The Business Situation
In every company, the Desktop is the place where most employees access corporate applications and information, create new data, access existing data, or collaborate with others in the organization. The desktop is the place where significant productivity is gained or lost. As long as access is available, costs are reasonable, and IT can effectively administer and support the users, the desktop is invisible. Unfortunately, this is not typically the case. The desktop gets major attention when performance and productivity are compromised, customer service is interrupted, or costs of operation costs exceed budgets. Get Started Today with a Free IT Assessment.
The IT Challenge
In an attempt to reduce administration and support, and to "simplify" the environment, many companies employ a one-size-fits-all strategy for their desktop. Each user has the same hardware, operating system and application software configuration. The problem with this strategy is that many available resources are wasted. CPU and memory sit idle on systems that provide basic desktop applications. Licensing and maintenance costs add up quickly. And sometimes applications are deployed on systems that don’t really need them. Security is always a concern and these systems typically need to be patched on a weekly basis, requiring major administration time. There are many hidden costs and inefficiencies that impact the effective utilization of the desktop.
Desktop users typically fall into one of the following three categories:
Work Center
An environment where there are many users performing similar tasks, utilizing a small number of applications. A good example would be a Customer Support Call Center. These workers do not need the power of a dedicated PC and typically use data from common data bases that reside in the corporate DataCenter. The administration and license fees associated with a standardized PC are unnecessary and the utilization of the PC’s capability (CPU and Memory) are typically low. A logical alternative for such a case, could be a virtual desktop utilizing a thin client terminal.
The Power User
An environment where there are a number of creative users utilizing a large and varied set of applications to generate new work products. These workers generally need all of the power in a dedicated PC or Workstation. They collaboratively work on data sets with others in their department and need specialized application software to create the work products. They utilize the full power in CPU, memory, local storage for in-process files, and high end graphics subsystems. A very rich client is needed for this worker.
General Office Productivity Workers
Other general clerical, administrative, financial, and content creation workers that typically use an office productivity suite and maybe one or two other applications.
These workers generally need mid level power and computing resource, and use standard applications. These applications may reside in the corporate DataCenter or locally on the desktop PC. Many of the industry standard applications are delivered through web browsers and could even be used via a service bureau or ASP service. A virtual desktop utilizing a thin client will often be appropriate for this worker.
The dcVAST Virtual Desktop Solution
dcVAST Solution Architects and Engineers have a broad experience implementing and managing the creative and cost-effective virtual desktop in today’s enterprises. We have the expertise necessary to provide you with a cost effective, scaleable virtual desktop infrastructure that aligns with your specific requirements. Our architects carefully review your environment to fully understand your business needs, the needs of your users, and your long-term growth goals. We then develop the right infrastructure for your desktop, including the servers and software that drive the thin client desktop terminal.
Our delivery engineers are available to deploy your virtual desktop computing solution and desktop virtualization services. We can also provide staging at our facility, and project management, when needed.
Our Call Center is available to assist your IT staff on a 24/7 basis. If a component failure occurs, we take ownership of the problem and resolve the issue in a timely manner.
We monitor the total virtual desktop environment on a 24x7 basis and create alerts for any unusual activity. We manage the evolution of your IT infrastructure over its useful life, making sure it is always performing optimally. Get Started Today with a Free IT Assessment.