Virtualizing the desktop PC

In keeping with the wide-ranging intent of this blog, let me introduce what I believe to be a major trend already prevalent in business that will eventually make its way to the library world. That trend is virtualization.

When we think of virtualization, it is usually in the context of the data center. If you talk to your IT staff, they will tell you that in many cases, servers bought and installed, especially if they are for one purpose, are almost always woefully underutilized. Creating many virtual servers that run on one physical server can help maximize the use of this expensive resource.

But what I want to address is not the server virtualization, but what to the library world is generally more important and that is the maintenance and stability of the public PC. Libraries spend much time trying to lock down a PC so the public user cannot inadvertently or even maliciously change the system. Products like Fortress or Clean Slate from Fortres Grand or Deep Freeze from Faronics essentially work to protect the PC from user changes.

The drawback of these types of products is that certain changes have to be allowed so exceptions must be made. For example, anti-virus updates must take place, patches and security fixes must be installed and upgrades to existing software should be done on a somewhat regular basis. So, all these exceptions have to be accounted for which can take some time and effort and the exceptions can create "holes" in the security of the PC we are protecting.

So in comes virtulaization. By using VmWare workstation coupled with the free VmPlayer, we are creating virtual PCs that run on a "host" PC. Each of these virtual PCs (and we have several types) run all of our software and our PC control software - in our case we use CybraryN. The user (patron) sees a PC that looks and acts just like a regular PC. The advantage to us is that because we are using a virtual PC, that virtual PC can never be permanently changed. So if a user does make a change of some sort such as installing software or introducing a virus, the fix for staff is simply shut down the virtual PC and restart it. Everything is then reset to the original state.

There is some expertise required in setting up the virtual PCs, but any competent IT department can gain the skill set necessary. And IT departments should be looking at virtualization technology anyway if for no other reason than in their data center as I described above.