Georgia Tech Delivers Better VDI Experience to Students by Upgrading Software

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Education—Higher education

Customer ProfileThe Georgia Institute of Technology, based in Atlanta and serving 21,000 students, is consistently ranked in US News & World Report’s top ten public universities in the United States. It has 4,000 employees.

Business SituationThe Georgia Tech College of Engineering wanted to improve its virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment so that students would have an even easier, more convenient computing experience.

SolutionThe college upgraded to Windows Server 2012 R2 to improve the performance and usability of its Windows-based VDI desktops and to expand client-device support.

Benefits Better student experience Improved support of VDI desktops

“Upgrading our Windows-based VDI environment enabled us to keep improving the experience of students running AutoCAD 2014 and Inventor 2014.”

Didier Contis, Director of Technology Services, Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) keeps its technology current so that professors and students can teach and learn using the latest tools and enjoy the utmost convenience. The Georgia Tech College of Engineering (CoE) recently deployed the Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system to enhance its virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment, which it uses to deliver applications to students. With the upgrade, the CoE extends its ability to deliver VDI-based applications to students on their personal computers; provides a higher performance, easier-to-use experience; and progresses on its goal to deliver the most demanding engineering applications to students anytime, anywhere, over any device. New support features in Windows Server 2012 R2 help the IT staff identify and resolve VDI-related problems faster and return students to work sooner.

SituationThe Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is one of the nation’s top research universities, distinguished by its deeply held commitment to improving the human condition through advanced science and technology. Undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered through the Institute’s six colleges: Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Sciences, the Scheller College of Business, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. Georgia Tech is consistently ranked in US News & World Report’s top ten public universities in the United States.

Because Georgia Tech is a technology-focused university, it prides itself on staying at the cutting edge of technology in teaching, learning, and research. This is especially true in the university’s College of Engineering (CoE), which enrolls 60 percent of Georgia Tech’s 21,000 students. The college was an early adopter of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions to give students the freedom to access engineering applications from anywhere (on and off campus), versus being limited to university computer labs. In a VDI model, applications run on a server and are delivered virtually to users on thin-client devices. The VDI computing model gives students the convenience to use a range of devices, and it also reduces computing costs for the university by reducing the number of expensive workstations that it needs to purchase and maintain.

However, not all applications could run in the existing VDI model, notably AutoCAD 3D computer-aided design software and Autodesk Inventor, both of which required too much graphics computing power to run virtually over local-area or wide-area networks. To use these applications, students had to wait their turn to use lab workstations.

In 2012, the college upgraded to the Windows Server 2012 operating system with Hyper-V technology to take advantage

of the enhanced Remote Desktop Services (RDS) tool, which enables remote connections to the datacenter. In particular, Georgia Tech took advantage of the Microsoft RemoteFX feature in RDS, which improves virtual graphics processing for VDI programs, specifically the virtual delivery of three-dimensional (3-D) experiences across networks.

The college used Windows Server 2012 and RemoteFX as part of a project to virtualize four labs containing about 160 workstations. It also took advantage of that operating system’s support of Server Message Block 3 (SMB3) storage to reduce storage costs. The college replaced the aging lab workstations with less-expensive thin-client devices. By using Windows Server 2012 and RemoteFX, the college was able to reduce university computing costs while giving students more flexible access to the school’s most demanding engineering applications.

Students responded favorably to the capability and performance of RemoteFX-enabled VDI but wanted to use their personal computers—many of which were Apple Mac laptops—to access the VDI desktops. This would give them the ultimate freedom to study and do assignments anytime, anyplace.

For its part, the Georgia Tech technical support team wanted to make the VDI experience absolutely glitch-free so that students would want to use it and the support team would be able to resolve any problems quickly and painlessly. “Students today are focused on instant gratification, especially where technology is concerned,” says Didier Contis, Director of Technology Services for Georgia Institute of Technology. “They don’t care how it works; they just want it to work.”

SolutionWhen Microsoft announced the Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system, Contis saw an opportunity to “polish” the college’s

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“Students today are focused on instant gratification, especially where technology is concerned. They don’t care how it works; they just want it to work.”

Didier Contis, Director of Technology Services, Georgia Institute of Technology

already-advanced Windows-based VDI environment. The Georgia Tech College of Engineering participated in the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program (RDP) and worked with Microsoft Services Consulting to deploy Windows Server 2012 R2 on a Dell PowerEdge R720 server cluster. At the same time, the college deployed and evaluated the Windows 8.1 operating system on VDI guest virtual machines. It also upgraded to Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 datacenter solutions so that it could use the Virtual Machine Manager component to manage virtual machines and storage across its Windows-based VDI environment.

The Microsoft Services Consulting team was responsible for transferring knowledge to the Georgia Tech staff during the Windows Server 2012 RDP, which helped get the solution up and running without delay. Between its Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 environments, the college has about 400 Windows-based VDI images available to students.

Employ Range of Features to Improve VDI ExperienceThe “polishing” features in Windows Server 2012 R2 to which Contis referred span improvements to VDI storage, Remote Desktop Protocol client support, performance, and other issues that affect the student experience. Windows Server 2012 R2 introduced storage tiering, which employs low-cost hard disk drives to store less frequently used data while high-speed solid state disks are reserved for frequently used data. Georgia Tech plans to use this feature in the future to reduce VDI storage costs.

With Windows Server 2012 R2 VDI, the college now has support for non-Windows Remote Desktop Protocol clients, including the Apple and Android operating systems. This means that students can now use their personal laptops and tablets to access engineering applications.

The Windows 8.1 Remote Desktop Protocol has been enhanced to deliver better performance, especially when students are logging on to VDI sessions from outside the university network over the Internet. When using VDI virtual machines based on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, students get better graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration. Also, with Windows Server 2012 R2, the server GPU-sharing mechanism has been refined, which enables a higher level of virtual machine density per server. All these features help the college IT staff deliver a better, more cost-effective VDI solution.

RemoteFX has been enhanced in Windows Server 2012 R2 to consume up to 50 percent less wide-area network (WAN) bandwidth compared to Windows Server 2012, which decreases the cost of networking and provides a better user experience over constrained networks. “One challenge in delivering VDI to students who log on to applications from outside the network is that we don’t control connection quality,” Contis says. “When they’re on campus, we have visibility into connection speed between client and server, but we don’t have this if they’re off campus.”

RemoteFX allows the College of Engineering to better absorb bandwidth differences and still deliver a positive experience when delivering 3-D-enabled application like Autodesk Inventor 2014.

Another great feature for Georgia Tech is the quick connect feature, which provides a faster VDI session reconnection in the event of a network interruption. Windows Server 2012 R2 increases the speed at which network interruptions are detected and reconnects to the VDI session in less than 10 seconds. “Quick connect is most helpful when I’m moving back and forth between my desktop computer and my mobile devices,” says Jay Gallman, IT Support Professional Lead, College of Engineering, for Georgia Institute of Technology. “The

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“Quick connect is most helpful when I’m moving back and forth between my desktop computer and my mobile devices. The ability to ‘take your session with you’ is also useful for students who are leaving a lab or class and heading somewhere else on campus.”

Jay Gallman, IT Support Professional Lead, College of Engineering, Georgia

Institute of Technology

ability to ‘take your session with you’ is also useful for students who are leaving a lab or class and heading somewhere else on campus.”

By using session shadowing, another enhancement in Windows Server 2012 R2, administrators can shadow a user’s VDI session to help troubleshoot problems. “Shadowing is important because it gives us a quick snapshot of the student’s desktop and helps us shorten the debug cycle,” Contis says.

The Georgia Tech IT staff uses System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager to deploy VDI virtual machines, manage master images, manage storage, and automate tasks, which is critical as its VDI environment grows. The college is also looking to use the Configuration Manager component of System Center 2012 R2 and Microsoft Application Virtualization to deliver applications faster, deliver more services, and manage more devices.

Expand VDI Use CasesAs the Windows VDI experience improves, Georgia Tech is thinking of new ways to use VDI. One idea is to move lab data acquisition and analysis to a VDI environment. Today, students attach data acquisition devices to lab or personal computers and then analyze that data using a program called LabView, which has to be installed on lab workstations or student PCs. However, students don’t necessarily want to deal with installing and configuring large programs on their personal computers, especially if it will be used only for one class. Supporting software on student computers can also be challenging from the IT staff perspective.

By using Windows Server 2012 R2, the college could run both the student desktop and LabView in a VDI image and feed the data to that image for analysis. This would both reduce the requirement for as many expensive lab workstations and eliminate the need for students to download LabView

onto their personal computers. “Students could focus on doing science rather than downloading software and fussing with computer issues,” Contis says. “Or they could attach simple USB data acquisition devices to their laptops and perform live experiments from a coffee shop. By moving the computing horsepower off the end-user device and onto a server, we open up a world of new possibilities.”

BenefitsBy upgrading to Windows Server 2012 R2, the Georgia Tech College of Engineering has been able to provide a better, more powerful, easier-to-use VDI experience for students and improve its ability to resolve support issues faster.

Better Student ExperienceIn the few weeks that students have been using the Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 VDI environment, feedback has been very positive. “Upgrading our Windows-based VDI environment enabled us to keep improving the experience of students running AutoCAD 2014 and Inventor 2014,” Contis says.

By letting students use their own computers to access compute-intensive engineering applications (and others as well), students can be more productive from anywhere, on almost any device. “Students want to study when and where they want—often at 3:00 in the morning when university labs are closed,” Contis says. “This technology allows students to work on projects outside of regular school hours, which helps us deliver computing resources that better fit their schedules.”

By taking advantage of RemoteFX performance improvements, the college further enhances the VDI experience for students who are logging on from off campus. “For us, VDI is about gaining the flexibility to offer computing resources that are not locked in physical rooms but are available wherever students are,” Contis says. “Before VDI, there would be a line of

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“This technology allows students towork on projects outside of regular school hours, which helps us deliver computing resources that better fit their schedules.”

Didier Contis, Director of Technology Services, Georgia Institute of Technology

“This technology allows students to work on projects outside of regular school hours, which helps us deliver computing resources that better fit their schedules.”

Didier Contis, Director of Technology Services, Georgia Institute of Technology

students waiting outside of computer labs. VDI lets us serve far more students with far fewer lab workstations.”

Georgia Tech already offers distance-learning engineering programs, but a high-performance, easy-to-use VDI environment will enable the school to make even the most compute-intensive applications available to students anywhere in the world. “Improvements to our VDI environment let us better align the experience of our distance-learning students with that of our campus-based students,” Contis says.

Improved Support of Virtual DesktopsBy using session shadowing, Contis’s team can resolve VDI-related problems faster, reducing student frustration and returning them to work sooner. “Session shadowing has the potential to reduce the amount of time that an issue can drag on,” Gallman says. “Today, students send an email to us with a complaint about an issue, and we send an email back. This asynchronous debugging process can take a day or two. With session shadowing, we can communicate with students in real time and reduce problem resolution time to a few minutes, because we see the problem that the student sees in real time. When students decide to engage the IT help desk, it gives us the chance to resolve the issue faster and ultimately gives us a better reputation with students.”

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“With session shadowing, we can communicate with students in real time and reduce problem resolution time to a few minutes, because we can see the problem that the student sees in real time.”

Jay Gallman, IT Support Professional Lead, College of Engineering, Georgia

Institute of Technology

Empower people-centric ITEmpower employees to work virtually anywhere on the PCs and devices they prefer, while providing IT with a single tool for easy, consistent, and more secure management. Solutions such as Microsoft System Center and Windows Intune simplify user and device management, reduce costs, and improve productivity while taking advantage of existing IT infrastructure.

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This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published February 2014

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter− Microsoft System Center 2012 R2

Windows 8.1 Technologies− Hyper-V− Microsoft RemoteFX− Remote Desktop Services

Microsoft Services− Microsoft Services Consulting

Hardware Dell PowerEdge R720 servers NVIDIA GRID K1 EMC XtremIO Array

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For more information about Georgia Institute of Technology, visit the website at:www.gatech.edu