VDI: A Panacea for the Pharmaceutical Industry

By Michael Palin
published: Tuesday, July 06 2010

The pharmaceutical industry faces many unique challenges in its quest to secure FDA approvals and bring effective new drugs to market. Supporting these endeavors is technology that must meet equally demanding conditions, all while delivering reliable performance and cost and operational benefits that satisfy end users, IT and c-level decision-makers alike.

The success of virtualization has piqued the interest of drug manufacturing and research organizations. However, concerns over adopting a new technology approach are only natural, particularly when there’s the potential to impact pharmaceuticals that can sometimes take decades to develop. When it comes to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) for this industry, the hurdles can be substantial, ranging from access issues for a distributed international workforce to protecting intellectual property to handling contamination concerns in sterile lab environments.

The following two case studies examine hosted VDI deployments at international companies involved in pharmaceutical development and research. Each organization put VDI “under the microscope,” thoroughly examining all facets of this emerging technology.

Positive Lab Results

A major international pharmaceutical company with operations in more than 140 countries undertook a VDI project aimed at providing its scientists with the applications and functionality of their office computers in a laboratory environment.

The IT group spearheading the deployment needed a solution capable of meeting very specific requirements. Scientists had to have computing devices on the lab benches that would enable “anywhere” access to their desktops. Also necessary was access to, and full functionality with, the company’s drug discovery and R&D applications and data.

The VDI solution needed to perform under a unique set of circumstances, including at lab benches where portable laptops could introduce contamination. In many locations, there was limited space for full-sized PCs, and in some laboratories, IT support could not gain physical access to PCs.

The scope of the initial proof of concept (POC) for this lab-based infrastructure included delivering virtual desktops to 150 scientists in one physical location. The company required that the design of the VDI be such that it would be extensible to all other biomedical research sites, including locations in North America, Europe and Asia, with the potential to grow to serve a total of 9,000 researchers and associated staff.

Log-in and access to hosted desktops needed to be seamless, so single-sign-on was mandatory. Peripherals – such as bar-code scanners, webcams, and other USB devices – also had to work with the system. Additionally, the VDI had to be able to provision hard-assigned and pooled workstations, desktops and applications. Different users also needed to share lab workbench computing devices while keeping sessions separate.

Granular control of machine state was mandatory. For example, some users, when disconnecting from their hosted desktop, needed sessions and applications to continue running, while others required log off and shut down. The system had to offer multiple resources to certain users: for those with one assigned machine, connection to their hosted desktop needed to be automatic with sign-on. It was also a priority to accommodate “power users” with features that included multi-monitor displays and local printer mapping.

The VDI had to support Windows and Linux thin clients, as well as Windows, Linux, Macintosh desktop operating systems, and Terminal Services. This necessitated an independent user access management system, capable of integrating multiple virtual and physical platforms, and viewer protocols: specifically RDP and HP RGS. The system would import users from Active Directory and multi-factor authentication via smart cards was essential. Granular access control was also required for delegated administration and administrative activities, separated by location. Finally, a streamlined, single management console was needed to oversee all operations.

Crucial to success of the VDI was a vendor-neutral connection broker – the virtual desktop management layer that controls end-user access to hosted resources. This connection broker enabled effective management and the maximum use of existing resources in this diverse, yet strictly controlled technology environment.

The results of the VDI “lab test” were extremely positive. End users expressed satisfaction with the pilot system and all performance objectives were met. Increased operational efficiency and the promise of strong financial rewards were clear. As a result, the company is now pursuing plans to roll out the VDI, creating a platform that potentially will serve 9,000 users.