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CHAPTER 2 Discovering Virtual Desktop Infrastructure 31 These materials are © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Using specialized hardware in virtual environments used to be difficult, but thanks to services such as single-root I/O virtualiza- tion (SR-IOV), virtual machines can directly access the raw power of GPUs and other hardware installed in servers. Whether or not you need GPUs in your VDI cluster depends on what you're running and the user experience you want to deliver. The common protocols described in this book can leverage GPUs to increase performance and quality. GPUs also add complexity. Given the already complex nature of VDI, make sure you want to assume the added burden. On the hardware front, if you choose to go the hyperconverged route with something like Nutanix, the hardware will arrive ready to go. Enabling Ubiquitous Computing As your users demand access to more and more devices, VDI helps you answer the call and implement what amounts to a device- agnostic environment — anything works from anywhere, at any time of day. You can place limits on what people are allowed to do, but your users are provided with a robust and secure method by which to access the applications that they rely on to get their work done. Understanding the Pitfalls of VDI VDI is not for everyone. Perhaps the most important shortcoming is one of skills and dedication. If you don't have someone on your team with the right skills who can dedicate time to make a VDI deployment work, you're better off without one. That's the big takeaway, but you should also understand some other potential pitfalls: » Not setting the right success metrics: A VDI project will fail if you don't put in place achievable metrics for success. Perhaps the most common metric that likely won't material- ize is a significant cost savings. » Huge capital outlay: A VDI environment may require a substantial outlay to get underway.