Case study on Scalar's VDI implementation at McMaster University, which resulted in a 67% reduction in login times for students in the labs.

1. Strong Project
Management Helps
McMaster University
Successfully Deliver VDI
CASE STUDY
McMaster University
Industry: Education
Stats: 22,367 full-time undergraduates
3,408 full-time graduates
Location: Hamilton, Canada
Website: mcmaster.ca

2. Objectives
• Refresh dated
hardware and software
in the university’s 7
student labs
• Reduce support costs
with a virtualized
desktop environment
• Completion of the
VDI installation in a 3
month timeframe
Background
For the professors and students that rely on the computing labs at McMaster
University, life just got a bit easier. After summer break, returning faculty
and students received a pleasant surprise when they logged into the newly
refreshed lab environment. They were greeted with cutting-edge technology,
and a vastly improved user experience.
In the months prior, the IT team was hard at work putting together the plan
that would transform the student labs. McMaster University was looking
to convert their labs from a physically constrained desktop system to a
virtualized environment where the data is centralized on a server and no
longer tied to a physical asset. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) has been
steadily gaining momentum with education institutions and was part of the
McMaster University Technology Services (UTS) department’s overall plan to
reduce support costs and achieve economies of scale.
“With both the hardware and software coming up to end of life, we were
looking to invest in a technology for the future, which would give us flexibility
to grow as demands change,” said John Kearney, CIO, McMaster University.
Challenge: Aggressive Timelines
The biggest challenge by far was the aggressive timelines the project team
faced. The VDI implementation project formally kicked off in May 2014 with
an inflexible completion date by the end of August when labs needed to be
ready for the new school year. “We were under very tight timelines - during
the academic year, the labs are in constant use so we had a finite time during
the summer months to get all the old gear out and bring in the new solution,”
said Kearney. “Not only were we installing VDI, we were also upgrading from
Microsoft Windows XP to Windows 7 and from Office 2003 to Office 2010. On
top of this, we were upgrading 96 different application suites for the labs,”
said Brandon Cleland, Systems Integration Specialist, McMaster University.
Non-Technical Stakeholder Participation
A great deal of planning went into ensuring the project was a success.
A steering committee that encompassed stakeholder participation from
across the McMaster community was put in place. While this was clearly
an IT-led project, Kearney and his team worked diligently to recruit input
from all groups affected by the new technology, including representation
from the Registrar’s Office (the group responsible for booking the labs on
S c a l a r D e c i s i o n s I n c .
CASE STUDY: MCMASTER UNIVERSITY

3. Solution
• VDI Assessment:
Liquidware Labs
Stratusphere Fit
• Profile Management:
Liquidware Labs Profile
Unity
• Zero Client: Dell Wyse
• Software Platform:
VMware Horizon View
• Storage Platform:
Nimble Storage
• Servers: Cisco Systems
Unified Computing
System (UCS) Servers
• Agentless AntiVirus:
Trend Micro
• Management Console:
Unidesk
behalf of the faculty), members from faculty that use the labs in their
teaching, as well as participation from the McMaster Students Union. Each
person on the steering committee represented a faculty or department and
was responsible for taking the information back to their own groups and
collecting feedback, creating a trickle down effect. “One contributor to
success was that we had non-technical stakeholders included from start to
end,” said Kearney. “Our users defined their requirements and Scalar worked
with us to architect the best technology solution.”
Vendor and Client Project Management Team Alignment
After Scalar was awarded the VDI project, the Scalar project manager drafted
an implementation schedule and worked with the McMaster project managers
to ensure the plan aligned with the university’s tasks. “The coordination
between the two sides was critical - it was important to not only build out the
plan from Scalar’s perspective, but to gain an understanding of McMaster’s
commitments to their community of stakeholders,” said Gary Luk, IT Project
Manager, Scalar Decisions. “McMaster had a communications plan and
additional steps as part of their operationalization process – all of this was
integrated into a master schedule.”
Weekly meetings, a shared online collaboration tool, as well as a dedicated
physical workspace where the technical implementation team could work
together were all contributors to success. The workspace – a student lab that
wasn’t in use - provided a direct connection into the lab environment and
a place where they could conduct
testing and share work in progress.
“Everyone knew we were working on
incredibly tight timelines and there
wasn’t any extra time for unforeseen
issues. Scalar’s response to any
problems was quick and effective.
If we had any issues, they worked
hard to get us through them,” said
Laura McBride, Project Coordinator,
McMaster University.
VDI Implementation Scores Points with Students and Technical Staff
Ease of management has been touted as the prime benefit for the technical
staff responsible for the labs. “With the new solution, we have one
CASE STUDY: MCMASTER UNIVERSITY
S c a l a r D e c i s i o n s I n c .
“Scalar’s response to
any problems was quick
and effective. If we
had any issues, they
worked hard to get us
through them.”

4. Results
• Improved ease of
management
• Login time reduced
from 4 ½ - 5 minutes
down to 1 ½ minutes
• Improved student and
faculty user experience
management console where we
can package application layers
and OS updates and push them
out,” said Cleland. The new virtual
desktop system also provides a test
environment where everything can
be physically tested before being
pushed to production. “Our labs
are open from 8:30 am to 11:30
pm which made it difficult to push
out updates in the old world. If
we wanted to reimage or reinstall,
we had to wait until after hours
to access the desktops.” Desktop
provisioning, application layering and
image management now takes place
at the server level, vastly improving
daily operations.
The benefits don’t stop at the technical staff. Students and faculty have
reported positive feedback, recounting a much quicker response time. “Our
users report that performance is amazing - with 96 different application suites
in the labs, the login time in the old environment took 4 ½ to 5 minutes. It
is now cut down to about 1 ½ minutes,” said Cleland. Old computers have
been replaced with larger 22-inch monitors with Windows 7 and Office 2010,
meaning the university’s software applications can now run current Windows 7
compatible versions.
Future Phases
McMaster considered the student computer labs a pilot project for VDI. The 300
seats in total served as a testing ground for the viability of virtualized desktops
across the university campus. “The response has been so positive that we now
anticipate rolling out VDI into the administrative areas of the university,” said
Kearney. “This has huge potential for economies of scale and reduced labour
costs. We see this as a major stepping stone to being able to support our BYOD
(bring your own device) strategy down the road.”
For more information, please visit http://www.scalar.ca
For the latest news, visit our blog at http://blog.scalar.ca
CASE STUDY: MCMASTER UNIVERSITY
S c a l a r D e c i s i o n s I n c .
“Our users report that
performance is amazing
- with 96 different
application suites in
the labs, the login time
in the old environment
took 4 ½ to 5 minutes.
It is now cut down to
about 1 ½ minutes.”