VDI Brings Big Benefits to Remote Workers and Customers

Some workers dispersed from the office by the pandemic may work from home permanently. In the spring, IT teams met urgent challenges to ensure business continuity. Still, some hurdles remain that need to be resolved if workers are to stay remote long term. Such outstanding issues include bandwidth, security, and access to on-premises software. In this post, we look at how to provide remote access to vital applications seamlessly through virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), so users can work anywhere, anytime, on any device.

What is VDI?

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure or VDI is the hosting of desktop environments on central servers. It is a form of desktop virtualization—the desktop operating system (OS) images run within virtual machines (VMs) and are delivered to clients over a network. Those client endpoints can be PCs, tablets, thin client terminals, and even zero client devices with neither storage nor operating system. The endpoint devices do not need to be preinstalled with the OS or applications—only a browser.

Why VDI is good for employees

VDI puts the power of your enterprise IT infrastructure at the fingertips of your remote employees without the hassle of company-owned machines. Workers get location flexibility and mobility benefits with secure access to powerful hardware and software applications. Not only can they work at home securely on a personal laptop or other type of device, but they can also get work done anywhere securely on a borrowed device.

Why VDI is good for businesses and IT departments

The business as a whole and IT operations specifically reap big benefits from VDI, including potential cost reductions and improved security controls. Plus, VDI expands workforce mobility and the company’s pool of potential employees.

Concerns about the cost, complexity, and performance of VDI have held many companies back in the past but that has changed with advances in technology around the Desktop as a Service (DaaS) model. Previously, a large capital investment and do-it-yourself (DIY) overhead discouraged the use of virtual desktops. Now, improved technology lowers the cost per resource, and managed service providers like TierPoint offer a more economical OpEx-based (operational expense) delivery model while lifting operational responsibility from your IT organization.

Similarly, VDI performance was hindered in the early days but that is no longer the case. Ten years ago, VDI desktops could not match a normal desktop experience.  Now, network speeds and physical and virtual resource performance are much higher, so the best VDI solutions deliver performance that rivals locally installed applications.

How hosted private cloud & VDI add more value

VDI is a cloud-based solution to desktop infrastructure. A private cloud hosted by a data center provider offers many benefits for virtual desktop infrastructure: predictable spend, security controls, performance, flexibility, and less overhead.

Predictable spend

No variance monthly for usage or transport and the use of existing licenses makes for a predictable spend. As a bonus, there is no additional bandwidth charge when VDI is accessed point to point.

Security controls

Private cloud infrastructure is under your control and part of your network. IT is secured with the level of encryption you want and by your firewall. Workers can use networks under your control, such as a point-to-point network when on site and the corporate VPN when remote.

Performance

Single-tenant cloud infrastructure eliminates performance degradation due to noisy neighbors while enabling you to shift and upgrade resources as needed without increasing recurring per-user costs.

Flexibility

Private cloud architecture is yours to modify as needed for security, compliance, performance, and any other reason.

Less overhead

When a third-party data center provider hosts your private cloud, your IT team can spend less time managing the infrastructure while benefiting from a secure, resilient facility. Your organization controls the management of data, applications, databases, and operating systems. That said, most private cloud providers also offer an array of managed services that relieve your team of day-to-day tasks as well as providing services such as disaster recovery.

Virtual desktop services powered by Nutanix Frame

As a cloud and managed services provider, we deliver one-stop support from design to configuration and from deployment to monitoring and lifecycle maintenance of your enterprise virtual desktop solution. Plus, your managed VDI solution can be combined with security, disaster recovery and productivity features such as managed multi-factor authentication (Managed MFA), Managed Office 365, and more.

Learn more about the value of a TierPoint private cloud for VDI and how our Virtual Desktop Services powered by Nutanix Frame can get your remote workers the tools they need.