virtualization is therefore entirely consistent with a company that wants to generate bits as much as it wants to move them. However,  it isn’t quite clear is that everyone at Cisco truly understands the challenges of desktop virtualization. Angela Collins writes in the Cisco Analyst Relations Blog that “the system addresses the current state of fragmented solutions which complicate virtual desktop deployments.” Certainly VXI goes a long way towards addressing the physical complexity of implementing desktop virtualization, but as has been repeatedly shown, the primary challenges of implementing desktop virtualization are storage scale out costs and dealing with the heterogeneous endpoints that are an inevitable consequence of desktop virtualization. Something that Cisco has yet to address.

I have spent the last few days reading through Cisco’s  VXI Architecture Overview,  VXI Validated Design Guide,  and the 729 page VXI Configuration Guide as well as several related product announcements, and initial impressions are mixed to say the least. The architectural overview provides a reasonable, if somewhat abstract introduction to VXI. Unfortunately in attempting to be evenhanded and not stressing the benefits of any one vendor’s desktop virtualization solution, it fails to say much beyond ‘Cisco has a platform that is suitable for server hosted desktop virtualization.’  The configuration guide is similarly best avoided; of the 729 pages only 17 pages are concerned with the layout of the end to end environment. A further 35 pages provide  installation instructions for the virtual desktop software environment, with the bulk of the document describing the detailed configuration of the Cisco hardware components used to build out network and UCS infrastructure components to deliver a VXI based reference implementation. Of the three documents,the design guide is by far the most useful, unfortunately at present it is only available as a HTML document, it would be much more accessible delivered as a PDF, and would benefit substantially from being broken down into several smaller independent documents. Even here though, much of the document reads as if it were a desktop virtualization primer rather than offering any assistance in understanding how to design a system based on Cisco VXI. nevertheless it would be wrong to dismiss  the importance of VXI just because of its documentation shortcomings.

VXI at a glance

Cisco VXI architecture

Most people are already familiar with Cisco’s vBlock, and it is tempting to consider VXI as if it were a Vblock for desktop virtualization. However to do so would be to fail to recognize what VXI represents. Instead it is best to consider it as an open architecture for delivering server hosted virtual desktops, built using off-the-shelf Cisco sourced endpoints, Cisco network infrastructure, and the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) compute engine coupled to a NAS or SAN-based storage infrastructure provided by one of Cisco’s ecosystem partners. The key words here being  ”open” and “ecosystem”, Cisco recognizes that it cannot go it alone with something as complex as desktop virtualization and must adopt at least some degree of openness in its approach.  This is particularly clear in its choice of desktop virtualization software partners. Rather than establish an exclusive relationship with a single desktop virtualization vendor, Cisco has chosen to partner with both Citrix and VMware as joint desktop virtualization software partners in VXI. Similarly Cisco acknowledges  the existence of the many third-party thin client vendors and allows for the inclusion of them within the VXI architecture. However Cisco’s openness only goes so far, there is no mention of other desktop virtualization software solution providers in its reference architecture and Cisco still maintains a preferential relationship with VMware when it comes to the hypervisor platform on which the virtual desktop infrastructure is built. As far as VXI is concerned, it’s vSphere or nothing. (Update: October 2011 – Cisco now supports both XenServer and Hyper-V). Cisco also chooses to stop short of mentioning the possibility of a distributed virtual desktop infrastructure or considering the need to partner with other ecosystem vendors to deliver print or user persona management services.

VXI - The endpoint

Cisco VXC2100 and Cisco Unified IP Phone

Cisco has announced two Virtualization Experience Client (VXC) devices, known to the rest of the world as thin clients. The Cisco VXC 2200 is a conventional thin client device; its only distinguishing feature being that it can be powered via Power over Ethernet (Cisco has not specified if 802.3at Type 1 or Type 2 support is required) or an optional power supply. The VXC 2100 is potentially the more interesting device. Also PoE ready, it is designed to plug into the back of Cisco’s Unified Communications IP phones, effectively making it a zero footprint device.  The VXC 2100  provides physical integration of phone and thin client, but does not as yet offer any integration of services or management. Surprisingly Cisco has not announced availability of a wi-fi ready thin-client to support organisations looking to move beyond a tethered desktop environment.

Both devices will come in two versions, one designed to support Citrix’s HDX protocol and the other supporting the VMware/Teradici PCoIP protocol, support for RDP is offered on both devices. Cisco claims that both devices are “zero clients”, but has adopted a somewhat unusual definition of zero client as being “relatively simple, limited-function devices with operating systems that are not exposed to the end user.”  in contrast to thin clients which are “more feature rich than zero clients and are usually customizable.”, definitions that I am sure Wyse and others would take issue with.

Rounding out Cisco’s endpoint offerings is the previously announced Cius tablet. Alongside the VXI announcements, Cisco provided a further update on the forthcoming Cius tablet, stating that it will support VMware’s View client , the Citrix Receiver, and the Wyse Pocket Cloud desktop virtualization client.  The key message here is no more than that all three clients are supported on the Cius platform, no indication was given as to the likelihood of any preferred vendor status being announced and the Cius shipping with any of these clients included.  As both the VMware and Citrix clients are free of charge, it is more likely that one or both of these will be preinstalled that it is that the Wyse Pocket Cloud will ship with the Cius. The complexity of the intersection between business relationships and technology make it difficult to predict which direction Cisco might go here.  Cisco have a close relationship with VMware and the strength of the Cisco, EMC and VMware Virtual Computing Environment coalition and Acedia Solutions joint venture with EMC may influence Cisco’s decision. However given Cisco’s emphasis on the videoconferencing capabilities that the Cius tablet offers, and the challenges that View’s PCoIP protocol has when used to deliver multimedia via a virtual desktop, Cisco may view the Citrix Receiver and the Citrix HDX protocol as a more advantageous direction to take.

VXI – The network

Cisco’s many networking products make up the bulk of the VXI offering. Setting aside the basic network plumbing provided by Cisco’s Catalyst and Nexus series switches; the key data networking components within VXI are Cisco’s Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) WAN accelerators and Cisco ACE load balancing appliances.

Much of Cisco’s value proposition in promoting its own networking hardware as part of VXI hinges on the benefits that it can offer delivering rich media and collaboration services, including video on demand (VoD) and voice over IP (VoIP) services, and their impact on scalability of server hosted virtual desktop environments, explaining how VXI enables end users to make and receive voice or video calls through their virtualized desktops running Cisco Unified Personal Communicator. In this scenario, the control traffic flows from the endpoint to the virtual desktop, but the actual media traffic flows directly from phone to phone without needing to run the voice and video traffic through the virtual desktop  in the data center. This separation of  rich media and virtual desktop traffic enables separate quality of service (QoS) rules to be applied to each, while at the same time improving host server scalability and minimizing the variance in performance exhibited by competing vendors’ remote display protocols.

Standardizing on Cisco network infrastructure components for VXI should reduce resistance to adoption within the enterprise networking teams, however in doing so it will reduce the opportunity to deploy vendor specific solutions to optimize remote display protocol traffic.  At present this  approach disadvantages Citrix XenDesktop implementations more than VMware View implementations, as it excludes Citrix’s own physical and virtual WAN accelerators, access delivery controllers and remote access gateways. For example, Cisco WAAS WAN accelerators can compress Citrix’s HDX protocol but do not have any capability to inspect virtual channels within the protocol and process them individually. Similarly Cisco does not provide single click integration between its ACE load balancing appliances and the Citrix Web Interface. Extending support to explicitly include components such as the Citrix NetScaler, Access Gateway and Branch Repeater would better optimize virtual desktop performance than could be achieved using Cisco’s own network appliances. Customers wishing to deliver the best possible virtual desktop environment will therefore have to deviate from the VXI reference architecture. (Update: October 2011 – In October 2011 Cisco signed a five-year joint agreement with Citrix to develop and joint market desktop virtualization technologies and has incorporated support for Citrix HDX into its WAAS platform.)

VXI – The virtualized data center

The heart of VXI is clearly Cisco’s Unified Computing System which brings together compute, network, storage access, and virtualization as a single integrated energy-efficient system.

UCS was designed from the ground up as a virtualization platform.  This focus is evident everywhere you look.  Starting with the server blades themselves; the  two socket UCS B250 blades support up to 384 GB of DDR3 memory and 40 Gbps I/O.  Using Intel’s latest Xeon 5600 series (Westmere) six core processors withVT-d, VT-c, VMDc, VMDq, a single blade might serve anywhere between 50 and 200 virtual desktops, depending on requirements. With a maximum of 160 blades per UCS management domain that means a total of 32,000 virtual desktops, remarkably similar to the maximum 30,000 virtual desks that can be supported by View.

Cisco’s Nexus 1000V virtual Ethernet switch plays a key supporting role in VXI, providing Ethernet switching, traffic isolation, and policy-insertion capabilities for virtual desktops; as well as simplifying support for vMotion maintaining IP address and policy assignments if a virtual desktop is migrated to another server. As previously indicated, Cisco has limited its choice of virtualization platform to VMware’s vSphere and ESXi hypervisor. Athough Cisco has not commented publicly, this restriction is most probably related to the Nexus 1000V v not being available on XenServer or concern over the threat of competition that’s would come from Open vSwitch, which is available for XenServer, Xen and KVM but not as yet Hyper-V or ESXi, rather than it being a direct slight towards Citrix. If, as appears likely, XenServer market share continues to increase, it is possible that Cisco may well consider providing a XenServer specific version of the Nexus 1000V at some point in the future.

Cisco VXI supports Network-Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Network (SAN)-based storage solutions from multiple ecosystem partners including EMC and NetApp, using a combination of Cisco MDS 9000 Series Fibre Channel switches and Cisco UCS 6100 Fabric Interconnects.

The UCS management platform, provides support for dedicated administration, across each component technology.  This vastly simplifies integration within existing IT organizations, by delegating compute, storage, and networking activities to respective administrative groups within IT UCS platforms can be integrated into IT organizations without the need to restructure to provide effective support services. UCS management services are optimized for a cloud-based management structure. Rather than managing individual blades within the overall fabric, blades are considered to be stateless devices. Instead, service profiles are assigned to locations within enclosures and any blade inserted into a specific slot takes on the assigned personality, vastly simplifying hardware lifecycle management. This level of abstraction extends right down to the BIOS level, guaranteeing image compatibility and eliminating the possibility of change induced era should a failing blade need to be swapped out for a new one.

The UCS management system integrates with many third-party system management tools through an open API.  Companies like BMC, CA, EMC, IBM, and Microsoft are already integrating their management solutions directly with UCS.

The bottom line

It is possible to look at the VXI solutions to as a single integrated solution, or as separate layers that can mix and match with other third-party components. Although Cisco would prefer it if customers deployed it as part of an integrated whole, in reality there is nothing to stop solution providers or end-users from assembling their own desktop virtualization stack using VXI components only where they see benefit in doing so. In fact the advantages offered by viewing the VXI as a single integrated architecture are limited and potential customers should not lose sight of the fact that few (if any) of the difficulties of associated with desktop virtualization implementation are directly addressed by standardizing on a single vendor platform across endpoint, network and data center. In the long-term it is quite possible that Cisco will deliver significant added value through comprehensive integration of voice and data services through integrated endpoints but that still remains to be seen.

The Cius tablet is likely to be viewed favorably by enterprise customers, especially in comparison to the distinctly enterprise unfriendly Apple iPad. However, the same cannot be said for the VXC thin clients. There is at present little to differentiate these devices over competing offerings from more established thin client vendors. Of the two, the VXC 2100 may be attractive to existing Cisco unified communications customers, but the VXC 2200 has little to recommend it. Looking into the future, unified management of IP phone and VXC 2100 would be a welcome next step especially in call center environments.

VXI is unlikely to influence sales of networking equipment significantly. Cisco should not expect a return approaching the figures quoted by Barry O’Sullivan for voice and video traffic. The remote presentation display protocols used by server-hosted virtual desktops tend to be relatively bandwidth efficient and widespread adoption of desktop virtualization will significantly reduce the amount of network traffic associated with conventional desktop PC implementations. Where VXI is most likely to gain competitive edge is with UCS sales in the data center. Here, just as it was the case with server virtualization, the advantages of a single integrated  solution providing all the network, processing and storage necessary to support server hosted virtual desktops remains very attractive.

Ultimately though, given the heterogeneous nature of today’s desktop requirements, in order for Cisco to deliver a compelling desktop virtualization solution it must be able to factor in support for client hosted virtual desktops as part of an overall package solution.  This does not mean that Cisco must bring these technologies to market itself, but it does mean that it must ensure that its marketing messages acknowledges the wide diversity of desktop virtualization technologies and have the appropriate partnerships to provide customers with a single vendor supported solution to their desktop virtualization needs. Perhaps augmenting the current VXC thin clients with something akin to the ‘cloud PCs’ recently announced by Wyse might be a worthwhile next step.

As a new offering Cisco VXI is impressive, but it still needs a lot more work before it becomes a truly compelling desktop virtualization solution. Assuming that Cisco remains committed to its development, VXI should deliver a long term benefits for Cisco and its customers, but right now more than anything else Cisco needs buyers with the vision to see past its shortcomings and embrace the possibilities it portrays. Where Cisco stands to gain the most, is with organizations looking to embrace the long-term advantages of rich media communications and collaboration.  It is here that Cisco will be able to deliver the greatest benefits and here that it must work hardest to develop VXI.