ThinkVirt

I've been doing a lot of various virtual desktop testing lately, from thin clients to various solutions from major/minor vendors to testing Desktop-as-a-Service with a few cloud providers.

My latest test put VMware View against Citrix XenDesktop with HDX in a comparison of Adobe Flash performance only.

It's very important to emphasis this fact as pageviews for that post have set a new record (which I'm happy to announce). For those looking to build out a robust virtual desktop infrastructure, there's a lot more to consider than just Flash performance (as noted in this report).

Nevertheless, it's still one of the more sexy features to analyze when doing VDI testing.

Now that Flash is well sorted in the virtual desktop instance, what about for those solutions requiring a thin terminal?

I've used everything from Wyse, to Pano Logic to Chip PC to home-built thin terminals. One of my new favorites that I happen to have on hand were ClearCube 8422 and a ClearCube 8510.

Testing involved the following steps:

• Disable the Enhanced Write Filter (EWF) to allow changes to the Windows XPe installation.
• Install Adobe Flash (latest version).
• Uninstall the existing Citrix ICA client.
• Reboot.
• Install the latest Citrix Desktop Receiver.
• Instal the Citrix HDX Tech Preview (limited to one instance/tab of IE boost, at the moment).
• Re-enable the Enhanced Write Filter.

Clear Cube 8422

• Powered by the Via C7 1GHz

While the Citrix bits installed just fine on the Clear Cube device, running a random video on Youtube pegged the lone processor to 100%. The result was a choppy video that was unacceptable. It's important to note that this solution is not sold as a powerhouse and certainly has its place in VDI deployments. However, I had it on hand so I thought I would test it.

Clear Cube 8510/MSI Wind

• Powered by the Intel Atom 230 processor (1.6Ghz)
• Less than 40W at full throttle

Fortunately, I had another ClearCube device sitting nearby, this one with more horsepower. After installing the Citrix bits I then tested out Youtube.

WOW. The same WOW I let out the other day when I saw HDX for the first time. The two proc instances read at around 45% utilization each. The Intel Atom (same proc that's in my Dell Mini 9) does a superb job handling the load from processing Flash video.

It's also very important to note that Flash (with almost any true VDI solution on the market today) runs best when you allow it to cache a bit. I watched a Terminator trailer today, and the first time through it was great. However, I then watched a 20 minute video and it started pretty poor. However, once a cache built up there was no difference between native and a VDI instance.

A few other notes on the ClearCube 8510 is that XPe is installed on CompactFlash. There are also provisions for SATA/IDE and SD media (I tested the SD and it worked great). However, the CF performance was a bit painful at times when waiting for very long videos on Hulu.com to load. Other than that, no troubles and the unit is nice and silent; no annoying fan noise.

Next up - bi-directional audio testing!

Conclusion

Once again (and I'll continue to do this over and over), I am not analyzing an overall VDI solution for the enterprise, I am specificaly analyzing Adobe Flash performance.

I think it's also important to note that Citrix really needs to be 5 steps ahead of VMware View if they have any hope of maintaining viability in the VDI space. VMware is the de facto standard for the data center and most customers have built trust in the ESX/VI3 (and now available for download, vSphere4) solution. It's a natural assumption that these customers will once again call upon VMware to deliver a fully reliable solution for the desktop space. Without a significant feature delta (which really doesn't exist today except for this Flash component and the necessity of VMware View to use RDP for most applications) I'm not sure where the Citrix solution fits for most organizations.

Nevertheless, here's a video I put up on Youtube of the ClearCube+Citrix HDX solution mentioned above. Ignore the video and audio quality because it was taken with my Blackberry Curve, which may be the worst audio/video recording device of the 21st century.

This is the Ferrari|Royal Dutch Shell commerical (I believe the most expensive ever, filmed on 5 contintents simultaneously). If you don't follow Formula 1, you should. The 2009 Monaco Grand Prix is this weekend. Go Jenson.