Virtual Desktop Solutions

Per-Device Costs Soar for Updates and Administration

Purchasing new laptops, desktops, or kiosks is a task that used to take thousands of hours of technical resource time plus cost thousands of dollars per device. Even with advanced mirroring technology, each device would still need to be physically touched in order to ensure that you are deploying the right technology for each team member. When VDI was introduced around 2006, the tech was still in its infancy as the heavy computing requirements were still a bit sluggish due to slower network speeds and capabilities. As new generations of technology were introduced and network speeds accelerated, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure became a viable solution to a very real problem: quickly, accurately, and efficiently deploying updates to a broad spectrum of devices in near real-time. As costs for individual desktop, laptop, or server updates grew, VDI became a more palatable option for IT professionals that may have had reservations about a more widespread application of VDI. As BYOD trends soar, the global market for VDI is expected to expand significantly through 2026.

Potential Challenges with VDI

As with any fundamental change in your technology infrastructure, it’s not unusual to have concerns about Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. If your team has experimented with this technology in the past or worked with other vendors on earlier deployments, you might have experienced difficulties with reach, bandwidth, reliability, service availability, or even cost. Fortunately, with the onset of private cloud offerings, these problems are mitigated. Now, it’s rare that you would hear complaints from staff members about any latency associated with accessing their desktop profile. This also provides technical teams with the ability to quickly spin up new user profiles as staff are added, while also changing access levels remotely. Working with a cloud services provider has the added benefit of a truly hands-off model for an organization that shifts the responsibility of upgrades, software patches, and new app deployment to the service provider — leaving integral IT resources free for innovation and introducing operational efficiencies to the business.

VDI Provides Rapid, Secure and Reliable Refreshes for Multiple Devices

Implementing a virtualized desktop infrastructure often begins with a full assessment of your current end-user application usage. This allows your administrators to create appropriate workspace profiles based on the resources needed to perform team or individual job functions. Each type of user may require different rights and privileges, and VDI allows this level of personalization to be streamlined and applied much more consistently than with traditional deployment models. You will also need to consider the back-end compute resources needed for each class of users. While a sales team member may need an extensive array of high-volume software such as CRM, accountants will need a different mix of financial applications and customer information. Regardless of user-type, VDI, or Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), still continues to keep costs down, eases the management of Identity Access Management and Security for your application infrastructure.

VDI is often billed by service providers based on the number of devices that will be managed or by individual users within your network. This can help to spread the costs on a monthly or annual subscription basis instead of the heavy upfront costs associated with purchasing and deploying new devices. Users appreciate that they are able to access necessary information consistently across devices, regardless of their physical location. With the recent shifts towards remote work, it has become increasingly important to ensure that technical teams are able to maintain security levels while they are not physically present with the devices being supported.

Ensuring that you are able to quickly and efficiently deploy critical updates to your entire workforce is of vital importance for today’s remote teams. The security of your business data and infrastructure are dependant on having up-to-date software in place at all times — which can be most easily accomplished with desktop virtualization. See whether your current configurations are good candidates for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure when you contact the professionals at Altera Solutions at (833) 373-3635 or via email to [email protected] to schedule your complimentary consultation. Our experts are well-versed in all mainstream business and technology applications, allowing us to focus on providing your organization with the consistent support levels and security that your business deserves. As a vendor-neutral company, Altera Solutions is committed to finding the right platform fit for the unique needs of your organization.