Who is V3?
Founded in 2010, V3 Systems is the first company to deliver true replacement grade virtual desktops. Desktop Cloud Computing (DCC) is a new concept in the desktop virtualization world. In the past, traditional virtual desktop implementations were plagued by poor performance and complex solutions, and failed to deliver on the promises of virtualization. Today, V3’s DCC solution delivers on the promises of virtualization with a new class of high-performance virtual desktops that perform as fast as or faster than physical desktops, allowing V3 to offer true replacement grade virtualization.
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What is desktop replacement grade VDI?
Desktop replacement virtualization or DRV is a new class of virtual desktops that perform as fast as or faster than contemporary desktops today. DRV leverages highly optimized object-based disks in the form of solid-state storage local in the appliance. This design allows V3 to dramatically reduce the unnecessary latency that accompanies many VDI approaches of the day. Keeping the OS and Temp disks on local storage allows the most active data to be as close to the computing resources as possible, providing unmatched performance. In addition to reducing storage latency by using local storage, reducing network latency is also a key objective in providing DRV.
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What is a V3 Appliance?
The V3 Appliance is a 1U server appliance that is purpose-built to provide desktop replacement virtualized desktops. The V3 solution can serve 50-400 virtual desktops on a single appliance. This approach dramatically reduces the footprint in physical hardware and networking that often accompanies VDI implementations. Deployment is simple and requires only that you install the V3 Appliance in a rack, plug it in, and configure networking. After you provision the Virtual Machines (VMs), you are on your way to experiencing the fastest virtual desktops in the industry.
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What does a V3 Appliance provide?
The V3 Appliance provides the hypervisor platform for running virtual desktops using either VMware View™ or Citrix® XenDesktop, as well as other VDI managers. It provides all the local storage needed to run the virtual desktops, allowing you to use your Storage Area Network (SAN) or Network-Attached Storage (NAS) to maintain user persistence.
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What exactly is a hypervisor?
A hypervisor is an abstraction layer that sits between the hardware and the operating system of a virtual desktop. It enables virtualization by allowing the separation of the operating system from the physical hardware.
The hypervisor software allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer concurrently. It is the hypervisor software that coordinates the low-level interaction between virtual desktops and the underlying physical computer hardware.
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How does the V3 Appliance provide cost savings?
As a result of the dramatic performance achieved, and the high density of VMs per appliance, the V3 solution allows organizations to repurpose many of their investments to other parts of the organization. The V3 Appliance also dramatically increases IT management efficiencies and control, as well as dramatically reduces the costs associated with cooling and power consumption.
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How does the V3 solution differ from other VDI solutions?
Many of the current VDI infrastructures rely heavily on shared storage and complex networking to provide their virtual desktops. V3 reduces as much latency as possible utilizing the highly optimized solid-state storage local to the hypervisor host to provide the fastest virtual desktops in the industry. This approach has also dramatically simplified deployments as well as the infrastructure needed to serve virtual desktops. V3 Systems has also created game-changing technology called the V3 Optimization Technologies™ that manage and optimize the solid-state storage. These technologies allow for monitoring and optimal local storage management, and in the future will provide automated high availability.
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What does a typical V3 solution look like?
A typical V3 deployment involves the following components, as illustrated in the diagram below. V3’s solution will leverage and integrate with any of these components that already exist within the customer’s infrastructure.
Typical V3 Deployment
V3 Deployment Components
Connection Server - Manages the distributed platform for running virtual user desktops using VMware View™ or Citrix® XenDesktop. Enables centralized and efficient management of the distributed enterprise virtual desktop platform.
Server Network - Manages the networking communications for the V3 Appliances, which host the hypervisor platform.
Microsoft Active Directory - Provides directory services for provisioning and authenticating users and systems.
V3 Appliance – Hosts the hypervisor platform for running virtual desktops using VMware ESX and other hypervisors. The V3 Appliance uses highly optimized local solid-state storage to run the virtual desktops and store the OS and Temp disks, and can be optionally configured to store user data as well. Typically, two V3 Appliances are deployed in a failover configuration to ensure high availability. The V3 Appliance scales horizontally to meet a client’s current and future needs.
Storage Network - Provides the communications between hosts and storage devices.
Storage Array - Provides disk storage to maintain user data and session information. Depending upon the client’s infrastructure, the storage array may be implemented using a customer’s existing Storage Area Network (SAN) or Network Attached Storage (NAS).
vCenter Server - Hosts the software suite from VMware for vSphere and View™ Composer.
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How does the V3 Appliance work in a VMware environment?
In a VMware environment, the V3 Appliance functions as the VMware ESX hypervisor host, which can serve from 50-400 virtual desktops on a single appliance.
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Do you support VMware only?
Today, V3 supports multiple hypervisor platforms including VMware ESX, to effectively support 85-90% of all virtual desktops implementations on the market. In addition, V3 is compatible with many of the other third-party tools that manage, deploy, and provision virtual desktops to a VMware ESX environment. Your V3 sales representative will be glad to provide you with additional detailed information on V3-supported products.
