Virtual desktop infrastructure has been adopted by enterprise organizations at an amazing rate in the last few years. The move toward a virtual desktop configuration has some serious advantages. Companies save time and money with virtual desktop solutions.
How it Works
Traditionally, every employee had a fully-functional PC or laptop at his desk although many never utilized even half of the processing power or storage space supplied. Many users simply used word processing, email and one or two productivity programs. Basically, a lot of hardware was being underutilized.
Virtual desktops take the hardware off of the employee’s desk and put it in large virtual servers. These systems provide all the functionality of the operating system from the server side. There are no local installations of the operating system or the software.
This is all made possible by products like the Dell Thin client. Looking more like a router or modem than a computer, and priced at far less than a standard PC, this device provides inputs for keyboard, mouse and monitor and gets everything else from the server that hosts its virtual desktop. What are some of the advantages to this configuration?
- Ease of Deployment Since virtual machines are created within the same physical hardware and a new “desktop” can easily be cloned from an existing one, it takes a lot less time to onboard a new employee with a VDI system. A pre-configured suite of software and tools can be easily provided to a new employee without running any installation routines or imaging drives.
- Ease of Expansion With VDI configurations, expansion is also easier. Although there are upfront costs to purchase and configure the backend virtual desktop host infrastructure, once it is in place, adding new devices might only cost a few hundred dollars for an additional VDI client products. If a certain user needs a more powerful machine or more hard drive space, this can be granted all from the virtual machine host.
- Fewer Hardware Issues Thin clients are designed to be durable and last a long time. They have less moving parts and sensitive components than a PC or laptop. They have a longer lifespan and can easily be transferred to other users. Since all sensitive data is stored on the virtual machine hosting SAN, backup and redundancy systems can be put in place to protect all data. Administrators won’t have to worry about end users saving data locally or forgetting to back up their work.
- Ease of Administration and Maintenance Changes to virtual desktop software and configurations can be rolled out without the user ever seeing a thing. Technicians won’t have to come to users’ desks and run installation routines. Changes can automatically be pushed out to every desktop at once. VDI systems also make it easy to remotely troubleshoot issues and provide technical support without extra software. This ease of deployment minimizes the time the IT department spends on monotonous tasks like imaging machines, running installation routines and physically transporting new hardware. As long as the server is working properly, every user’s thin client will also be working just fine. This frees the IT department up to focus on long-term company goals instead of simply striving to keep up with the day-to-day workload.
Getting Started With VDI Systems
Many companies are now switching to VDI solutions. Although the up front costs are higher, IT directors should take into account the long term benefits of moving away from traditional deployments. All IT departments should strive to create a resilient and dynamic infrastructure that can quickly adapt to changes in the business. Virtual desktop technology provides a perfect way to do this for organizations of all sizes.
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