The Desktop Transformation Assessment (DTA)

1. Define Business priorities

at the start of the project, preferably during the kickoff meeting, take time to establish and prioritize
the key drivers behind the desktop transformation. You should have everything you need to answer
that all-important question – “What needs to be achieved for this project to be a success?”. top five
business drivers:

a. Flexibility. Many businesses are looking for a flexible desktop solution that is capable of
accommodating periods of change such as rapid growth, outsourcing, takeovers and downsizing.
A modular High-Level design is the best way to achieve this requirement.
b. Management. A lot of businesses are seeking ways to simplify the management of their desktop
infrastructure as they realize that they can’t just keep hiring more resources. These businesses
may not be as proactive as they would like and are probably spending too much time ‘fighting
fires’. Therefore, Provisioning Services and/or Machine Creation Services should be built into
the High-Level Design to help simplify management.
c. Remote Access. The business may need to support home workers and/or travelling employees.
They may also be concerned with the impact from transport disruption and natural disasters. To
address these requirements, Citrix Access Gateway can be incorporated into the High-Level
Design to accommodate a fully redundant remote access solution that integrates seamlessly
with both XenApp and XenDesktop.
d. Security. More and more businesses are concerned about data theft and are looking for ways to
protect information. In such situations, Citrix policies can be used to disable client drive and
clipboard mappings. In addition, Citrix Access Gateway can help to restrict access to corporate
data based on the results from an endpoint scan (SmartAccess).
e. Performance. Poor performance is a frequent driver behind desktop virtualization, especially
when users access corporate resources over low-bandwidth and/or high-latency links. Locating
the virtual desktops in close proximity to the application servers and corporate data typically
helps to improve application performance.

2. Application Assessment
perform an application assessment that reviews the entire application estate and determines the
most appropriate delivery mechanism(s) for each application – installed, streamed, hosted or VM
hosted. For large-scale projects this may seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, Citrix Ready has
created a DTM site that lists a variety of third-party products that can help to simplify and accelerate
this activity.
a. Compatibility Requirements. Desktop transformation typically involves a change of operating
system (e.g. Windows XP x86 to Windows 7 x64) and/or application delivery model (e.g.
installed to streamed). Therefore, the compatibility of each application should be assessed so
that an appropriate desktop and application delivery model can be selected. Third-party tools
can be leveraged to quickly assess application compatibility against different operating systems,
architectures (i.e. x86 and x64) and application delivery models.
b. Infrastructure Requirements.Infrastructure requirements must be established for each
application so that an appropriate delivery model can be selected and sufficient resources
allocated. To gather this information, a third-party monitoring tool is typically installed across a
 representative sub-section of the business. Try to spend as much time collecting data as
possible as this will help to improve accuracy. Also, try and monitor the infrastructure during
periods of peak activity, such as quarter-end or busy sales periods. At a minimum, ensure that
the following application characteristics are identified:
 Performance. What are the performance characteristics of the application, for example
processor, memory, graphics, network, disk space and disk I/O? For each characteristic,
determine the average and maximum values.
 Dependencies. How do the applications interact with one another? If any of the
applications require a close level of interaction, beyond file association, it may become
necessary to co-locate them within the same image or application streaming profile. Do the
applications require any peripheral devices? If so, check that the peripherals are compatible
with the selected delivery model.
 Architecture. How do the different components of the application fit together? Locating
desktops in close proximity to the backend application servers will typically help to improve
performance.
c. Business Requirements.Business requirements are normally captured through interviews or
questionnaires and should include the following topics:
 Redundancy. The importance of the application to the business will dictate the level or
redundancy required, including additional desktop infrastructure and DR capability.
 Offline Access. Establish whether the application will be required offline by travelling
employees or as a fallback option in case of DR.
 Update Frequency. The frequency of updates may impact the application delivery model
selected. For example, application streaming can be used to reduce the number of master
images that need to be updated.
 Future Changes. Identify any planned changes to the application estate so they can be
factored in to the desktop transformation project. This may include new applications,
application consolidation and application upgrades.

The application assessment will generate a considerable amount of data. The easiest way to analyze
this information is to use a spreadsheet so that different requirements can be easily compared and
grouped together using a table with the following columns:

Application, Version, Users/Job Role, Architecture, Processor (Average & Maximum), Memory
(Average & Maximum), Graphics (Average & Maximum), Disk Space (Average & Maximum), Disk I/O
(Average & Maximum), Dependencies, Compatibility, Update Frequency, Redundancy, Offline,
Potential Application Delivery Model

3. User Segmentation
4. Capabilities Assessment
5. High-Level Design
The HLD outlines the architecture required to support the various desktop and application delivery
models identified during the Application Assessment and User Segmentation. In addition, the HLD
should also address the key business priorities captured at the start of the DTA – including
requirements for high availability, remote access and business continuity. Based on the findings
from the Capabilities Assessment, a number of existing infrastructure components may be leveraged
for the delivery of desktops and/or applications. Therefore, the HLD should make it clear which
components are new and which are already in place.
Despite the clue being in the name, it’s all too easy to forget that the HLD is ‘high-level’ and spend
too much time wrapped up in the detail – the time for this will come during the Detailed Design.
The HLD should provide a brief overview of the proposed solution as well as a rough estimate on the
infrastructure required. Start the HLD by creating a high-level architectural diagram that explains
how the new desktop and application delivery models will integrate with the existing environment.
divide the diagram up into five different modules – Remote Access, Network Services, Control,
Desktop and Imaging as per the XenDesktop Reference Architecture, for example the following
diagram shows the key components required to support an XD5 Pooled Desktop solution (existing
infrastructure is shaded blue and redundant new infrastructure is shaded green):

Next, provide a brief architectural overview that summarizes each module and explains the function
of each key component. In addition, provide an estimate on the hardware, storage and network
infrastructure required per module, for example the following extract provides an overview of the
Control Module shown in the diagram above:
Provide an estimate on the total hardware infrastructure required across all modules, for example:

Finally, wrap things up by documenting any design concerns that you might have, for example,
insufficient bandwidth, lack of rack space within the data center, etc.
6. Desktop Transformation Roadmap
7. High-Level project plan