9 Benefits of Implementing a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

As we find ourselves on the other side of the Covid-19 pandemic, we look back and see how the traditional desktop struggled to remain effective in an environment where employees remained at home. Even before the pandemic, a cloud-based solution known as Desktop as a Service (DaaS) was taking aim at the traditional desktop in an effort to make businesses more efficient. Now, as more teams work in remote environments, virtual desktops keep everyone centralized. Where traditional desktops are unique to the device they live on, virtual desktops live in a centralized cloud server, allowing simultaneous control of all desktops for a single location. Virtual desktops eliminate the need to update or maintain individual desktop instances, adding to the benefits of virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI). Using VDI, you can move your physical desktops to a virtual space, allowing several desktop images to run within a single virtual machine with high fidelity. Users need an endpoint device and stable network connection to deliver those desktop images on anything from mobile devices or computers to thin clients. In this article, we talk about the benefits of VDI and how investing in a VDI solution can help improve productivity, streamline troubleshooting, and save money. Of course, you won’t find a better VDI solution than Summit Hosting’s Summit Secure Workspace. Summit Secure Workspace provides an enhanced end-user experience with a stable 99% uptime delivery. Try a demo today, or give us a call to explore how Summit Secure Workspace blows other providers away!

The Benefits of Implementing a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Implementing a virtual desktop environment brings many benefits. IT management becomes more straightforward, deploying workstations for new employees is quicker, and when physical devices stop working, employees can easily hop to a smartphone to keep going. Here are just a handful of benefits of VDI you can experience in your organization!

1. Enhanced Security Measures

Data security is one of the most critical aspects of your digital footprint. Traditional desktop computers require frequent backups and updates, but employees constantly forget, creating security holes and cybercrime opportunities. However, in VDI environments, you store your data in a central server, making it much easier to protect than traditional desktop systems. IT teams can back up and regularly update from this centralized location without worrying about a forgetful staff member unintentionally posing a security risk. In addition to critical updates, managers can grant access to specific individuals and revoke those permissions when they leave the organization. That extra level of control prevents data leaks when turnover inevitably happens. And the encryption technology that protects data transfers keeps prying eyes away, even when firewalls fail.

2. Easier Management

Desktop virtualization reduces your IT department’s workloads thanks to centralized management. A centralized IT department reduces the costs and effort needed to maintain desktop environments. Using virtual desktop infrastructure, IT teams can implement fixes to all desktop instances without needing the individual device. With remote access, IT can work on trouble tickets more readily than during field deployment, allowing for more resolved issues. Plus, cloud providers like Summit Hosting offer IT support to bolster and complement your dedicated IT staff. And, with data center capabilities, Summit Hosting provides you with the virtualization technology you need to create a high-powered digital environment for your team!

3. Improved Flexibility

Remote work opportunities are now one of the most significant factors in employment decisions. The demand for greater workplace flexibility puts pressure on businesses that don’t adapt to a more virtual society. Virtual desktop infrastructure makes it easy to support remote workers by allowing users access to mission-critical apps and data from various endpoint devices. Companies also can employ bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies that enable remote workers to use devices they own. These BYOD policies are handy because if devices fail, users can swap to another personal device and pick back up with limited downtime. And when it’s time to perform upgrades, remote desktops receive them without team member intervention.

4. Device Accessibility

Virtual desktops operate from a central location, such as a virtual server, making the endpoint device less critical than a stable connection to the network. High-fidelity desktop images are available regardless of device. That ability to receive desktop images on any device makes BYOD possible. Bring-your-own-device initiatives increase device accessibility, saving money in endpoint device investment costs. They also reduce training time, as users are already familiar with essential device functions, meaning more time spent on business operations.

5. Scalability

On-premises data centers have a considerable disadvantage compared with virtual environments — scalability is a huge challenge. Instead, by investing in virtualization technology, and cloud-based alternatives, like VDI, you can up and downscale on-demand. As you add more remote workers to your staff, you can instantly scale bandwidth to allow for more remote desktop instances. Remote desktop services (RDS) don’t require costly equipment upgrades, and there is virtually no downtime when scaling requirements!

6. Increased Team Productivity

Performance translates into profit, and VDI creates simplified workspaces with mission-critical apps accessible from anywhere. That virtualization creates an environment for teams to stay on task, connected, and up-to-date, leaving no excuse for productivity to slip. On the back end, your IT department doesn’t have to run around resolving trouble tickets. Everything is available from a centralized location, translating to uninterrupted performance when devices fail or teams perform updates. The pandemic showed us how important it is to remain productive. With VDI, your teams can work anywhere, anytime, regardless of what’s going on in the outside world. Inclement weather, illness, or car troubles will no longer prevent your teams from increasing overall efficiency.

7. Streamlined Troubleshooting

Centralization is the core theme when talking about VDI, and that extends to troubleshooting. With traditional desktops, troubleshooting was challenging as trouble tickets for both software and devices flooded IT’s inbox. Virtual desktops make it easy to find the right specialist to tackle the problems as IT teams work from a central server. VDI provides a platform to perform fixes one time and execute the same fix across all devices at once, streamlining the patching process. Plus, IT doesn’t need physical devices to perform troubleshooting steps, offering elevated support for remote workers.

8. Real-Time Disaster Recovery

Outages and downtime result in lost opportunities and financial losses. In traditional desktop environments, these outages put teams out of action, and end users must wait until devices are available to continue working. However, with cloud-based VDI, backups engage immediately in the event of an outage to reduce downtime. Summit Hosting also performs nightly backups and stores copies to create a secure, up-to-date recovery point. In addition to backups, Summit employs redundancy systems to ensure local outages never impact performance.

9. Cost-Effective Infrastructure

Of course, the biggest question on every business leader’s mind is, “How much is this going to cost me?” In reality, VDI is a cost-savings measure. Implementing VDI reduces the electrical demand as endpoints change from desktops to more efficient laptops and mobile devices. Individual desktop instances demand product licenses that can get costly if your teams require several applications to perform essential functions. With DaaS, you only need to purchase one software license, and those licenses have a longer useful lifecycle versus the traditional physical counterpart. Businesses also enjoy cost savings by having a centralized IT department that no longer spends time troubleshooting in the field. You can see reduced costs associated with downtime and lost productivity, and investment in new equipment is a thing of the past with BYOD programs.

Take Your Hosting to the Cloud with Summit Hosting

Our increasingly virtual work doesn’t have time for costly fixes and time-consuming troubleshooting. Professionals also don’t have time to wait for devices to become available after a disaster. There are many benefits that virtual desktop infrastructure provides to your teams, from greater work-from-home support to greater device accessibility. Plus, you can enjoy improved security and decreased costs associated with IT departments and lost productivity. And when it comes to choosing a VDI provider, you could go with Microsoft or Citrix, but to get the best in customer experience and performance, only Summit Hosting will do. Give us a call today to learn more about our Summit Secure Workstation. Summit Hosting, we’re always on, always secure!