If not now, when?
Business is like skeet shooting. You have to shoot where the target is going to hit your mark. We are at a wonderful time for technology. Now is a great time for your business to take advantage of certain foundations so that you can set yourself up for the growth you're planning. Typically businesses will wait for one of the "big 6" to move to a cloud based infrastructure:
- before an upcomming merger or acquisition
- expanding to new offices
- instituting remote work initiative
- following a security incident
- seasonal spike in business
- infrastructure/hardware "end of life"
By instituting a cloud infrastructure now, your business will be much more prepared to handle any of the "big 6" and most importantly, be the most prepared for the fourth, a security event. There are three main components hitting a maturity level, contributing to a perfect storm for cloud adoption, specifically virtual desktop infrastructure, or VDI.
Cloud Infrastructure
Since the early 2000's, the concept of Cloud computing has been maturing. Now, there are multiple very reliable and scalable public cloud infrastructure providers. Each of the big three, Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, and more have matured their infrastructure and it's delivery to near perfection. Nearly simply for accuracy, while there have been downtimes associated with all these 3, the total business impact pales in comparison to on premise solutions. However, if a downtime event happens in the cloud, recovery is seconds away rather than hours, which could mean a difference of thousands if not millions of dollars as workers and customers wait for a solution. Cloud providers offer pay as you go plans, volume savings plans, unparalleled security and support and much more. These types of features allow businesses of all types and sizes to grow or adopt Cloud infrastructure simply and efficiently.
Gartner, Thales Group, Starlink -
- Desktop as a service (DaaS) is expected to have the most significant growth in 2020, increasing 95.4% to $1.2 billion.
-With 5G reaching 10 gigabits per second – up to 100 times faster than 4G – 5G networks can deliver the level of performance needed for an increasingly connected society.
- Starlink...will continue expansion to near global coverage of the populated world in 2021.
Internet Connectivity
In order to use the cloud exclusively for your desktop computing power, the bandwidth of your local internet connection should be fast enough for a good experience. This means that the perceived difference between a locally connected remote desktop, like a terminal server, and a cloud based one shouldn't be too high. Typical local network speeds have been 1GB since the turn of the century which allowed for a very good remote desktop experience, but internet connectivity just started to breach the 100MBps threshold starting at around the same time. Now, fiber optic connections are available even residentially on a very large scope and continuing to spread exponentially daily, meaning ISP speeds up to 1GB are quite common.
The near future is very bright for internet connectivity, with the upcoming 5G mobile bringing these speeds to the convenience of your pocket. Another large issue with good internet connectivity has always been serviceability. Good internet connectivity hasn't been trivial to get in many areas, especially remote and rural ones. Now, with 5G around the corner and companies like Starlink who are able to bring internet service to rural areas and even the skies, these concerns are soon to be all but completely addressed.
“ ...if a downtime event happens in the cloud, recovery is seconds away rather than hours, which could mean a difference of thousands if not millions of dollars as workers and customers wait for a solution. ” — RainDrop Development
Client Hardware
In order to connect to the cloud, you’ll need a connection point. This can take on different forms, such as conventional desktops, thin clients, laptops, and mobile devices. The power needed to control a VDI workstation is very minimal, since the main applications are running in the cloud. This validates even the oldest PC’s still in use as primary candidates for a VDI connection point with no upgrade necessary. Of course, this dramatically reduces the capital expenditures needed to make a shift to the cloud, and saves many combined hours for IT to perform a complete physical connection point replacement right away when shifting to the cloud.
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!
