While VDI can bring substantial IT and business benefits, it is also becoming more complex. Whether implementing the initial deployment, making a significant change, or managing the day-to-day, it is important to be proactive. This includes measuring app performance on VDI.
You need to measure other aspects of your VDI, too, including operating systems and hardware. In this blog, we are going to focus specifically on the importance of measuring app performance.
All About User Experience
There are two main things you are analysing when it comes to app performance – technical data and user experience. The technical data is straightforward as it is largely objective. User experience, on the other hand, can be harder to pin down, as it is often subjective. Furthermore, it’s not unusual for user experience reports to be misaligned with the technical data. This makes in-depth app performance measuring even more important.
There are many types of problems that users can report with apps and the performance of their virtual desktop, but it often comes down to how responsive the system is to what the user is doing. Examples include app load time and app response time.
It’s also important to structure your VDI performance analysis on solutions, as it is no good to know an app is performing badly under certain conditions if you can’t then pinpoint the exact cause. It could be a resource allocation or hardware problem, for example, or an OS configuration issue. Identifying the cause and then resolving the problem is essential.
Examples of Why VDI App Performance Measuring Matters
App Dependencies
There are likely to be many apps in your IT estate that are not standalone entities. Instead, they are dependent on other backend applications such as Oracle or Sybase databases. So, users might experience problems with the frontend features of the app but the app itself might not be the cause of the problem. Instead, the backend application it is integrated with could be causing the issue, or it could be the way it has been integrated.
Graphical Processing Requirements
There are some apps that require high-spec graphics cards to function properly, while other apps don’t have this requirement. This can create technical and user experience problems, not least in terms of mismatched specifications. In other words, there might be virtual desktops with high-specification GPUs that are unnecessary, and vice versa. Effective performance monitoring of apps can identify situations like these to ensure better planning of the virtual infrastructure.
VDI Design and Implementation
Understanding app performance is a crucial part of the VDI deployment process as it ensures you have a detailed understanding of the resources that each app, virtual desktop, and user needs. Designing and implementing the VDI is easier and more effective when you have this information early in the process.
Comparing Configurations and Setups
App load time is one of the key metrics when measuring app performance. One of the ways you can use this information is to understand how load times differ depending on the configuration and setup of the virtual desktop. For example, what impact does the operating system or hardware combination have on application load times?
The Main Reasons for App Performance Monitoring and Measuring
There are three main reasons to include VDI app performance monitoring and measuring as part of your IT operations:
VDI Troubleshooting
Performance monitoring can streamline the troubleshooting process up to and including predicting problems before they occur, so they can be prevented without users ever experiencing them.
Benchmark Testing
Having a good understanding of how virtual desktops operate under normal conditions makes it easier to identify deviations from the norm.
Performance Optimisation
An organisation’s VDI is not a static entity. In fact, it can change hour by hour and day by day, with everything from new apps to app updates to security patches to hardware deterioration over time having the potential to impact performance. Ongoing performance monitoring allows for ongoing performance optimisation.
Using the Right Performance Monitoring Tool
The technologies that underpin the VDI in your organisation will offer some performance monitoring tools. For example, both Microsoft and VMware have performance monitoring features as part of their virtualisation offerings. These features are limited, however, and they don’t allow you to go deep enough or simulate real-world scenarios.
Specialist performance monitoring software, such as Access Symphony Agent, will give you the capabilities you need to optimise performance, productivity, and the end-user experience. Specialist features like Symphony Agent also automate large parts of the app performance monitoring process, allowing you to concentrate on resolving any issues that exist while also planning for the future.
