Desktop Virtualisation and VDI

Simplification and Consumerisation

It is our experience that organisations are increasingly looking to simplify the management of their infrastructure, at all layers, but specifically at the desktop. Traditional PC computing has created acceptance in the value and importance of IT within the enterprise, but has created its own set of challenges that us as IT professionals deal with on a daily basis.

At the same time, in the consumer world, IT is going through a period of major simplification and improvement with faster connection speeds rapidly becoming the norm , as well as purpose built streamlined devices and micro apps increasingly replacing the traditional home ‘desktop.’ This simplification of IT in the home is developing a different and more demanding perspective amongst our end user communities and represents a major challenge for our entire industry.

At Point to Point we see Desktop Virtualisation and VDI as a means of beginning to combine these two forces of simplification.

What's in a name?

There has been much written about Desktop Virtualisation and VDI and this is in truth a very confusing and complicated marketplace. At first glance even the semantics of the phrase is confusing and leads many to ask what the difference is. At Point to Point we treat VDI as one form of Desktop Virtualisation as there is certainly more than one form of Desktop Virtualisation, each of which has its own merits.

At the heart of this however sits a very simple proposition where the desktop no longer resides on the end user’s desk, but is centralised in the datacentre. Access is then provided across the network through means of efficient and optimised transport protocols meaning that the end user has no idea that their desktop is no longer local to them.

Controlled Flexibility?

In our opinion this provides our customers with the best of both worlds. The desktop is centralised meaning it can be controlled in an even closer and simpler fashion, largely due to the fact that, taken to its logical conclusion, Desktop Virtualisation is based on the concept of a single image. This closely controlled desktop is offered to end user’s with ultimate flexibility, meaning it can be accessed from anywhere, through any device which is very much in keeping, in our opinion, with the ethos of consumerisation.

Desktop Virtualisation is a strategy that not only looks to protect the IT assests of your business i.e the information, but does so by supporting greater freedom for the end user community. It is for these reasons that we believe that so many organisations are currently considering basing their end user computing strategy on Desktop Virtualisation.