Many organizations looking to implement virtual desktops are looking at fairly small deployments, fewer than 500 users. In fact, I’ve been receiving more and more questions from partners and customers asking how they can utilize XenDesktop for environments with only 50 or 100 users. Questions like:

• What is the recommended architecture for smaller XenDesktop deployments?
• Do I need to use all XenDesktop components?
• Do I really need NetScaler?
• Can I consolidate the components even more than what is detailed within the Virtual Desktops for the SMB reference design?
• What if I already have XenApp, can I still use it?
• Do I need XenApp?
• Do I need shared storage?

Honestly, many of these answers come down to your tolerance for risk, what your business looks like, and what are your plans for expansion in the future. The good news is that I’m going to be talking about these topics at an upcoming Ask the Architect TechTalk focused on the small to medium business. I’m also hoping that if you attend, you too will have some additional questions that I will be able to answer within the session or afterwards.

I look forward to seeing you there at the Virtual Desktops: A Design for Small Environments on Thursday, October 21 at 10AM Eastern.

Daniel – Lead Architect