To V or not to V?
That is the question on IT’s mind. Let's discuss what Virtual Desktop Infrastructure VDI is and how IT teams and business owners can utilize it to take their IT and operations to a new level of scalability and velocity.
What is VDI and how can it help my business?
VDI is a technological concept that helps businesses distribute virtual workstations from a centralized virtual infrastructure. Simply put, virtualizing desktop or laptop workstations. This virtual infrastructure can be housed either on-premise within the company's own location or data center, or in the Cloud utilizing an existing, managed, secured infrastructure. Setting up a VDI environment varies based on which provider you choose, but all of them will have these main components: infrastructure management, change management and user management.
Infrastructure management allows for the creation of individual workstations and groups of them. Change management provides a way to add, remove or change (upgrade or downgrade) workstations and groups. User management empowers administrators to control and monitor who gets into the system, delegate administrative tasks, and if the need arises, remove or lock a user out in seconds.
Rapidscale -
- 80% of Fortune 500 businesses already include VDI in their IT strategy
- Admin and operating costs were reduced by 70%
- Energy bills were reduced by 97%
- Productivity was increased by about 98%
What are the Main Benefits of a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)?
Remote employees become more connected with the rest of the company. They can use the device of their choice with an internet connection, and they can work with the virtual desktop anytime. With the availability of the vast cellular network, this can happen basically anywhere. So it allows for an optimal flexibility for your remote users.
Maintaining virtual desktops is completely different from conventional desktops. Hardware upgrades are physically touchless, so they can happen in seconds with order of magnitude higher accuracy. And cleaning a fan? Are you still opening computers to blow out the fan? Where do you do it? No one wants to breathe in all that dust. So it typically means unplugging everything and opening the case outside, hoping it's not cold because just holding onto that can of compressed air can create quite the frozen hand.
Think about how costly and painstaking it is to onboard a set of new employees for a project or consultant with conventional hardware. You get them a shiny new machine, onboard them, and when their project is completed - try to sell the hardware for 1/2 price (if you're lucky). With virtual desktop infrastructure, you're just paying for the time the computer is used, so the host machines you're using can go from project to project, drastically increasing their lifespan, leading to dramatic reductions in e-waste and upfront costs.
The security of virtual desktop infrastructure is significantly stronger than the conventional desktops. Augmenting the security of your business can allow you to rest easier and give your IT more time to focus on growth and innovation. The data on VDI is kept in secure data center infrastructure with access so heavily restricted it rivals any security system developed and resembles the most intricate of spy movie high-crime heist protections around.
“... access so heavily restricted it rivals any security system developed and resembles the most intricate of spy movie high-crime heist protections around. ” — RainDrop Development
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure by the numbers
Succeeding in business is like skeet shooting, you have to shoot where the business is going if you want to hit your targets. By knowing some of the basic statistics surrounding VDI, your business can make a more informed decision about where it can go and how fast you can get there.
Do I need a VDI Environment?
Yes. For your employees, this provides the best options for flexibility and efficiency. For your business, you want assurance that your workstation solution allows the optimum scalability, IT efficiency, and sets up without breaking the bank.
BUT...
For small and medium-sized businesses, setting up virtual desktop infrastructure can be expensive and difficult to manage by internal IT or, in many cases, the business owner. This usually leads to opening a whole new set of IT costs and headaches instead of streamlining and creating efficiency.
RainDrop can help
RainDrop provides a fully managed, Cloud based virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). RainDrop empowers IT departments with powerful management tools and end users with self help guidance, and troubleshooting tools to simplify your organization's technical operations. The Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) features utilizing your customized configurations of operating system and applications so your employees and consultants can securely work from desktops, laptops, phones or tablets anywhere around the globe.
How to get started with RainDrop
It's quick and easy.
1 - Complete the signup form to create your first RainDrop. It will be ready to use in under 5 minutes. You can test it out, configure it, replicate it.
2 - Securely sign in using the email invitation received
3 - Create whatever workstation structure your business requires, and invite users to use the RainDrop management engine
With RainDrop, you get a 7 day free trial to get used to the system before you choose it as your preferred cloud workstation solution. Get all the experience of an end user as well as an administrator on the system with full access to all the powerful tools to use absolutely free for the first week. Ready, Set, Rain!
