prove efficiency and reduce another. They’re very honest costs. VDI is one of those The document discusses a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution based on Oracle's Sun technologies that can help brokers. They’re not going to thin client systems. The solution improves security, mobility, and high availability while reducing energy costs and support steer you wrong or steer you expenses. It increases productivity by allowing users to access their desktop environment from any thin client. Leveraging towards something that doesn’t relationships with major technology providers, the solution transforms the working environment to a virtualized one with make sense for your organiza- benefits such as decreased operating costs,

1. SOLUTION SHEET
Virtual Desktop
Infrastructure
VDI Solutions based upon
Oracle’s Sun™ Thin Client Systems and Network
Technology Integration Division
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is gain-
ing attention because of its tremendous cost- Sun Ray 2 shown with optional Wi-Fi Mitel VoIP Phone
cutting potential. A VDI Solution can reduce
“They [ConRes] have, like I said,
your hardware budget, cut your deployment Another financial burden of traditional PCs is
time, decrease maintenance expenses, and the high cost of high availability (HA) solutions some of the best engineers I’ve
slash your utility charges. But these aren’t for users’ local data. Due to cost restraints, many ever worked with... At heart, they’re
the only advantages to thin client computing. organizations choose not to use HA solutions
Virtual thin clients provide numerous mobil- for desktops. A local disk failure means hours still people. At the end of the day,
ity, flexibility, security and user data benefits or days of downtime, and the potential for lost they’re able to work with you as a
that traditional Personal Computers (PCs) data. With VDI, the HA functionality is embed-
can’t provide. company, they’re able to work with
ded within the back-end servers protecting your
data and distributing the cost over many users.. the individuals. They’ll do whatever
Organizations with large fleets of PCs running
This protects your data and distributes the cost
routine Office applications are under pressure to has to be done. That is, at the end
over many users.
provide these resources at a lower cost per unit.
of the day, of utmost importance. If
According to eWeek “Desktop virtualization is “At a time when slowing demand is forcing
beginning to draw interest from enterprise IT corporations to slash costs by any means, this project needs to work, they’ll
managers, who don’t have to look far to see the nearly one in four companies is experiment- find a way to make it work for you.”
benefits from the technology…VDI is getting set ing with virtual desktops in some capacity.”4
to mow down those who continue to locally sta-
tion full-power PCs for routine office workers.”1 IT Director for a NJ based provider
Mobility Problems: Solved
With traditional desktops your mobility is of healthcare information
ECO-nomical limited or non-existent. The need to work
With the costs of electricity rising and with pow- from your home PC or Blackberry® device,
er grids fast approaching overload, it’s necessary could require copying data or applications
to cut power use wherever possible. Traditional between various devices. With thin clients,
PC’s require 80-150 watts of power to operate each user session executes on a back-end
while virtual thin client devices have extremely server rather than on the client device. The
low power consumption, utilizing only 4-7 watts result? Users can switch from one virtual
per unit – that’s a savings of at least 90%2. client to another and the user session follows
their movement.
Thin client devices have fewer components to
n
fail. This reduces your maintenance costs and In a PC-based environment, users often copy
increases the estimated lifespan to as high as 22 data onto memory sticks to transfer the data
years3. Plus, thin clients are easily replaced at where needed – both inconvenient and a risk
low cost, without the need to reload software, to your intellectual property. With VDI,
recover files, and configure network settings and smart card access allows authorized users to
IT SOLUTIONS
user preferences. connect to their secured desktop, latest data

2. or applications -- from any thin client on your controls all your voice and data access - using SOLUTION SHEET
network, regardless of where the user logs it allows data to stay centralized and secure in
in. This results in an unprecedented level of the back office.
security - and freedom -for your company-
The ConRes VDI Solution allows for ease
sensitive data that lets you work anywhere
of call transfer and even enables a context
Systems and Network
worry-free.
sensitive text within a document to automati- Integration Division
cally call any assigned phone-type devices.
Phone Problems: Solved This solution integrates cell/home/work/
Typical problems in a work environment PDA/Conference room phone service, allows
include: your voice device to track with your desktop,
seamlessly transferring calls between phone
“I think they [ConRes] have
n multiple voice systems that don’t talk to a very skilled staff that truly
devices. This tight integration between PC-
one another
visible documents and phone service creates a understands the optimum way
n calls that can’t be transferred because there very flexible work environment.
is no connectivity between sites
to utilize these tools. They re-
Flexibility Problems: Solved ally worked with us and made
n finding a phone in close proximity to a
computer With a traditional PC your flexibility is every effort to understand what
limited. Working on multiple devices, with
n differing phone service quality (especially we were looking for and truly
different operating systems (OS), requires
with cell phones in lab) either reloading the OS or having to use defined our process so that
n lack of unification between your PC and another hardware platform compatible with they weren’t just doing a job.
phone the OS desired. On traditional desktops, these
actions must be accomplished one-by-one They truly became part of the
n divisions or departments with disparate and consume a tremendous amount of time organization, worked closely
voice systems and manpower. With the virtual thin client
you have the convenience of selecting from with us so that they understood
n lack of unification between your mobile
phone and work phone
multiple OS environments using the same how everything worked in our
These problems result in complex and disjointed
device. You can select a specific OS at login as
the operating systems are housed the back-end
specific environment .”
communications which lead to poor customer servers. OS options include Solaris, Windows,
service, as callers must dial several numbers be- Linux and others.
Manager, Networks and Technology,
fore reaching the desired department or person.
With virtual thin clients, client-associated OS for a semiconductor manufacturer
Imagine the revolutionary power of a single upgrades and software reload in seconds and
Java smart card driving access to all your allows ease of administration and quick user
voice/computing applications. To truly inte- assignment. The thin client has no hardware
grate voice and data, Continental Resources compatibility issues which results in anytime,
(ConRes) offers a solution which takes ultra anywhere access from any device.
thin client Sun Ray™ technology and inte-
grates it with Mitel® IP phones. The Sun Ray
Unified IP Client provides one simplified,
device-secure authentication source for voice
and data hot desking.
This technology will work anywhere - simply
n
insert your Java card into a Sun Ray Unified
IP Client from any location. The Java card The Smart Card—
Driving access to all your computing and voice
applications.
IT SOLUTIONS
2

3. Hardware Problems: Solved authentication for users. If you choose users
SOLUTION SHEET
Personal Computers usually contain a single will be required to insert their smart card into
hard drive which creates a single point of failure the Sun Ray as well as login with a password
(SPOF). When the hard drive has a catastrophic to access thier desktop. The smart card may
use a Symmetric Key Interface (SKI) which is
failure, a total disk rebuild is usually required.
stored on the server and another method of
Systems and Network
This results in lost time and productivity – for
both the end user and the IT engineer. With thin authentication. This method asks the server Integration Division
clients there are no desktop hardware failures or and the smart card to authenticate one an-
desktop RAM upgrades to consider. Thin client other providing another layer of security.
hardware lifetime is 2 to 3 times longer than lap-
Security advantages using thin client
tops and the mean time before failure (MTBF)
technology: “They’re [ConRes] very at-
for a Sun-Ray thin client is about 22 years.
n Secure access to the desktop
tentive to detail. They’re very
Bonus: Application Control
customer focused. They’re out
n Secure desktop over LAN or WAN (VPN
In a large desktop environment, it’s difficult to for the best interests of us. The
or SSL—up to 256 bit AES)
track the number, kind and version of applica-
tions in use since most applications are housed n Ability to disable USB connectors way they approach doing busi-
on a local desktop. With thin client technology, ness with us is one of acting as
n Displays visuals only - no data is stored lo-
application and data are centralized on back-end
servers in your datacenter, which streamlines
cally, only on the back-end server an advisor, acting as a partner,
your application management. n Eliminates risk of viruses or spyware (no not necessarily acting as the
embedded OS) sales channel to us. ”
Security Problems: Solved
It’s relatively easy for corporate data to be User Backup Problems: Solved
copied from a PC or laptop to a thumb drive or User data on a desktop and/or laptop rarely CIO for a NJ based premier pro-
CD-ROM. When a laptop is lost or stolen, all (or never) gets backed up -- when either vider of home, office, and home
company data residing on it is lost along with it. one crashes, all your data is gone. With the
There goes your confidential intellectual prop- office products
ConRes VDI solution, your data is archived
erty. Since thin clients don’t cache data can’t be on central storage. The virtual, high avail-
compromised when a device is lost or stolen. ability, back-end server provides redundancy
in case of server back-end failure. This makes
The smart card offers a second layer of
the user data mostly available and promotes
higher productivity. This design also eases cli-
ent data backup and recovery from a central
location.
“VDI is getting set to
mow down those who
continue to locally sta-
n
tion full-power PCs for
routine office workers.”1
IT SOLUTIONS

4. SOLUTION SHEET
Table 1: At a Glance - Thin Client versus PC
The following table features topics/issues and compares Thin
Client to standard local PC
Systems and Network
Integration Division
Topic/Issue Standard Virtual Thin Topic/Issue Standard Virtual Thin
Local PC Client Local PC Client
Aids in employee life-
“As the firm has continued to
OS Upgrade in seconds NO YES NO YES
cycle management grow in number and my staff
Hardware refresh 3-4 years
7 –10 + Easy employee setup and continues to stay the same, my
years NO YES
modification
guys are getting more work
Reduces hardware Main- Reduces hardware
NO YES
tenance costs Maintenance costs
NO YES done in less time, freeing them
USER provisioned in Augments existing ac-
up to do other work and other
NO YES NO YES
seconds cess control projects because of the solution
User data Highly Avail-
able
NO YES Integrates with security
badge system
NO YES from Continental Resources. ”
Requires RAM Upgrades YES NO Centralized licensed
NO YES
control Solutions Director, for one of
Cache YES NO Reduces or eliminates Boston’s largest accounting firms
desktop hardware NO YES
failures
Allows for OS selection
NO YES
on-the-fly Ultra secure NO YES
Ultra Small to zero
NO YES Reverts to original state,
footprint NO YES
automatically
Voice Over IP phone
Possibly YES Packages applications
integration NO YES
per user environment
Houses OS YES NO
Provisioning in seconds NO YES
Has moving parts that
YES NO
could fail High Availability (HA) NO YES
Must Conform to OS Good for graphics or
YES NO
hardware capability engineering intensive YES NO
applications
Present personalized
desktop regardless of NO YES NO, YES, only
location Intellectual Property
houses displays
Control
data data
n
NO, YES, 4-7
Ultra Low Power Con-
80-150 watts with
sumption
Watts VoIP
IT SOLUTIONS
“VDI should be near the top of
the strategic projects list…”5
4

5. SOLUTION SHEET
Desktop Virtualization with Sun & VMware
Systems and Network
Integration Division
“Whether I was working with
Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
their [ConRes] sales or their
Sun Secure Global
account management, their en-
Sun Ray Software Desktop Software
gineers, during the deployment
or with someone after their
ALP AIP
deployment, they’re extremely
https://
responsive to my needs. I was
able to call them up whenever I
needed it. It might have at been
Sun Ray Ultra Thin Clients Windows Mac, Linux, Solaris Mobile at 7:00 on a Sunday evening; if
we were going to be doing a de-
The Continental Resources integrated VDI Solution based on Oracle’s Sun components, and
VMware ployment out to the clubs and
there was an issue, I was able to
go ahead and give them a call. ”
Introduction to the Continental Back-End: Oracle’s Sun server(s) and storage
Resources VDI Solution configured in a highly available/redundant
This solution allows for your desktop (Hot- design. The server and storage provide the Director of IT, of a high-end nation-
Desking) and phone service to migrate with processing power and the physical storage
al fitness chain
your location thus enabling higher productiv- for Operating Systems, applications and User
ity. Why be tied to a particular physical desk- data.
top when you can easily and securely login
VMware: VMware software allows for virtu-
to any configured thin client and access your
alization at the system level which allows for
desktop? No need to copy and transport data
system failover/migration in case of system and/
when your recent desktop environment is a
or sub-system failures. VMware also enables
secure login away. In addition, your phone
the virtual desktop OS system selected to be
(& cell phone) can be integrated with your
presented to the particular client.
desktop allowing for phone access to dynami-
cally track your desktop (other permutations VDI Software: Sun Virtual Desktop
available). Infrastructure Software controls access and
n
ensures security based on the design. This access
Solution Composition:
control layer is instrumental in enabling con-
n Thin Client For Users nectivity to the thin clients as well as tracking
user sessions. The WAN & AIP represent the
n Voice Over IP phone
unprotected public channels. IT SOLUTIONS
n Back-end Computing
Front End: Sun Ray thin clients allow for
n Back-end Virtualization advanced user flexibility. A user chooses
which thin client will present the desktop
and has the flexibility to choose the neces-
Solution Brief Description:
(Refer to Figure 1.) sary operating system (without concern for
client hardware).With tie in of the phone 5
service and desktop environment, logging in
can enable both services at the same physical
location.

6. Key Solution Benefits SOLUTION SHEET
n Decrease operating costs
n Increase security
n Enable mobility (desktop and phone) Systems and Network
n Provide high availability for user data Integration Division
n Higher Productivity Sun Ray 2
“They [ConRes] are a large,
SUMMARY: Improve security, mobility and well respected shop with good
high availability. Reduce energy and support vendor relations,... they are
costs. Increase productivity.
agnostic; they’ll come up with
Leverage our relationships with Oracle®,
whatever the best solution is
VMware®, Mitel, and Microsoft® to trans-
form your working environment to a virtual- for you, not necessarily forc-
ized one. ing you towards one vendor or
“Every CIO is looking at
every technology to im- another.”
About ConRes
prove their infrastructure
Build a better IT infrastructure and data
center, maximize your choice of IT products and their operating costs. Chief Technology Officer of a
and services, and strengthen your ROI – with We are under such tre- social networking website based
the friendly professionals at Continental mendous pressure to drive in NYC
Resources (ConRes), your hybrid VAR™.
As a hybrid, ConRes brings you the choice
better productivity, to drive
of products you’d expect from a distribu- better costs, especially in
tor combined with the services and support the economic climate we’re
you’d expect from your IT Solution Provider. in. In the face of challeng- BOSTON
You receive unbiased, IT data center and
infrastructure solutions from ConRes…
es like that, even modest IT CHICAGO
all supported by 48 years of experience and savings will do.”6 CONNECTICUT
financial stability. If you’re an IT Professional LOS ANGELES
in business, academia or government, you can NEW JERSEY
rely on ConRes for enterprise-class solutions
NEW YORK CITY
ranging from virtualization, disaster recovery, 1
Sturdevant, Cameron. “The viability of VDI”. eWeek. January 5, 2009.
PHILADELPHIA
unified communications, cloud computing, Page 17.
2
“Solution Powered By Mitel: The Mitel Unified IP Client for Sun
security, and networking to UNIX®, Linux®, Ray™”, Mitel.com/Sun Microsystems, January 8, 2009. SAN DIEGO
3
“Sun Desktop Virtualization Portfolio” Sun.com/solutions. January
and Windows®. 8, 2009. TEXAS
4
King, Rachael. “The Coming Desktop Revolution?”. Businessweek.com
5 Jan. 2008. 9 Jan. 2009 WASHINGTON DC
<http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2008/
tc20081231_028505.htm>.
n
5,6
Sturdevant, Cameron. “The viability of VDI”. eWeek. January 5, 2009.
Page 22.
Oracle,Sun, and Sun Ray are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle Cor-
poration or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Blackberry,
Microsoft, Mitel, and VMware are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies.
© 2010 Continental Resources, Inc. Specifications subject to change without notice.
Continental Resources not responsible for typographical errors. Printed in U.S.A
IT SOLUTIONS
ConRes 9025-1003.
6