Nowadays more and more companies are empowering employees to work from home with cloud-based Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). In comparison with on-premises VDI, a cloud-based virtual desktop eliminates most capital expenses while providing greater flexibility when working from anywhere.
The VDI market is accelerating with Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop and Apple’s recent entrance into this space. As the market grows, so does the number of service providers and solutions, including custom offerings across a wide range of pricing plans. So, what are your options from a variety of VDI plans?
For more perspectives and insights, Ace Cloud Hosting continues to increase its reach to professionals whose interest lies in cloud technology & Virtual Desktop Infrastructure(VDI).
We reached out to Gates Ouimette, an industry expert, to get some important and valuable insights on Cloud-based VDI technology.
Gates Ouimette is currently working as a Business Development Lead at Centric Consulting (ranked in Forbes among Best Management Consulting Firms 4 times). He is a founding partner of Kloudreadiness, where he now hangs his ITconnecter shingle while providing emerging technology strategy and capital formation assistance to various startups with a focus on digital transformation across data, process & CX.
Kloudreadiness’ KPI’s are in Cloud Computing, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships with a combined 75 years of IT innovation, strategy, process, and technology solutions to the financial services, MRD and high technology industries, startups to F500. Gates has 40+ published articles on the intersection of business and technology, including topics such as Enterprise Mobility (Remote Workers), A Powerful Voice (VoIP), etc.
Follow him on social media: Twitter and LinkedIn.
Let us know what Gates Ouimette has to say when asked about his views on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) –
1. What are your thoughts on VDI Technology in Cloud?
VDI Technology in the Cloud “should” provide a greater level of security and, with companies such as IGEL, should allow extended use of what is typically a CapEx investment (e.g. PC).
Security “should” be specified depending upon whether a private, public, or hybrid cloud is being used. As each cloud variation will have different security pros & cons so to maximize VDI’s security benefit, the inherent security of the cloud platform in which they are deployed must be understood and vetted.
Extending the life of a CapEx investment, while there are VDI software solutions (e.g. VMWare Horizon, Citrix, etc.) and hardware solutions (incl. thin clients), mixing/matching the solutions can cause headaches in terms of the ability to build a “gold image.” A consistent, stable, manageable, and upgradeable gold image, extending a standard PC vs. adding in thin-clients to save short-money on HW may increase the total lifecycle cost. Cloud-based VDI should help provide a more consistent solution at the endpoint.
2. How do you see Virtualization in 2021?
For Virtual desktops, the future is now! If companies don’t move to VDI now, during this pandemic, they won’t have a reason to do so after that. Virtualization’s definition is changing to a more expansive definition, driven by applications using containers, etc.
His comments were more for Enterprise; for SMB, VDI still makes the most sense but will require the channel to understand and embrace that.
3. Which industry gets more benefit from DaaS solutions?
Industry benefits for DaaS are really across all industries – from retail banking teller platforms to healthcare “WOW,” to manufacturing, to retail. Benefits come down to analyzing costs, benefits, requirements by function rather than across an entire vertical industry.
Related topic – 6 Industries That Are Adopting DaaS During COVID-19 Pandemic.
4. VDI Predictions for 2021 & beyond?
While industry analysts will provide the best adoption projections, at a macro-level, with Microsoft supporting appropriate Windows OS licensing models, and with Amazon/Apple partnering on “VDI,” there should be an increasing benefit to DaaS, especially with no CAPEX required. I believe we will see increased “conflict” at the endpoint level as companies mix/match desktops, laptops, thin-clients, browsers & other software – which could lead to an additional increase in DaaS adoption.
5. Questions to Ask from VDI Providers?
Rather than ask VDI providers questions, I would hire a professional consultant to help do a business needs analysis as part of transformation acceleration. Worrying about features/functions without having baseline metrics, defined/optimized processes & workflows and a direct linkage to business value will leave end-users unpleasantly surprised.
Conclusion
We are living in the era of digital transformation & the future of VDI is cloud. So, according to our expert Gates Ouimette, it’s the best time for the small to medium enterprises to move towards a better future that empowers the end-user experience & adopt a workspace environment that can be accessible & managed from anywhere. That is only possible through cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
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