Overview
The Virtual Desktop technology will be based on VMWares View 4 product, which is an out-of-the-box complete Windows desktop and application virtualization solution. This version was released in November, 2009 and is a significant evolution from the previous version 3. VMWare's virtualization solution was chosen in order to leverage UBC's significant investment in VMWare techologies, rather than developing a new technology base. We will also introduce thin-client hardware for windows desktop and soft-clients for home/remote users.
The initial pilot project installed 80 administration staff within UBC IT and to various departments in the Old Administration Building by June 30, 2010. A secondary aim was to build up the VDI back-end to be scalable, reliable and standards-based, thereby enabling subsequent deployments. Currently we are in the second phase of deployments to the administrative staff of other faculties and departments. Beyond the administrative staff, other Windows user groups, such as student kiosks/labs, researchers and teaching staff needs will be assessed and added to the deployment roadmap. Some of the faculties which are adopting VDI include: Medicine IT, Sauder, Science, Dentistry, Finance and Human Resources. We are in detailed discussions and trials with a number of other faculties and departments, who have seen the benefit of VDI for their users.
