10 Ways How VDI Will Change Your Business in 2024

Enterprise VDI is a virtual environment that works to reduce hardware dependency and improve workplace flexibility. Many businesses are adopting Enterprise VDI solutions to cut down on recurring hardware costs and prevent IT bottlenecks.

According to Global Markets Insights, the market size of Enterprise VDI is expected to have a CAGR of more than 20% between 2022 and 2028.

The meteoric rise of VDI for enterprises is because operational bottlenecks have long hampered the business operations. Some of these issues include a lack of remote accessibility, high power requirements, and the inability to deploy a secure infrastructure for data protection.

According to Spiceworks, IT budgets are set to grow by 26% in 2022. This figure shows the growing dependence on in-house IT across businesses around the world. More importantly, it implies that IT is an important component of revenue spending. Needless to say, the adoption of hosted/cloud services can significantly bring down IT costs.

With the requirement of virtual desktops in mind, the cloud virtual desktop providers have now introduced a new service known as Desktop as a Service (DaaS).

Just like cloud models such as IaaS and SaaS, DaaS offers virtual desktop services to their customers at an affordable price. Enterprise VDI is implemented in the service provider’s cloud environment.

Let us look at some of the aspects of Enterprise VDI solutions that regularly help businesses optimize their office operations in 2024.

1. Remote Work

Today employees seek a generous level of flexibility in their working hours and the freedom to leave the office anytime without leaving the work behind.

The most exciting feature of VDI for Enterprise is the ability to work from a remote location. For businesses, this can be highly beneficial especially when the employee is commuting or at home.
According to Forbes, interest in remote work has increased to a whopping 556%. And, this trend is set to grow in the coming years as well.

From the employee perspective, remote work helps them maintain a work-life balance as they can manage their personal tasks while fulfilling professional responsibilities. Working from home also helps in reducing mental stress as you can spend more time with your loved ones. Importantly, it saves a lot of time spent on menial tasks such as commutation.

Also Read: 7 Ways Hosted Virtual Desktops Help Remote Workers

2. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Enterprise VDI works independently of hardware restrictions or hassles. As desktops become virtualized, you are liberated from the local desktops and can conveniently access your virtual desktop from portable devices such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets. You can even use a thin client to access your desktop.
Hence, employees can bring their own devices to work sparing the cost of hardware for business owners and improved flexibility for them.

According to a study by Bitglass, 85% of organizations have enabled bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environments for employees since the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is achievable thanks to VDI for Enterprise on physical servers wherein each Virtual Desktop acts as a personal system for the users.

3. Security

Enterprise VDI solutions help businesses to keep their data secure by eliminating the local storage of data whatsoever. As data is stored in a remote location, damage to end-user devices does not affect the security or integrity of the data.

The portable device you use is just to access the remote server. Hence, you can access your data from any device as long as you know the username and password. Even if the device gets stolen, you do not need to worry as no one will be able to access the data without the login credentials.

4. Desktop Pools

With the implementation of the Enterprise VDI solution, virtual desktops can be divided into different domains, sometimes referred to as Desktop Pools.

Let us assume that your office can be segmented into three departments – HR, Accounts, and Sales. Each department has diverse roles and responsibilities and requires virtual desktops to carry out its daily tasks.
Consequently, each department requires a desktop with a different set of system specifications, software, and operating system. You can create a desktop pool for each department with each virtual desktop possessing the same specification within a particular pool.

5. Zero Hardware Issues

Consider a local desktop setup with physical desktops in play. If a desktop crashes or has an issue concerning storage or processor, more often than not it needs to be replaced.

Not so with VDI for the enterprise. As the Virtual Machine (VM) on which the desktops are hosted is virtual, any issues with the VM can be resolved by migrating your desktop to another VM.

6. Swift Provisioning

Provisioning of new desktops for your office is a nuisance as it involves assigning physical space, installation of operating system, and software, setting permissions, etc. Imagine 15 employees joining your office at the same time and provisioning the desktop for each.

Moreover, if you want to reduce the number of desktops, what will you do with the physical machines? Virtual Desktop Infrastructure comes to your rescue with zero wastage, as you can scale down virtual desktops in a matter of seconds.

The virtual nature of these desktops enables you to easily add or delete the desktop with the help of a management portal.

7. Scalable Desktops

Physical desktops come with a specific set of specifications like processor, RAM, storage, etc. Although you can upgrade the desktops, it involves the tedious task of hardware replacement detested by the IT department.

Moreover, the changing hardware requirement with each software upgrade, it is not feasible to keep replacing the hardware.

With Enterprise VDI Solutions, you can instantly scale desktops. The flexibility of cloud means you can easily upgrade or downgrade the specifications of the virtual desktops.

8. Power Utilization

VDI for Enterprise helps in minimizing power consumption by optimizing the resources. An office with physical desktops will consume loads of electricity with each component of the desktop such as the CPU, monitor, etc. requiring power to function.

However, in the case of Enterprise VDI, multiple virtual desktops can be created on a single server, with the power consumed by the server only. However, the server requires power for processing and cooling.
What’s more, virtual desktops hosted on the cloud help businesses minimize power consumption on office premises.

Also Read: How Hosted VDI Solution Benefits Small Businesses? 

9. Resource overallocation

Resource overallocation is a process that is associated with virtualization, and therefore, with VDI for Enterprise. With the implementation of VDI, businesses can optimize resource utilization, and the costs related to it.

With Enterprise VDI, a virtual desktop can utilize the server resources of other desktops if some of them are in idle state or not using the resources allocated to them. Imagine a server with 128 GB RAM hosting 8 virtual desktops, each desktop allotted with 16 GB RAM. Once a desktop utilizes its 16 GB of RAM, it can utilize the RAM from other desktops, if the other desktops are not fully utilizing their RAM.

Resource Overallocation enhances the flexibility of your desktops so that no desktop degrades in performance.

10. Cost

Finally, the factor that every business takes into consideration while setting up an office infrastructure is the associated budget. The costs associated with desktops are recurring as every piece of hardware becomes obsolete after a certain period of time and needs to be upgraded.

Enterprise VDI ensures the use of less hardware by creating multiple virtual desktops on a single server. This reduces the physical space required for the desktop, and you can use a more compact setting for your office. Moreover, the costs related to desktop replacement and upgrade also come down.

Another alternative is DaaS, where even the servers are hosted by cloud desktop providers further reducing Capital Expenditure.

VDI Solution is Transforming Small Businesses!

2023 is the year to look forward to with respect to Enterprise VDI solutions. As small to medium-sized businesses are adopting this technology, virtual desktop providers are also stepping up by introducing DaaS as a part of their services.

VDI for Enterprises not only reduces Capital Expenditure but also eliminates hardware dependency. BYOD is another concept that gives employees the ability to work on their own devices and offers them remote accessibility.

Enterprise VDI solutions reduce IT-related issues by implementing easy provisioning of desktops, scalability, easy upgrades, and resource over-allocation.

Data remains protected even if your device is stolen or damaged as it is stored on remote servers.
Have you implemented Enterprise VDI solutions in your office yet? Do tell us in the comments section.