The virtual client computing (VCC) market has grown rapidly, despite the economic downturn over the past few years. The centralized virtual desktop (CVD, aka virtual desktop infrastructure or VDI) segment has led the way in facilitating this growth. IDC expects to see significant production deployments of centralized virtualized desktops in the near term and a continued strong adoption ramp through 2014. However, the traditional datacenter model is ill-suited to facilitate the growth of CVDs. Running virtualized desktop from the datacenter requires technologies that are optimized to handle the additional processing, bandwidth, and storage requirements that traditional datacenter model can't handle at scale. Additionally, implementing datacenter technologies that are optimized for CVD is exceedingly complex and cost prohibitive, stalling many on-premises CVD projects.

The benefits of server virtualization are widely accepted and the majority of organizations have deployed virtualization technologies. Organizations are virtualizing mission-critical workloads but must now consider virtualization's security and compliance implications. Virtualization and security professionals now understand that there are significant security challenges that must be addressed in the new virtualized reality. Companies now acknowledge the potential real-world threats against virtualized environments. As security awareness increases among virtualization experts, enterprises will struggle to find the most effective and efficient ways to proactively protect virtualized environments. Our research indicates that while many organizations are leveraging existing data center security appliances to address new virtual security and compliance issues, there is an increasing adoption of virtualization-aware and virtualization- specific security solutions for mission-critical applications and scalable cloud-ready deployments.

Organizations deploying a desktop virtualization solution benefit by using servers that support many users and properly scale with additional servers. Using servers with high memory and processing capabilities lets and IT department save money by requiring fewer servers to support their virtual desktop load. In Principled Technologies' tests in our labs, a single Cisco UCS B250 M2 Extended Memory Blade Server built on Intel® Xeon® 5600 Series processors (X5670) running Citrix XenDesktop® 4 with Citrix XenServer 5.6 supported 112 Microsoft® Windows® 7 virtual desktops and scaled perfectly, without sacrificing performance, by supporting 784 virtual desktops when we added six more blades as measured by Login VSI Beta3 parameters.

The Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI) Solution together with Citrix XenDesktop delivers unified virtual desktops and applications, voice and video services to users anywhere, anytime, and on their choice of device. The solution increases mobility and flexibility, resulting in greater productivity across a global workforce. Cisco VXI simplifies deployment, reduces overall cost and minimizes implementation risk of deploying the new virtual workspace with an end-toend, open and validated solution. It builds on Cisco's data center, network and collaboration technologies, combined with services, solution support and advanced desktop virtualization technologies from Citrix. The end result is a flexible, secure IT infrastructure with uncompromised user experience.

Growing adoption of the Unified Communications and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure creates the potential for conflict, as VDI solutions must support real-time voice and video applications, and vice-versa. But VDI combined with UC also offers opportunities to simplify desktop environments, and securely extend UC to mobile platforms. IT architects must proactively plan for the combination of UC and VDI or risk finding themselves with users disenfranchised from one or the other, wasted resources, and thwarted strategies.

Challenge: Serving Grand Rapids and the West Michigan area, Metro Health is an integrated health system that includes a new state-of-the-art hospital, the Metro Health Medical Group, other affiliated physicians, neighborhood outpatient centers, a philanthropic foundation, the Metro Health Village and campus, and more. To continually enhance its services, Metro Health decided early on that electronic medical records (EMR) were essential, choosing Epic as its EMR vendor. Yet the Metro Health team realized that simply implementing EMR was not enough. The system needed to be taken one step further by providing a highly available, efficient, and flexible desktop environment that would deliver EMR to caregivers and administrators whenever and wherever they needed it.

Oak Hills Local School District supports academic success by providing students with more access to the classroom. Challenge: The Oak Hills Local School District is located right outside the center of Cincinnati, Ohio. Encompassing both the Green and Delhi townships in western Hamilton County, the school district consists of five elementary schools, three middle schools, and one high school. In total, there are nine school buildings with approximately 8100 students. Oak Hills provides an increasing number of educational opportunities for students and adults with gifted programs, special education services, vocational options and community education.

Business Challenge: Beaufort Memorial Hospital (BMH) has been recognized for nine consecutive years as one of the nation's Most Wired Small and Rural Hospitals, according to Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. From robotic surgery to bedside medication verification, BMH uses technology to help deliver optimum patient care with flexibility and cost-effectiveness. The BMH data center supports approximately 1600 users at its main hospital and satellite physician offices with applications including: . Meditech, BMH's primary clinical application . Picture archiving and communication system (PACS) . Physician office electronic medical record (EMR) system . Microsoft Exchange and productivity applications

The Yakima School District encompasses 14 elementary schools, five middle schools, and four high schools to serve 15,300 students. Technology is an integral part of learning today, and the school board recently renewed its emphasis on implementing technology to prepare for the state's move to online testing and to provide students with the best learning platform possible.

Seattle University (SU) is a Jesuit Catholic school located on Capitol Hill in Seattle, Washington. SU is the largest, independent, multidisciplinary university in the Northwest, with 7751 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs. SU was ranked the seventh best school in the Western region in U.S. News & World Report's "Best Colleges 2010" list, based on its full range of master's and undergraduate program offerings. "SU is one of the most culturally diverse, genuinely urban universities in the Northwest region," says Bob Dullea, vice president of University Planning for Seattle University. "We are dedicated to educating the 'whole' student into professional formation, and empowering leaders for a just and humane world."

South West Alliance of Rural Health (SWARH) is a virtual IT organization owned by 13 Australian hospital and health networks. The largest is Barwon Health, a regional health network with 22 sites spanning 60,000 square kilometers. Barwon Health is recognized throughout Australia as a leader in the development of electronic health records (EHRs) and for applying IT to improve healthcare. Barwon Health clinicians and staff use approximately 3000 access devices, including PCs, laptops, and thin clients. SWARH manages these devices as well as 4000 Cisco Unified IP phones, a number expected to double to 8000 by 2012. To mitigate risk and simplify management, the organizations wanted an integrated infrastructure for desktops as well as telephony. "Our main goal was providing a reliable experience for clinical staff accessing our internal information systems," says Paul Cohen, deputy CEO at Barwon Health. In addition, Barwon Health wanted to prepare to make information and services available to mobile clinicians and staff anywhere, even patients' homes, on any device, including iPads.

This white paper sponsored by HP + Intel discusses Exchange business drivers, market dynamics, and storage trends -- and how HP + Intel storage solutions can enhance an Exchange environment. Organization large and small need to consider all the factors in determining the right infrastructure and HP storage solutions delivers 100% availability, reliable and predictable performance, and comprehensive data protection.

Learn how HP CloudSystem Matrix and HP 3PAR Utility Storage provide a solid, flexible foundation for your cloud environment.

Why you should read this document: This report describes key findings from a survey of 200 IT professionals that can help you plan security into your cloud initiatives, including the following: . Protecting platform and infrastructure resources are top concerns. . Security plays a foundational role in the decision to implement a private cloud. . Nearly half of the overall organizational investment in cloud initiatives is security related. . Security drives outsourcing decisions.

Today's small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) have ever-growing storage needs. This often translates into a requirement for terabytes of storage and a level of high-availability typically associated with large-scale, enterprise deployments, managed without having a large IT staff. Given IT staffing constraints, storage solutions for SMBs must be easily installed and managed by existing IT staff, which is why HP introduced the new HP X5000 G2 Network Storage Systems, powered by Intel® Xeon® Processors. Independent tests show the HP X5520 G2 Network Storage System can be installed out-of-the-box to a fully-functional, high availability system joined to a Microsoft domain in less than 90 minutes with the help of an automated HP Configuration Tasks Tool guide.

The new HP X5000 G2 Network Storage Systems is ideal for midsize companies. The solution is a two-node Network Attached Storage (NAS) cluster with shared storage built on HP BladeSystem technology. In this datasheet, you will find a in-depth look into the HP X5000 G2 Network Storage Systems including key features and benefits that set this unit apart from the rest of those in the market.

The new HP X5000 G2 Network Storage Systems powered by Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Enterprise edition are Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions, with two-node integrated into a converged 3U chassis that are designed for a better file serving experience. In this quickspecs datasheet you will find a in-depth look into the HP X5000 G2 Network Storage Systems. A view into the key features and benefits that set this unit apart from the rest of those in the market.

The trend toward "consumerization" marches onward in IT; more and more end-users are choosing their own hardware platforms and software applications in lieu of the IT-sanctioned business tools provided by their companies. These end-users are looking to tackle issues like data sharing, portability, and access from multiple intelligent endpoint devices, creating a conundrum for IT as it needs to balance business enablement, ease of access, and collaborative capacity with the need to maintain control and security of information assets.

A growing number of companies are taking advantage of the natural synergies that exist between cloud-based IT services and content access and sharing. Legacy content management and collaboration systems simply weren't designed to meet the evolving requirements of today's IT and business managers, as well as the needs of content users. Box provides cloud-based content storage, access and collaboration services that require virtually no user training and supports file access and delivery on almost all popular PC and mobile devices. The services of Box let companies rapidly implement a cost-effective and secure content storage and sharing system that can easily expand to accommodate any size and number of files.

Collaboration and content sharing are not, of course, new concepts. But cloud computing has changed the nature of collaboration, content sharing, document storage and project management to enable more efficient, faster-acting and cost-effective enterprises. According to a new study by IDG Research, the vast majority of knowledge workers (86%) placed a very high level of importance on collaborating with internal coworkers and external stakeholders, and having access to the most up-to-date corporate information. Read how organizations are realizing massive productivity gains by transitioning their content management solutions to cloud-based models. Collaboration and content sharing are not, of course, new concepts. But cloud computing has changed the nature of collaboration, content sharing, document storage and project management to enable more efficient, faster-acting and cost-effective enterprises.

As more companies embrace the broad usage of individual liable mobile devices for access to corporate applications and data, Good Technology is often asked for guidance on the establishment of an associated individual liable usage policy. This policy document is intended to provide guidance on questions that companies should ask themselves when establishing their own policies and related considerations.

The private cloud is a shared multi-tenant environment built on a highly efficient, automated, and virtualized infrastructure. Other key elements of the cloud include standardized application platforms provided as a service and a self-service portal that enables business groups to request and manage capacity for their applications. During the design of our private cloud architecture, we were able to take advantage of the extensive experience gained while building the Intel IT design grid, a large multi-tenant environment used for silicon design. The expected benefits of our office and enterprise private cloud include: . Increased agility, including significantly reduced provisioning times. . Greater efficiency, including energy savings, due to better resource utilization. . High availability with minimal incremental cost, by taking advantage of enhancements to industry-standard hardware and software. . Improved capacity management, taking advantage of new business intelligence tools. Because of the extensive scope of this initiative, we plan to deliver private cloud capabilities in phases over the next three or more years. As we add these capabilities, we expect that the cloud will become capable of hosting highly demanding, mission-critical business applications.

Why you should read this document: This guide provides practical information to help you prepare your data center for the cloud with: . Unified networking, a new infrastructure based on 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE). . Scale-out storage that combines software and converged storage servers to deliver high-speed access to data. . Trusted server pools that demonstrate high integrity and build trust across dynamic environments. . Power management that monitors and caps power in real time from server, rack, zone, and data center levels.

Electronic signatures are gaining momentum among businesses of all shapes and sizes due to accelerating consumer technology and the need to reduce both transaction costs and the time to close business. The technology has found traction particularly among banking, insurance, and home and auto lenders as these companies double down on their efforts to reach customers via the Web. The reason is simple: Customers, who are more comfortable with the Web and mobile apps, are now driving e-signature adoption; it's no longer just enterprises looking to reduce paper costs. Looking ahead, consistent attitudes and best practices within industries are required to kick the bottom out of the dam and push e-signatures toward becoming an accepted practice within an industry sector.

Electronic signatures are gaining momentum due to accelerating consumer technology and the need to reduce both transaction costs and the time to close business. But despite increasing customer acceptance, most enterprises adopt e-signatures as an afterthought to larger processes like account opening and allow business units to independently deploy incompatible solutions with poor leverage across IT, compliance, and customers. In response, Forrester has developed an e-signature segmentation framework to help enterprises prepare for increased adoption. The eight top features to look for in an e-signature provider are global reach, company stability, solution accelerators, professional services, a customizable solution, electronic evidence, online session management, and mobile support.