HP has recently published a reference architecture for VDI environments based on Citrix XenDesktop 4, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.
The 24-pages report describes a platform powered by BladeSystems c7000 blade servers, ProLiant BL460c G6 blades, StorageWorks P4800 G2 SANs and HP Thin Clients.
The document includes the bill of materials (BOM) and a performance analysis. Quite interestingly HP used the tool Virtual Sessions Indexer (VSI), developed by the Dutch solution provider Login Consultants and used in the popular independent benchmark Virtual Reality Check (VRC) Project.
The VRC Project has been already validated by Citrix and somehow recognized by VMware too.
According to the benchmark, this system can serve approximately 800 concurrent users using Microsoft Office 2007 and Internet Explorer applications.