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IT heads are aware of the fact that the licensing cost on the deployment of desktop virtualisation is relatively high, given that it is still not ubiquitous. However, virtualisation vendors do formulate certain theories around how to perceive the licensing cost to make it more cost effective and justify the investment to drive RoI.
Ramesh Vantipalli (Head EUC India & South –Systems Engineering & Technology), VMware, recommends IT managers to consider key aspects when it comes to desktop virtualisation software licensing:
- OS and software licensing needs to be strongly analysed, especially when making the move to a VDI structure
- Customers and organisations alike need to follow the solution providers’ licensing structure, and necessary controls need to be put in place to ensure access to confidential information for designated users within enterprises
- Misinformation is evil. Organisations and users alike need to take appropriate actions to ensure they have all the necessary information from the provider directly.
VMware allows organisations to choose named-user licensing or concurrent-user licensing for the product suite. “A benefit of concurrent-user licensing is that one can rotate in users and not have to pay for licenses for users not on the system. Concurrent-user licensing is especially suited to call centre environments with shift workers and to educational environments where not every individual is using the system at one time,” says Vantipalli. The benefit of named-user licensing for the suite is that one named user can use as many devices as he wishes at once, on any or all of the products.
In a desktop virtualisation phenomenon, the licensing models existing are either per device, per user or per concurrent. The challenge, as Nilesh Goradia, Head Pre-Sales, India Subcontinent-Citrix, observes is not primarily from a desktop virtualisation perspective, it’s more of an affiliated licensing, an application licensing challenge.
“Most CIOs are unable to give clarity on how applications are going to work. That could make the licensing even more complex,” says Goradia.
Many vendors’ licensing model revolves around per concurrent and per user modules, which is considered to be complex.
Srikanth Karnakota, Director – Server and Cloud Business, Microsoft, says, “Moving away from the concurrent user base, we have introduced licenses based on a particular machine or device. It’s per device model. With this model, cost reduction is ensured.”
Microsoft sees the reduction in cost with the OS coming free along with the windows server; there is no additional cost, the cost is only around VDI.
Vikram K, director, ISS, HP India, observes, “Virtual Desktop infrastructure environment does not reduce the licenses required. Rather, it helps in reducing operational expenses by simplifying desktops patching, OS and application updates and infrastructure cost. IT heads can consider solutions like application virtualisation, session virtualisation or presentation virtualisation for better TCO,” he says.
Higher Cost, Higher Benefit?
Anoop Handa, EVP & CIO, Fullerton India, believes that not all licensing models have fully matured/aligned to the changing environment for end-user computing using desktop virtualisation. In addition, this area continues to be a challenge and has to be checked, verified and included in the business case.
Jayantha Prabhu, CTO, Essar Services India Limited, says that to accrue greater benefits from desktop virtualisation licenses, we need to be very clear with the licensing models of the Desktop VDI solutions providers and the Desktop OS vendor before we choose to implement VDI. “It is imperative that we have a detailed and joint discussion with the Desktop VDI solutions providers and the Desktop OS vendor and have their sign off on the Licensing Understanding,” avers Prabhu. “Organisations that have Enterprise Agreements tend to benefit in this case as compared to those having Select Agreements for specific products only,” explains Prabhu.
Ashish Khanna, AVP-IT, EIH Ltd., agrees that currently the licensing of virtualisation is very costly and hence the on-boarding cost of desktop virtualisation is very high. If the number of users deployed is lesser, then the ROI for the investment comes after a long period, which doesn’t justify the initial high capex. In order to have more penetration in the market, this technology has to come at a lower cost.
Sachin Jain, EVP-IT, Evalueserve, finds this not an easy puzzle to solve. “Different virtualisation solutions will lead to different licensing models which are usually complicated and at times do not sound logical. “One has to examine the model, and find a best fit for the solution he/she settles for, based on other important factors such as ROI, recurring cost, support cost, etc,” he says.
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