Five reasons why desktop virtualisation is good for business
Desktop virtualisation is another chapter in the cloud story, one that businesses have been skipping over for too long. Now, post pandemic when new ways of working are top of the agenda, the time is right.
The long-term impact of the pandemic on the way businesses work is a hot topic in boardrooms. Scaling down office space and rethinking real estate investments is a big strategic change based on continuing to let employees work from home for at least some of the time. Hybrid working is being permanently embraced by businesses of all size, with employees splitting their time between home and office, but enabling it to happen seamlessly with no disruption to productivity has to be the priority.
Ergo knows first-hand that collaborative and remote working technologies were seized on by organisations during lockdown, by some businesses for the first time, but the one technology that is the best fit for hybrid working is desktop virtualisation. It has been part of the Ergo product catalogue for many years, but we believe it’s time has come because of improvements in vendor propositions and a new-found appetite from businesses to what it enables. Here are five good reasons why it should be considered:
Enable secure and seamless hybrid working
Securing people’s laptops at home during lockdown was a challenge, and while ad hoc solutions might have got businesses through the crisis, desktop virtualisation provides a permanent fix. Users can access their desktop tools on any device, because the apps and data are all stored and distributed from a central repository controlled by the IT department, which means there is less risk around lost or stolen devices. It also means the user enjoys the exact same experience when they move between home and work, with whatever device they use.
Recruit top talent to the business
The next generation in the workforce has grown up with technology around them, seamlessly delivering everything from streaming movies to social media. Providing a similar experience in the workplace will not just make them more productive, it could be a factor in successfully recruiting them. Desktop virtualisation turns the workplace into a consumer-type experience, where everything users need is just a click away. And with a remote desktop solution, you can hire the best people for the job irrespective of where they live.
Advance digital transformation strategies
When organisations look at the business case for desktop virtualisation, it might help to look at it through the lens of digital transformation. Retaining old-style desktop environments that demand a lot from internal time resources is at odds with other parts of the business that are consuming everything from applications to infrastructure as a cloud service. The Desktop-as-a-Service iteration of virtualised desktops is a perfect fit for digital transformation strategies, and a move that is long overdue for many organisations.
Make costs more transparent
Another problem with traditional desktop IT environments is that they are a money pit. There is an expensive cycle of hardware and software upgrade and it requires constant vigilance from IT teams to ensure devices are always up to date and secure. Devices almost become irrelevant with Desktop-as-a-Service, and because it is a cloud model, it is an operational rather than capital expense. There are no hidden costs, which means the desktop estate becomes predictable and much more manageable.
Free up IT resources
Most businesses will now have had an experience of how cloud services liberate internal IT resources from time-consuming and mundane tasks. Desktop-as-a-Service is no exception. Strategically, it is much more useful to let someone like Ergo take care of the service and reallocate internal IT talent to parts of the business where they can add value. It’s the old argument about IT being much useful to the business if they are innovating, rather than just keeping the lights on.
Conclusion
The impact of the cloud has changed the mindset of businesses when it comes to the way IT is consumed and delivered. Because of the cloud’s inherent agility, boardrooms have found themselves closer to attaining the Holy Grail of closer alignment between IT and business. Desktop virtualisation is another chapter in the cloud story, one that businesses have been skipping over for too long. Now, post pandemic when new ways of working are top of the agenda, the time is right.
