4-page Case Study - Posted 7/10/2008

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City of Karlsruhe

City Government Streamlines IT Management with Application Virtualization Technology

The municipal government of Karlsruhe, Germany was facing high IT administration costs to deploy new applications and software updates for 2,000 desktop and laptop computers. The City of Karlsruhe has lightened the load for its IT department with an innovative solution: applications are now housed on a virtual platform based on Microsoft Application Virtualization. Using the new technology, the City’s IT staff are able to transfer all business applications to employee’s machines in a matter of minutes. Manual installation on users’ computers is a thing of the past, configuring new machines takes only a few minutes, and afterward, the user’s own work environment is immediately available with all their personal settings. The IT department can deploy new applications and updates in a fraction of the time that they previously needed.

Situation

With a population of 286,000, Karlsruhe is the third largest city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. This metropolis in Northern Baden was founded in 1715 with the laying of the cornerstone for the Karlsruhe Castle. Since the 1950s, the Federal Supreme Court and Federal Constitutional Court have been housed in Karlsruhe. The city government, responsible for all communal interests, employs around 5,260 people.

Our overhead for new software rollouts just got much smaller. Stefan Kunze IT Director City of Karlsruhe

Software maintenance was made all the more difficult by the City’s use of specialized applications that were developed to handle civic administration tasks. These mission-critical applications need to be compatible with all operating systems as well as with standard productivity applications such as the Microsoft Office system. The more applications are installed on a machine, the higher the risk of a conflict or breakdown.

In addition, certain applications used by the City of Karlsruhe need to be available in different versions. SAP modules that rely on these applications sometimes need the old version, sometimes the new one, depending on the product. All this meant more customization work on individual workstations.

Solution

In 2003, the City of Karlsruhe’s IT Director, Stefan Kunze, began his search for software that could automate new program rollouts and updates. But none of the conventional products that were tested for suitability could offer any real progress for the city’s IT department.

In 2005, Kunze began researching Microsoft Application Virtualization, which runs applications locally on a computer in a virtual environment. Microsoft Application Virtualization technology streams application software to a desktop or notebook computer from a central server; besides the operating system and security software, no application software needs to be installed on the end user’s computer. All required applications are centrally managed on a Microsoft Application Virtualization server.

Employees can make changes to settings on their computers and work with programs exactly as they would if they had been installed on the client hard drive. Since all virtualized applications are run in silos, they work independently of the operating system and any other running applications.

After an extensive test phase, the City of Karlsruhe decided to deploy Microsoft Application Virtualization in 2006. To help implement the solution, they engaged Microsoft Certified Partner Consulting4IT. Today, the IT division delivers important applications to 2,000 clients using Microsoft Application Virtualization.

If a new computer is put into service or if an employee changes workplace, all the applications that they need are installed at once, via a single file that varies in size from three to four gigabytes. For new hardware, this operation takes 10 to 15 minutes. Afterwards, the user can work on the computer as they would with a conventional installation.

Benefits

Software on Demand

One benefit that is particularly valuable for the City of Karlsruhe is the basic shift in the way software is used: “Applications today are no longer linked to a certain machine, but to a user,” explains Kunze. In practical terms, this is most noticeable when a computer is replaced. In this case, the user simply needs to move to another computer, and login to the City domain. Depending on hardware performance, a completely personalized work environment is available to the employee in just a few minutes.

If employees need additional applications, they simply send an email to the IT staff. Authorizations and access permissions are stored in Microsoft Active Directory. This means that administrators can quickly assign or withdraw application permissions as needed. This nearly eliminates the need for onsite technicians to install, troubleshoot, fine-tune or deleting software, which translates into a large reduction in costs for rolling out new applications or updates: “We need considerably less time to implement new programs or install updates,” reports Kunze.

Larger projects, like the yearly rollout or exchange of approximately 500 new machines, are managed by the IT department in much less time – an advantage that adds up to considerable savings, especially since there are over 2,000 PCs and laptops that need to be serviced regularly.

Lean Computers

Because applications are run in a virtual environment, compatibility issues with hardware or operating systems arise much less frequently. Making changes on the client computer, which can lead to long disruptions, is no longer necessary. If a machine fails because of malicious software, the employee only needs to reload applications after rebooting. The IT department can support several versions of an application as needed, to ensure smooth execution of specialized applications.

Other advantages to this parallel support include helping users learning how to use a new product version. They can still get their work done using the old version, while they gain confidence in working with the upgrade. This not only keeps productivity at a high level, but supports training: It is not unusual for a few days or even weeks to elapse between training and installing a new version on a workplace computer, but City of Karlsruhe employees can apply what they have learned immediately on their computers, trying things out and quickly getting up to speed.

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP)
MDOP makes it easy to administer Windows Vista in a corporation, offering tools for virtualizing and inventorying software installations, for managing group policies, as well as tools for system repair and data recovery. For more information about MDOP, go to: www.microsoft.com/mdop

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com

For more information about Consulting4IT GmbH products and services, call +49 07243 76070 or visit the Web site at: www.consulting4it.de

For more information about Stadt Karlsruhe, call +49 0721 1330 or visit the Web site at: www.karlsruhe.de