Microsoft TechEd 2008, Day 3, 14:45

Just come out of a session on Desktop Virtualisation Scenarios. Quite interesting, and a lot of it relates to the work that Stan is interested in regarding SDS roaming and things like that.

A few key points were:

1. They discussed again about drive encryption, both for laptops AND desktops - for desktops mainly because it mitigates the risk of harware being stolen or improperly disposed at end of life.
2. Application virtualisation (via Microsoft's App-V - foremerly Softgrid) got a big push - particularly because it makes provisioning and re-imaging machines much faster. Only the thin OS needs to be pushed out, and the user can pull down just the applications they need as they use it.
3. Offline folders has been revamped a bit in Vista, to imporve the speed (I'd presume it might need SMB v2 as well). The key thing was using Offline folders in conjuction with App-V can help in two scenarios:
   
   a) Laptop users, can work offline or online transparently, but the data files are automatically sync'd to the server where they can be backed up. Using BitLocker to encrypt the drive mitigates the damage if the laptop is lost or stolen, but the data is backed up properly too with no end user action required, and is pushed down automatically to the replacement machine when they log in. (In this respect, offline folders might be a better solution than Sharepoint for H: drives)
   
   b) A user can roam between a desktop, laptop and Terminal Services session / VDI desktop freely, and have all their applicationms and data files follow them transparently.
4. Microsoft have a product called "Windows Fundementals for Legacy PCs", which is a scaled down version of XP Embedded which provides a basic UI, Internet Explorer and TS Client - just enough to get to a terminal services session or VDI desktop. They demonstrated it using a 9 year old laptop with 128Mb providing a full Vista desktop.