In Soviet Russia there were two newspapers: Pravda and Izvestia. These translate to "the truth" and "the news". Soviet Russians used to joke that there was no truth in the news.
Candor is part of NetApp's corporate culture. I mention this in light of some internal and external articles a coworker pointed me to regarding the VED. This one is internal:
http://prodops.netapp.com/news/index.php/2015/12/23/netapp-deploys-9500-seat-vmware-horizon-virtual-desktops-in-12-days
(am I the only one shocked that 9,500 of us are VED users?)
Here's a quote from that page which I find to not be factually accurate:
"First and foremost, the VED project was about better enabling our developers around the world, and increasing productivity of the organization. There would be no compromises when it came to the performance, security, and accessibility requirements of the solution."
Here's an external NetApp document:
http://www.netapp.com/us/media/tr-4335.pdf
Interestingly, that document was published several months before we rolled out the VED internally. Some quotes of interest:
"The criteria for determining the success of a VDI implementation include end-user experience. The end- user experience must be as good as or better than any previous experience on a physical PC or virtual desktop."
And here's an external VMWare document:
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/customers/vmware-netapp-15q4-cs-en.pdf
(BTW, am I the only one who is surprised at the level of detail these documents provide about how our VED was architected and implemented?)
"As a leader in the data storage industry, NetApp relies on its product engineering teams to build robust code and test NetApp solutions before release. Using Windows and Linux machines, engineers work with pre-release code, often working while traveling and in between customer meetings. Having their work readily accessible from an array of devices was paramount to increasing productivity. Security was also a consideration, as a lost or stolen device could have negative consequences for the company."
I guess because Horizon doesn't have a Mac client, the fact that we have engineers using Macs internally gets dropped?
"In response to these challenges, NetApp considered a desktop virtualization solution to increase employee productivity and flexibility while protecting intellectual property. The NetApp team also needed a solution capable of centrally managing desktops and applications used by its engineering team. Because engineers worked on their devices of choice, the company had to deliver a streamlined, high-performance user experience across all types of devices with consistent functionality between them. Balancing centralized IT control and employee exibility meant the company would keep source code private and meet the technology and access needs of its employees."
"NetApp’s VED environment provides engineers with a persistent desktop across their existing laptops and mobile devices. Before Horizon, engineers could only edit information stored locally on company-provided computers, limiting where and when they could work. Now, employees can use any device they want, whether company-provided or personally- owned, to work from anywhere."
"Through the VED, employees receive the same experience independent of their device hardware limitations. Because Horizon uses the CPU and GPU computing power of company servers, users with older devices do not experience a slowdown in performance that would occur if relying on local hardware. This means employees experience similar speeds across devices through virtualized desktops no matter the workload. Employees who were limited to company-provided computers for projects are now able to use tablets and smartphones without a loss in functionality."
'“We’ve been able to increase productivity by enabling engineers to start and stop work whenever they need to. Engineers don’t have to be chained to their desks in order to get work done securely. Whether building code on a work laptop or reading internal wikis on a phone, employees can access a secure environment from all devices without a diminished experience.”
Given our recent experiences with copy/paste not working with Horizon, it would be nice if VMWare spent a little less time crafting propaganda, and a little more time ensuring that BASIC FEATURES of their product actually worked.