Unlock the Potential of Remote Work with these VDI Solutions: A Comprehensive Guide to Choosing the Right One
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) has become an essential technology for many organizations, providing employees with secure and accessible access to their desktop environment from anywhere with an internet connection. However, with multiple VDI options available on the market, it can be challenging to determine which solution is best suited for the needs of the organization. In this blog, we will explore the various VDI solutions available, highlighting their unique features and benefits to help inform the decision process for selecting a VDI solution.
VDI Options
Legacy VDI
Legacy VDI refers to traditional VDI setups that are deployed on-premises, requiring companies to purchase and maintain expensive hardware and infrastructure, as well as dedicate resources for managing and maintaining the virtual desktop environment. Legacy VDI is often complex to set up and manage, requiring specialized skills and expertise (Hypervisor, Networking, Storage, VDI). In addition, legacy VDI environments can be difficult to scale and may not be as accessible as cloud-based solutions.
Cloud VDI
Cloud-based VDI solutions offer greater scalability, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness compared to legacy VDI setups. Cloud VDI allows companies to quickly add or remove virtual desktops based on demand, without having to invest in additional hardware or infrastructure. Cloud VDI allows for all of the customizations of a Legacy on-prem solution, with the added bonus of near-infinite scalability. Cloud VDI offers a pay-as-you-go model, which means businesses only pay for the virtual machines they use on an hourly basis, making it easy to scale up or down based on demand. Due to this, monthly costs can be extremely variable requiring additional care to ensure the solution is sized appropriately to reduce costs.
Cloud PC
Cloud PC is a new cloud-based virtual desktop service offered by Microsoft. It allows users to access a Windows 10 or Windows 11 virtual desktop environment from anywhere with an internet connection. Cloud PC is a fully managed service that provides a simplified setup and management experience. It is designed to be a user-centric service, providing a streamlined and consistent experience across all devices. What Cloud PC lacks in workload customization; it makes up for in predictable costs. Pricing plans are available that cater to different usage scenarios, making it easy for organizations to choose a plan that best fits their needs and budget.
Trends
Like any other technology, specific methods, tools, and vendors tend to come and go from the spotlight. However, at this time, the VDI market is in an extremely turbulent state, and the outcomes of current market factors will affect the future of the enterprise for years to come.
Movement away from traditional vendors
The recent buyouts of both Citrix and VMWare have upended the market, with both making major changes that will accelerate the growth of new market players that would never have had an impact even as recently as two years ago. Citrix’s push to force all current customers to migrate existing on-premises installations into the cloud is met with significant resistance from enterprises not comfortable with or not legally able to make the move. VMWare’s recent acquisition by Broadcom and the announcement that unless you are a top 600 customer – They just don’t care about you – has left many organizations questioning their further relationship with the company.
This opening of the marketplace has allowed formerly niche players like Nerdio, Itopia, or Workspot to begin wooing away Citrix and VMWare’s formerly untouchable customer base.
Return to self-hosting… sort of
Enterprises that have not consistently seen the promised cost savings from moving workloads to the cloud have begun to slow or even reverse course. New advanced hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud infrastructures, such as Azure-HCI and Nutanix, allow organizations to bridge between on-site and cloud hosting to determine the best fit for each workload and burst capacity to the cloud when needed, all from centralized control planes.
Rise of the hybrid workspace
Following the rush to remote work, pushback on corporate return-to-office strategies has resulted in a workforce that requires access to applications and data that seamlessly and consistently enable high productivity from staff, regardless of physical location, be it in-office, home-office, or the digital-nomad lifestyle.
Enterprises are moving towards delivering focused applications and data while moving away from the fully realized VDI desktops of a few years ago. This is not a full retreat to the "Seamless Published Apps" of Citrix XenApp. It is a re-imagining of app delivery as a self-hosted SaaS model, providing anywhere-anytime access to data while retaining control of the application and its data with the enterprise. Changes are being manifested in various ways, such as stripped-down, minimally personalized cloud PCs that only run basic OS and receive all applications at run time. The maturation of MDM and other remote provisioning tools allows enterprises to seamlessly configure remote corporate assets as well as BYOD.
Enabling Your Cloud VDI / Cloud PC Journey: Benefits to Review and Questions to Ask
Benefits to Review
1. Scalability - Cloud computing makes it simpler to expand with the ups and downs of the firm, assisting you in removing redundancies or instantly adding storage capacity.
2. Accessibility - By switching to the cloud, customers may access their programs and information from anywhere, potentially saving money on infrastructure and physical storage.
3. Performance - Customers and employees alike benefit from the cloud's improved application performance. Data loss prevention strategies are included in service-level agreements, downtime is reduced, and new tools and applications are integrated much more quickly.
4. IT and Security Support - Particularly for highly specialized services, cloud providers frequently offer IT and security resources that you might not have in-house. Additionally, because cloud providers manage IT, they take care of software patches and system updates as well as ensuring that your cloud infrastructure complies with regulatory standards.
Questions to Ask
Cloud migration needs a strategic plan to be successful. While integrating new technology into your infrastructure, you must be ready to respond to questions such as:
1. What cloud platform should I use?
2. What are the benefits to the business of moving to a cloud platform?
3. How will it enhance how businesses operate and perform?
4. What resources will move to the cloud? Data? Applications?
5. How would these assets function in the cloud, and where are they currently located?
6. What is the best way to modify current applications for the cloud?
7. How will the management of apps in the cloud be maintained?
Many businesses have already started the transition to the cloud, learn more about our Modern Workplace solutions and contact us to start planning a successful migration to the cloud.