Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, or VDI, is a desktop replacement solution designed to move the more disaster-prone and business-critical components of an end-user computing device to a virtualised layer within the data centre. And, it will replace them with a more secure, highly available and easier to manage access device at the user’s work area or anywhere the user is connected.
Solution benefits for business
Desktop virtualisation provides customers with an alternative to physical desktops that is more cost-effective in the long run by providing easier management, higher availability, better power efficiency and increased reliability through server-class hardware, virtualisation software and stateless access devices. By centralising the user environment into the data centre and delivering the desktop to a connected user you can:
- Maximise infrastructure investment by leveraging industry-standard hardware, management tools and virtualisation capabilities;
- Bring high availability to the desktop environment;
- Facilitate efficient desktop configuration, management and backup through centralisation of resources;
- Optimise resource utilisation through dynamic allocation;
- Secure application and data centrally within the data centre while ensuring complete user isolation;
- Bring rapid replacement and simple support capabilities to the desktop with thin client solutions.
Issues solved by VDI
Compliance and security: By pushing end-user data back to the data centre you gain control over user’s data that was previously reserved for corporate data centre applications.
You can eliminate the worst effects of theft with VDI. A thief who steals a thin client is left with a device that has little value outside of a corporate environment and your confidential data remains secure.
With VDI, customising and categorising users’ experiences are greatly simplified through connection brokers, which allow you to define policies and user experiences from a central location.
Business continuity and disaster recovery: Massive data loss (of what was formerly believed to be secure data) is possible. Whether through acts of nature or acts of man, virtualisation has helped improve the concept of business continuity and disaster recovery by bringing techniques such as VMware High Availability to the desktop. You can now bring desktops up in a new location in the event of a disaster. You can also – using connection brokers – prioritise who gets access to resources if things do go bad.
Diverse workforce: Because of the flexibility of VDI, end users just need a network connection to get a resource. Those resources are far simpler to customise and present thanks to connection brokers. You can also do this more cost-effectively as the labour required to handle customisation and management is greatly reduced.
Heterogeneous hardware: A thin client has a longer refresh cycle than a desktop because it is extremely reliable with no moving parts and is end-user replaceable.
Desktop envy disappears as you put the same device everywhere and change only the back-end resources.
Go green: A thin client and VDI session generally use less than 15 Watts of electricity combined. A desktop may consume more than 120 watts.
Computime is uniquely positioned to provide the ultimate Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. We provide a totally integrated solution, providing the servers, storage, access devices, management, software and services to create a successful VDI implementation while remaining a single source to answer questions and provide support for your solution. This is possible through our partnership with all leading vendors in the virtualisation market, including HP, Sun Microsystems, VMware, Microsoft and Citrix.