Desktop Management

Desktop management consists of the systematic activities performed by IS professionals to manage distributed computing resources throughout an organization. However, it does not appear that desktop management is being practiced extensively by organizations at this time. This paper, a comprehensive tutorial whose purpose is to raise awareness concerning the importance and potential of desktop management, examines the following issues: (1) What is the significance of desktop management? (2) What management practices constitute desktop management? (3) What are the benefits associated with implementing desktop management practices? (4) Why is desktop management not implemented? (5) What is the future of desktop management? The significance of desktop management is explored relative to total cost of ownership and the actions by the computer industry to support desktop management. Desktop management practice is described from two perspectives: (1) the software tools that enable and facilitate desktop management, and (2) the managerial activities associated with the discipline of desktop management. The benefits of desktop management covered in this paper include reduced cost of ownership, improved user productivity, and enhanced competitive advantage. However, desktop management is not widely practiced at this time, and the reasons for this state of affairs are examined briefly. Sales projections for desktop management software and interest in the topic on the Internet provide evidence that desktop management will be an important issue in the future. Issues that will impact that future include alternate ways of reducing total cost of ownership, increased use of mobile devices, and the emergence of enterprise system management tools

Technical Note: Desktop Management in Practice

Desktop management is the set of activities employed to manage distributed IT resources within an organization. Reports from the late 1990s indicated that desktop management was not widely used. This article presents the results of a survey about the extent to which desktop management functions and policies are currently implemented in practice and about the perception of the benefits of desktop management. The primary conclusion of this technical note is that desktop management, despite moderately favorable perceptions of its benefits, is still not extensively implemented. However, when our data are evaluated relative to earlier reports, it appears that the level of implementation increased somewhat between 1998 and 2002

An Innovative Workspace for The Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is an initiative to build the next generation, ground-based gamma-ray observatories. We present a prototype workspace developed at INAF that aims at providing innovative solutions for the CTA community. The workspace leverages open source technologies providing web access to a set of tools widely used by the CTA community. Two different user interaction models, connected to an authentication and authorization infrastructure, have been implemented in this workspace. The first one is a workflow management system accessed via a science gateway (based on the Liferay platform) and the second one is an interactive virtual desktop environment. The integrated workflow system allows to run applications used in astronomy and physics researches into distributed computing infrastructures (ranging from clusters to grids and clouds). The interactive desktop environment allows to use many software packages without any installation on local desktops exploiting their native graphical user interfaces. The science gateway and the interactive desktop environment are connected to the authentication and authorization infrastructure composed by a Shibboleth identity provider and a Grouper authorization solution. The Grouper released attributes are consumed by the science gateway to authorize the access to specific web resources and the role management mechanism in Liferay provides the attribute-role mapping

Creating Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Using Xen Desktop 7.1 and Vsphere 5.1

Technology now demands secure centralized management of their services. Desktop virtualization allows isolation of the operating system and desktop using Xen Desktop. Now the users of any organization could connect to their own desktops from anywhere and from any client device. Xen Desktop delivers windows applications and desktops as secure mobile service and is capable of delivering full desktops or the applications that are required. It offers storefront software which allows the users to self-service what they wanted. This paper solely focuses on building a Virtual desktop infrastructure, a cloud-ready Desktop as a Service platform using which a company can reduce the cost, time for management and patching the desktops along with independence for applications. Keywords: desktop virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructur

Desktop Computing Integration Project

The Desktop Computing Integration Project for the Human Resources Management Division (HRMD) of LaRC was designed to help division personnel use personal computing resources to perform job tasks. The three goals of the project were to involve HRMD personnel in desktop computing, link mainframe data to desktop capabilities, and to estimate training needs for the division. The project resulted in increased usage of personal computers by Awards specialists, an increased awareness of LaRC resources to help perform tasks, and personal computer output that was used in presentation of information to center personnel. In addition, the necessary skills for HRMD personal computer users were identified. The Awards Office was chosen for the project because of the consistency of their data requests and the desire of employees in that area to use the personal computer

User subscription-based resource management for Desktop-as-a-Service platforms

The Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) idiom consists of utilizing a cloud or other server infrastructure to host the user's desktop environment as a virtual desktop. Typical for cloud and DaaS services is the pay-as-you-go pricing model in combination with the availability of multiple subscription types to accommodate the needs of the users. However, optimal cost-efficient allocation of the virtual desktops to the infrastructure proves to be a combinatorial NP-hard problem, for which a heuristic is presented in the current article. We present a cost model for the DaaS service, from which a revenue of different configurations of virtual desktops to the servers can be derived. In this cost model, both subscription fee and penalties for degraded service are recorded, that are described in service-level agreements (SLAs) between the service provider and the users, and make realistic assumptions that different subscription types result in particular SLA contracts. The heuristic proposed states that for a given user base for which the virtual desktops (VDs) must be hosted, the VDs should be spread evenly over the infrastructure. Experiments through discrete event simulation show that this heuristic yields an approximation within 1 % of the theoretically achievable revenue

FOLDER3D: A graphical file management system supporting visualisation of file relationships

The desktop metaphor with its hierarchical structure of folders is the basis of almost all graphical file management systems. Despite this popularity, these systems suffer from several problems, including the restrictiveness of the single inheritance structure of hierarchical file management. Although various alternative systems have been proposed, none of these have gained popularity. We argue that the reason for this failure is that these systems have generally proposed complete alternatives to the hierarchical system, thus ignoring many of its positive aspects. In this paper we describe a 3D graphical file management which complements conventional 2D hierarchical folder structures by allowing visualisation of alternative file relationships

Java based location independent desktop environment

As the Internet grows and users become more mobile, users will need to be able to access from remote locations all of the same computing resources that they use in their offices. Some users accomplish this by taking everything with them, in the form of high-priced, high-powered laptop computers. This thesis investigates another possible solution to the problem of mobile users, that of a location independent user desktop. This thesis and its related project will produce a JAVA based User Name Service, Application Service and User Desktop Application that use a combination of local and remote servers to provide location independent services. The Desktop application will provide a basic desktop environment to the user, including a tool bar and simple configuration management to demonstrate the basic principles of this system. The User Name Service will provide desktop configuration information to local and remote users. The Application service will provide (rudimentary) applications for the user to use on his/her desktop. This thesis will investigate the basic properties of proxy services, configuration management, user key management, access control, and communication issues that arise in the investigation and implementation of a location independent environment

Scalable desktop grid system

Desktop grids are easy to install on large number of personal computers, which is a prerequisite for the spread of grid technology. Current desktop grids connect all PCs into a flat hierarchy, that is, all computers to a central server. SZTAKI Desktop Grid starts from a standalone desktop grid, as a building block. It is extended to include clusters displaying as single powerful PCs, while using their local resource management system. Such building blocks support overtaking additional tasks from other desktop grids, enabling the set-up of a hierarchy. Desktop grids with different owners thus can share resources, although only in a hierarchical structure. This brings desktop grids closer to other grid technologies where sharing resources by several users is the most important feature