Up until now, this chapter has been about introducing us to a variety of different concepts that form the basis of architecting our View infrastructure. If we learn anything from this chapter, it is that our goal is to obtain the resources we need to provide an acceptable end user computing experience.

Classifying our end users and measuring their resource requirements is a valuable exercise that will help us understand what will be required to transition our end user computing resources from the desktop to the datacenter. That being said, no amount of planning can possibly replace a properly run pilot that validates not only the configuration of our master Virtual Desktop image, but also the performance of the View infrastructure and the quality of the experience from an end user perspective.

Our View pilot should involve the same types of users as our user analysis did, but not necessarily the same users within each group. The following list includes a number of goals that our View pilot should attempt to achieve:

Performance deficiencies at any layer of the View infrastructure can lead to a poor end user experience, usually in the form of longer than anticipated application response times. This is why it is critical to involve a large cross-section of our users in the pilot process, and to seek their opinion throughout the program.

The performance data that we collect during the pilot program can be used to measure the average of the actual resource utilization, which can then be compared to the estimated average resource utilization from the initial physical desktop analysis. Ideally, the numbers would be rather close to one another, but if they are not we will want to work to identify the cause. Now that we can measure performance at all layers of the View infrastructure, it should be easy to determine where the higher than expected utilization originates from. Some potential issues to look for include:

In summary, the View pilot is your best time to learn about how View will perform within your environment, both from a performance perspective and in terms of user acceptance. Use the pilot program to identity any potential barriers to a successful rollout, and make any changes that are needed in order to minimize the risk of failure as the project moves forward.