VXI/VDI for System Engineers (VXSE)

This 2-day course is designed for:

• Systems Engineers
• Consulting Systems Engineers
• Technical Solutions Architects
• Cisco integrators/partners

A background in selling network and server products and technologies is strongly recommended.

After attending this course, students will be able to:

• Design a Cisco VXI Solution
• Respond to objections and deal with FUD from competitors
• Explain the requirements for Data Center Consolidation and Virtualization
• Clarify to a customer the market and workplace drivers for Desktop Virtualization
• Contrast the architecture and components of Desktop Virtualization
• Explain the benefits of VDI / VXI
• Identify the technical challenges associated with Virtual Desktops
• Describe the components of VDI / VXI
• Compare key features of VMware View
• Describe and describe the key features of Citrix XenDesktop
• Explain the key features of Microsoft Enterprise Desktop (MED-V)
• Identify opportunities for Cisco VXI solutions

In this advanced course you will learn about the general concepts of Desktop Virtualization as well as comprehensive details of Cisco’s Virtualization eXperience Infrastructure (VXI).

• Cisco Data Center Overview
  • Data Center Limitations
  • Cisco Data Center Architecture
  • Cisco Data Center Business Advantage
• Cisco Data Center Components
  • Cisco Nexus and MDS overview
  • Unified Fabric and multi-hop FCoE
• Transformation of the Desktop
  • What do users demand today?
  • Computing Architecture Choices
• Desktop Virtualization?
• Desktop Virtualization Challenges
  • Performance limitations in a generic VDI design
  • Security vulnerabilities in a generic VDI design
  • Techniques for enhancing the user experience
• The Latency Challenge
  • Application Control Engine Deployment
  • Cisco Wide-Area Application Services (WAAS) Security and Optimization
  • Extending the Data Center with Cisco OTV
• Desktop Virtualization Components
  • VMware View 4.5
  • Citrix XenDesktop 4.0
  • MS Enterprise Desktop (MED-V) Interface
• Desktop Virtualization Endpoints
  • Thin Clients, Thick Clients
  • Cisco VXI Clients
• Cisco‘s VXI Vision
• Cisco VXI end-to-end System
• Network Requirements for Cisco VXI
• Cisco Unified Computing System
  • Cisco UCS Service Profiles for fast provisioning of Virtual Desktops
  • UCS Blade Configuration for VXI
• Storage Requirements for Cisco VXI
  • Network Attached Storage
• NetApp FlexPod as a foundation for Cisco VXI
  • High Availability and Business Continuity
• Cisco VXI Management Tools
• Cisco Validated Designs

COURSE EXERCISES

• Cisco VXI Opportunity Identification
  • In this role-playing exercise you will learn to handle objections to deploying VXI. Also, a significant amount of time will be spent on the analysis of Use Cases.

• Designing a Cisco VXI Solution – group exercise
  • In this group exercise, you will follow a standard process for designing a Cisco VXI solution based on the data provided in class. You will cover the following topics:
    • Customer requirements
    • Existing architecture
    • Performance criteria
    • Network & Storage connectivity
    • Management requirements
    • Security and Availability