VDI for CHEAP!!!

[scottalanmiller]

And only make sense if they people accessing it don't have internal desktops to access.

[Dashrender]

@scottalanmiller said:

And only make sense if they people accessing it don't have internal desktops to access.

Do you mean that you would expect people to remote into their desktops at their office using something like Pertino or Logmein?

[A Former User]

@Dashrender said:

@scottalanmiller said:

And only make sense if they people accessing it don't have internal desktops to access.

Do you mean that you would expect people to remote into their desktops at their office using something like Pertino or Logmein?

that's how i read it.

[scottalanmiller]

@Dashrender said:

@scottalanmiller said:

And only make sense if they people accessing it don't have internal desktops to access.

Do you mean that you would expect people to remote into their desktops at their office using something like Pertino or Logmein?

Well Pertino is a VPN, not a remote access technology. But Remote Desktop, LogMeIn, PCoIP, NX, 2X, XenApp, etc. Same way that they access Amazon Workspaces or any VDI/RDS.

That's how Wall St. firms do it, for example. They do the cost analysis and know that because they own the desktop already it is cheaper to have people remote to those rather than have RDS too.

[A Former User]

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

@scottalanmiller said:

And only make sense if they people accessing it don't have internal desktops to access.

Do you mean that you would expect people to remote into their desktops at their office using something like Pertino or Logmein?

Well Pertino is a VPN, not a remote access technology. But Remote Desktop, LogMeIn, PCoIP, NX, 2X, XenApp, etc. Same way that they access Amazon Workspaces or any VDI/RDS.

That's how Wall St. firms do it, for example. They do the cost analysis and know that because they own the desktop already it is cheaper to have people remote to those rather than have RDS too.

cool. thanks scott.

[scottalanmiller]

What I have seen a lot of places do is stick a XenApp web gateway out front and use it to accelerate and manage access to a company full of desktops. This is extremely popular. Adds security, ease of use and performance without a huge overhead in cost and infrastructure.

[A Former User]

say i had 10 users i wanted to xenapp up. what's hardware/licensing cost ish?

[scottalanmiller]

@Hubtech said:

say i had 10 users i wanted to xenapp up. what's hardware/licensing cost ish?

XenApp is software so pure licensing costs. For ten users I think that it is really cheap. It's going past ten that it gets expensive, if I remember correctly and they have kept that licensing flat. SMBs rarely find value in it. So easy to do something else, like Pertino or OpenVPN.

[A Former User]

so quicker easier would be just VPN and RDS.

[JaredBusch]

@Hubtech said:

so quicker easier would be just VPN and RDS.
Pertino and RDS in my opinion. I really do not think VPN is ever easier.

[Dashrender]

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

@scottalanmiller said:

And only make sense if they people accessing it don't have internal desktops to access.

Do you mean that you would expect people to remote into their desktops at their office using something like Pertino or Logmein?

Well Pertino is a VPN, not a remote access technology. But Remote Desktop, LogMeIn, PCoIP, NX, 2X, XenApp, etc. Same way that they access Amazon Workspaces or any VDI/RDS.

That's how Wall St. firms do it, for example. They do the cost analysis and know that because they own the desktop already it is cheaper to have people remote to those rather than have RDS too.

Good to know I've been doing the same as the big wall street guys... hey wait.... lol

[Dashrender]

@Hubtech said:

so quicker easier would be just VPN and RDS.

This is exactly what I do today.
But considering i have a LMI Central account I am going to setup my few (5 or 6) users with LMI accounts under my Central account and give them access to their desktops. This will be much simpler than the VPN solution, since they don't need any of the other features of the VPN portion (like direct access to the servers or files, etc)

[Dashrender]

@JaredBusch said:

@Hubtech said:

so quicker easier would be just VPN and RDS.
Pertino and RDS in my opinion. I really do not think VPN is ever easier.

Maybe not, but Pertino has a monthly reoccurring cost. If you already have VPN in place it costs nothing to use.

[A Former User]

yeah. i'm using asa's at all of my clients right now. though i'm thinking about switching to another solution.

[scottalanmiller]

@Dashrender said:

@Hubtech said:

so quicker easier would be just VPN and RDS.

This is exactly what I do today.
But considering i have a LMI Central account I am going to setup my few (5 or 6) users with LMI accounts under my Central account and give them access to their desktops. This will be much simpler than the VPN solution, since they don't need any of the other features of the VPN portion (like direct access to the servers or files, etc)

LMI plus desktops is a great VDI alternative. We've done this for years.

[scottalanmiller]

@Hubtech said:

so quicker easier would be just VPN and RDS.

LMI is easiest.

Then RDS

Then Pertino and desktops

Then Pertino and RDS

Then traditional VPN and desktops

Then traditional VPN and RDS

[Dashrender]

@scottalanmiller said:

@Hubtech said:

so quicker easier would be just VPN and RDS.

LMI is easiest.

Then RDS

Then Pertino and desktops

Then Pertino and RDS

Then traditional VPN and desktops

Then traditional VPN and RDS

What, what? RDS - alone? do you publish the 3389 directly (probably using some form of PAT in reality?)? this is safe?

[scottalanmiller]

@Dashrender said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@Hubtech said:

so quicker easier would be just VPN and RDS.

LMI is easiest.

Then RDS

Then Pertino and desktops

Then Pertino and RDS

Then traditional VPN and desktops

Then traditional VPN and RDS

What, what? RDS - alone? do you publish the 3389 directly (probably using some form of PAT in reality?)? this is safe?

RDS is published alone sometimes. Not the end of the world. Obfuscating ports has no value. That's security through obscurity which is negative security.

But RDS has a web gateway built in that secures via HTTPS

[Dashrender]

@scottalanmiller said:

RDS is published alone sometimes. Not the end of the world. Obfuscating ports has no value. That's security through obscurity which is negative security.

But RDS has a web gateway built in that secures via HTTPS

Obfuscation wasn't for security it was so you could reduce the number or IPs needed to publish multiple machines from behind the firewall.

As for the RDS web gateway - is that a free addin on Windows server? I recall SBS having something like this (you could log into the SBS web portal, and then RDS to your internal PCs) but I never implemented it, so I have no idea how it works.

[scottalanmiller]

@Dashrender said:

@scottalanmiller said:

RDS is published alone sometimes. Not the end of the world. Obfuscating ports has no value. That's security through obscurity which is negative security.

But RDS has a web gateway built in that secures via HTTPS

Obfuscation wasn't for security it was so you could reduce the number or IPs needed to publish multiple machines from behind the firewall.

As for the RDS web gateway - is that a free addin on Windows server? I recall SBS having something like this (you could log into the SBS web portal, and then RDS to your internal PCs) but I never implemented it, so I have no idea how it works.

Oh, I see. RDS only needs one port.

Yes the web gateway is just included with RDS.