Microsoft Virtualization: Data Center to DesktopCustomer Solution Case Study

Created a blueprint for future office providing the very best working environment in any place

OverviewCountry or Region: KoreaIndustry: TelecommunicationCustomer ProfileKT, as a backbone communications provider boasting the largest size in Korea, provides services such as, high speed Internet, wireless Internet and IPTV. In 2009, it integrated with its affiliate, KTF and was the first in Korea to reveal FMC service.Business SituationKT, with olleh management as a new slogan, was trying to innovate the way of working. At that time, Seocho olleh campus, a future-oriented office space implemented on FMC based environment, was completed in time, so new work environment with VDI and ECM deployed was provided to workers.SolutionThe VDI environment was implemented with the harmony of Hyper-V and XenDesktop which provided an advantage of density and performance for its price, and improved the efficiency of centralized management through the System Center.Benefits The cradle of olleh management Obtained the knowhow for spreading VDI

across the enterprise Expected cost savings Green effect by client computing

“This working innovation through VDI and ECM is the first experience for KT. Now we take pains how to use it, for instance, we are giving much thought about how the architecture should be configured, how much infrastructure capacity will be needed and what part the cost cut is possible to when we expand it across the enterprise.”

KT staff

In early 2010, the environment representing the vision and philosophy of olleh management which KT declared in 2009 was revealed. That is the ‘Seocho olleh campus,’ which shows a feeling of sharing, communication and open space rather than just a space for work. Seocho olleh campus was not just a physically open place. It was also free from flow of human traffic from the June, 2010. Workers can access to their own work environment directly and create and share the data they need regardless of the place where Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) environment was implemented and equipments they use. This movement of KT should be viewed in the wider context than general VDI. It is the high comprehensive VDI environment for all the head office information workers moved to the Seocho olleh campus, not just targeted to a certain workers which take virtualization effects directly.

SituationA new KT’s office building named ‘Olleh Campus’ was revealed in February 2010. The head office information workers moved to the Seocho olleh campus said they experienced some kind of cultural shock from the first day at the new office. The open space, without natural allotted desk, came to them as a new experience. Actually, Seocho olleh campus was called three-absent work space meaning that there were no printer, paper and partition.

And one more striking change is that there was no telephone on the desk. By using only a smart phone in Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) environment, answering the wire/wireless phone was possible, which changed the look of desks. This open space concept was expanded in June 2010.

It has VDI environment which enables workers to access to their own work environment in any place or with any PC breaking the tradition of one-man

one-PC, creating the free creative work space with a free flow of human traffic.

This VDI project in KT was an unprecedented action rare at home and abroad. VDI is generally applied to the workers which do restrictive and repetitive jobs. But the KT used different approach. Regarding this, the KT staff said, “In case of other companies, they are usually trying to specify the target or job when promoting the VDI. But KT tried to make a high comprehensive environment which can accommodate all businesses. And the first target was the information workers working in Seocho olleh campus.” It was the February 2009 when KT considered this company-wide VDI spreading.

At that time, KT started to drive the job of changing way of work fundamentally under the decision that they need a work innovation suitable for the slogan, the olleh management. The KT staff said, “We were trying to make it a kind of cycle to innovate each employee’ work which was atypical before, record and identify jobs, identify directions, identify enforcement and share the record of results. And a need to total change of working way and environment including mobile office implementation for working without a fixed seat was mentioned from the February, 2009, and August, a task force team was made to earnestly promote the related project.” The KT’s willingness to change the way of working was revealed in member composition of the task force team. An executive officer takes the head of the task force team and practitioners of human resource management team, management support team and strategy planning team were infused, which shows an earnest trial to change the company’s constitution.

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The first job of the task force team was establishing the technical methodology for foundation of mobile office implementation that enable people to work in any place. The decision at that time was making new working environment by using VDI and ECM. Once heeding the direction, the task force team goes through pre-evaluation and technique investigation and finished the solution choice in the December, 2009. In this

period KT intensively examine whether there were compatibility issues in virtualization of KT’s working environment with VDI. And in the case of ECM, as it is the reference point of cooperation, there was a discussion about what kind of standard should be applied for verifying the user convenience. The finally chosen solutions for the VDI were Microsoft Hyper-V and System Center and Citrix XenDesktop. And for the ECM, Microsoft SharePoint Server was chosen.

A combination of Hyper-V and XenDesktop, proposed to the KT with teaming up of Microsoft Korea and Citrix, was praised in many ways. When considering the VDI, we generally investigate the three aspects intensively; virtual platform, virtualization management tools and session broker which allocate virtual machine to the users and maintain the connection. In this point of view, Hyper-V and XenDesktop has a high competitive edge in the aspect of cost and efficiency compared to XenDesktop on ESX server of VMWare. The KT staff said, “In case of VDI, scalability should be much considered other than technology and price evaluation. Just Seocho olleh campus alone has a lot of users, so we have to investigate strictly if it can bear a large scale architecture we need and how much additional cost will be needed with future spreading in mind. In this respect, it seems that the cost advantage of Hyper-V and performance of XenDesktop as a session broker make synergy with each other. And more, a manageability of System Center also received a favorable evaluation.

After solution selecting, KT started implementing it in the early of 2010 and providing the service to the users in Seocho olleh campus in the June, 2010. KT has made a full assurance in change management in this period. Considering that it was not same with familiar old one, minimizing the user’s confusion was important thing. The KT staff said, “In this project, we eagerly promote it to users of Seocho olleh campus from the early phase of the project. Beginning from the working way, we explained the concept of VDI and ECM, and gave education of it. We also conducted survey for accepting user’s view, which was gathered and reflected to its

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implementation to make sure of change management.

Benefits

The cradle of olleh management

For KT, new office building in Seocho is the cradle of management, and also the laboratory. The building itself has a fair view and the people working in it are also doing his or her job regardless of seats. All the working performance record is stored and shared in virtualized environment, not in a desktop of each worker as in the past. Actually, the employees in Seocho olleh campus work in their loaded desktop environment through VDI, and store the working document and record to the ECM. Working environment and storing information is centralized.

By virtue of strict change management, users have accommodated easily to the changed working environment. The KT staff said, “We checked the user response after the service was starting, most of them give us positive answers. It seems that they feel little difference with old ways of using desktop. Staffs require a lot of travel or outside work also give us positive response that they can work conveniently without carrying the laptop.”

Obtained the knowhow for spreading VDI across the enterprise

Seocho olleh campus is carried along to complete the example of speedy and creative organization day by day. This result will be expanded across the enterprise in the long-term. Before they spread this working way innovation to more users, KT is trying hard make the Seocho olleh campus project experience as a knowledge

asset to use for the business planned in the future.

The KT staff said, “This working innovation through VDI and ECM is the first experience for KT. Now we take pains how to use it, for instance, we are giving much thought about how the architecture should be configured, how much infrastructure capacity will be needed and what part the cost cut is possible to when we expand it across the enterprise.”

Expected cost savings when transition to the Windows 7

In relation to this VDI promotion, KT takes note of the efficiency from version-up of the Operating System to the Windows 7. In case of Hyper-V R2, it shows the highest density in the industry that can operate virtual machine per each core on Windows 7. When it calculated through the XenDesktop 4 Return of Investment (ROI) tool provided by Citrix, released with 5 thousand of users, Windows 7 virtual machine on Hyper-V can obtain the 225 thousand dollars of cost savings compared to using commercial virtual platform like ESX server of VMWare KT also has a Windows 7 version-up plan with long-term compatibility test, and an significant advantage of cost and performance through the combination of Hyper-V and XenDesktop is expected.

Green effect by client computing innovation

Green effect is also an advantage expected by using VDI. It is common sense that virtualization raises the energy efficiency of entire infrastructure. It is the same with the desktop. Extending the existing PC’ lifecycle is possible without changing into higher version as in the pas to

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optimize the energy consumption gradually across the infrastructure. The KT staff said, “In VDI environment, even the low clock PC can provide service. Just a little bit slow of the clock speed can help lower the power consumption and heat. If there were just a couple of PC, it’s not a big deal, but several thousands of PC, then that makes all the difference. It can be said that VDI provides the opportunity of realizing green IT on the desktop basis.” Microsoft VirtualizationMicrosoft virtualization is an end-to-end strategy that can profoundly affect nearly every aspect of the IT infrastructure management lifecycle. It can drive greater efficiencies, flexibility, and cost effectiveness throughout your organization. From accelerating application deployments; to ensuring systems, applications, and data are always available; to taking the hassle out of rebuilding and shutting down servers and desktops for testing and development; to reducing risk, slashing costs, and improving the agility of your entire environment—virtualization has the power to transform your infrastructure, from the data center to the desktop.

For more information about Microsoft virtualization solutions, go to: www.microsoft.com/virtualization

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about KT products and services, visit the Web site at: www.kt.com

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

Document published February 2011

Software and Services Products

− Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V− Microsoft System Center Operation

Manger− Microsoft System Center Virtual

Machine Manager− Citirx XenDesktop 4