I have a confession to make. I can do my job just about anywhere — but I’m even more effective when I have access to my beloved coffee-spill-impervious-state-machine session, aka Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
How much do I enjoy my VDI? I even mention my beloved VDI in my email signature.
“Sent from my VDI Session on a VCE Vblock”
As you can see, my preferred way to experience VDI is when it is hosted on a VCE Vblock System.
I think if you have access to VDI today then you probably cannot imagine having to go back to reliance upon a legacy physical traditional desktop computer. VDI is just that good. VDI can be just about anywhere, anytime, and from just about any device you have handy (that hasn’t yet met with a cup of coffee).
New location? New device? No problem for VDI.
VDI has an almost magical quality for end users. VDI is almost always more updated than a traditional desktop. VDI lets you pick up where you left off, just like when you close the lid on your laptop. Best of all, VDI isn’t prone to degradation from spilling a cup of coffee on it. What’s not to love?
Of course, the growing use of VDI means a great deal more to teams that deliver IT. So, if VDI is great for the end-users, what makes delivery of VDI great for those teams that deliver IT?
First, consider converged infrastructure. Converged infrastructure cost-effectively simplifies IT and accelerates business performance. Solutions built on converged infrastructure are perfect for virtually every enterprise use case — SAP, application development, mixed workloads and more — and what IT organizations gain is tremendous. Converged solutions eliminate technology silos, so one person can centrally manage storage, compute and virtualization. IT staff can shift their focus from “keeping the lights on” to projects that drive innovation.
Okay, great — what about VDI?
With VDI, IT can dramatically simplify management of desktop applications and user accounts as end-user devices continue to proliferate. According to an IDG Research Survey released today, respondents cited three top reasons they are now choosing VDI:
- Improving security through centralization of the desktop environment – 49 percent
- Improving end user satisfaction –47 percent
- Improving efficiency (reducing IT staff time on maintenance and upgrades) –46 percent
** Does not break when coffee is spilled on it – 120% (yes, this is a fictional bullet point I created … but you get the point)
There is also good news for teams that deliver VDI to end-users. For example, VCE converged solutions answer the two most commonly cited challenges associated with VDI — potential OS and application performance issues (44 percent) and the lack of skill sets and knowledge internally to deploy VDI solutions (40 percent). Because VCE Vblock Systems and VCE VxRack Systems are pre-engineered, pre-tested and validated in factory environments, VCE removes the complexity long associated with VDI. Enterprises gain a low-risk path for deployment and can provide performance at scale for the most demanding environments. In fact, VCE customers have been able to deploy applications in 66 percent less time.
About 30 percent of survey respondents indicated they have current VDI implementations on converged infrastructure and 41 percent noted they prefer a converged approach for new VDI solutions. Three out of five respondents said they’re making the move to VDI expecting to achieve increased flexibility, improved agility to meet security and compliance requirements, and reduced OPEX with the first 12 months of their VDI deployment.
I think the decision is especially compelling when you combine those benefits with how VCE converged infrastructure accelerates business outcomes. Customers in an IDC study identified they achieved 518 percent return on investment over a five-year period, 41 percent less time was spent keeping the lights on, new services/products got to market 4.4 times faster, and they experienced 96 percent less downtime!
Think of how much coffee that would buy that won’t be spilled on and ruin a legacy desktop!