Cost Effectiveness Drive SMBs to Desktop Virtualization: Manish Sharma

Studies conducted on the State of IT for SMBs reveal increasing IT Budgets and continued rapid adoption of virtualization technology, cloud services and tablets in the workplace. There has also been observations that while a sizable number of small and mid-sized companies have already adopted desktop virtualization for their business, many others would look forward into adopting the technology in the near future. However, limited the crunch of resources and budgets continue to remain significant challenges for this segment.Keeping abreast with the latest technologies and hardware is still a challenge for organizations of any size and more so for small-medium businesses (SMBs) which have limitations in resource and personnel. It’s no surprise that today’s SMBs are inching towards desktop virtualization which juxtaposes modernity and cost-effectiveness thereby providing a viable alternative to traditional PCs. It is humbling to say that Desktop Virtualization delivers all the computer performance, manageability and security required for businesses to remain competitive in the market place today.

Such findings need deliberation as they reflect a need and growing shifts towards modern computing solutions as the use of tablets and leveraging the cloud continue to escalate. Desktop Virtualization therefore makes sense for SMBs as IT budgets are expected to grow and accommodate BYOD and cloud office environments while the tendency to manage the environment remains the same. Specifically, desktop virtualization offers the following benefits to SMBs.

Long-term reduction of IT costs and IT staff headaches

When multiple individual PCs, desktops and handheld devices are managed, it becomes time-consuming, tiresome, weary and expensive

IT staff can leverage desktop virtualization technologies such as NComputing to control and make system-wide updates and upgrades from a centralized source in a timely fashion rather than updating workstations and BYOD one by one. This saves time and lets the staff concentrate on other projects

Sharing his experience, Gopinath TK, Head – IT says, “The Bhavasara Kshatriya Co–op. Bank Ltd, who recently deployed desktop virtualisation solution in the bank, says: “We were facing problems like—frequent downtimes and wear and tear, slow machines resulting in slow operations, cumbersome management of individual PCs, virus threats and issues related to data security. It is at this stage that we sought to deploy an agile technology (NComputing) that addressed these challenges, squarely,”

In the long run, desktop virtualization offers reduction in administrative and maintenance costs which variably increase with company size.

Compliance Mandates and Improvised Enforcement of Security

One of the pressing issues for SMBs are the management of their end users – with security and compliance topping the list. For instance, a significantly high number of laptops are stolen or sometimes even lost every year at public places such as airports etc. The loss of business – critical information is a very real threat for industries in financial services, healthcare and government.

SMBs can turn to desktop virtualization to meet their security and compliance mandates by moving data to the datacenter where it can be managed more effectively and is secure. Compared to the conventional desktop, the virtual desktop is more secure from the data centre perspective which decreases vulnerability and data loss.

Employee Productivity

Loss of productivity reduces when an employee has to sit around and wait for his workstation to be repaired. With desktop Virtualization, however, IT can get the user up and running on a new virtual desktop saving up organizations time, resources and money. Also, desktop virtualization supports BYOD devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones means IT is able to support the demand for a virtual working environment and access to information.

As SMB demands the support of business growth, staff sizes are expected to remain the same, companies today feel that now is a good time to consider desktop virtualization for making the most of your resources. By enabling streamlined IT processes and enhanced employee productivity in today’s BYOD world, embracing desktop virtualization can provide a step ahead in today’s competitive SMB business environment.

(The author is Manish Sharma, VP, APAC, NComputing)