Introduction

There are numerous considerations and multiple approaches when selecting an infrastructure design for VDI in FSI applications. And given the wide range of user types in financial organizations, one must consider whether the same infrastructure will support all users, or whether different clusters of infrastructure will be selected and optimized for each of the personas. Some of these considerations are discussed in the sections that follow.

FSI user personas

The FSI segment typically has a set of highly specialized user profiles when it comes to the implementation of VDI. This solution has been designed to support several of these personas, including:

• Front Office/Branch Worker—Front office or branch workers perform repetitive tasks within a small set of applications, usually at a stationary computer. They often are customer facing, such as bank tellers or customer service representatives. The applications they use, such as bank teller applications, are usually not as CPU and memory intensive as the applications used by Knowledge Workers.
• Knowledge Worker—Knowledge workers' daily tasks include accessing the internet, using email, and creating complex documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. Knowledge workers include accountants, sales managers, marketing research analysts, and back-office workers. These users need the flexibility to work from the office or from home.
• Software Developer—This profile is designed for users whose primary function is the development of software within the FSI. Typical tasks include using integrated development environments (IDE) for writing, running, and testing program code. These users need the flexibility to work in an office, at home, or even remotely in a geographically dispersed or off-shore setting.
• Financial Trader—This profile is directed towards users in the FSI industry who have intensive graphics and compute requirements. Applications that display real-time financial data and video streams on multiple high-resolution monitors is a typical use for this profile. These users, who may work remotely but are often encouraged to work in an office, need the flexibility to work from more than one office such as the office closest to home as an alternative to a large centralized or downtown facility.

Of particular note, one of the most common and demanding applications used by traders is the Bloomberg Terminal. This terminal is an application and service that brings together real-time data on markets, breaking news, in-depth research, powerful analytics, communications tools, and world-class execution capabilities, all in one fully integrated solution. Typically, large size and high-resolution monitors, of at least 1K and often 4K, are used in order for the trader to have access at a glace to large amounts of financial data and analysis.

The following figure shows a Bloomberg Terminal on a Dell ultrawide monitor

Infrastructure considerations

As mentioned, there are numerous choices available when selecting and designing a VDI architecture and choosing infrastructure components for FSI deployments. Since VDI is often deployed with both three-tier architectures and with Hyperconverged Infrastructure, the following guidelines provide a high-level view of some of the considerations for the decision process when choosing between these two approaches.

Consider a Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) such as Dell EMC VxRail when:

• The current environment is VMware-centric, and you have or are starting to adopt HCI
• Your organization's IT skills include IT generalists and VMware or cloud architects
• IT operations include cloud operating models, with automation, or familiarity with Dell Technologies Cloud Platform (DTCP)
• You prefer to scale the platform as a whole
• You prefer full stack automation and lifecycle management
• The user count ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand users

Consider a Converged Infrastructure (CI) such as Dell EMC VxBlock 1000 when:

• The current environment is VMware-centric, and you have existing investment in CI
• Your organization's IT skills include IT generalists and VMware architects
• You prefer to scale the platform as a whole
• You prefer full stack automation and lifecycle management
• The user count may reach 5,000 or more users

Consider a three-tier architecture based on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers, PowerSwitch networking, and PowerStore, PowerScale, or PowerMax storage when:

• The current environment contains discrete servers and storage
• Your organization's IT skills include product or domain specialists
• Your organization's IT operations include traditional compute and storage workflows and domain expertise
• You need to independently scale compute and storage resources
• You need the highest flexibility in your infrastructure
• The user count may reach 5,000 or more users