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Why is end-user computing important for today and the future?

By 7 Mins Read
Why is end-user computing important for today and the future

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Why is end-user computing important for today and the future?

The pandemic has transformed many things irreversibly. What was initially deemed to be a temporary disruption in work and business is now indicating that it will continue to stay. According to a recent report, Microsoft said that hybrid working models would be the future, looking at the findings and considerations of work trends over the past year.

Interestingly, the pandemic led to an expedition of digital transformation in organizations, and in some cases, even forced it to happen. Suddenly, companies that were delaying their plans of moving their workload to the cloud had to shift in a matter of days or weeks.

One aspect of digital workplace transformation that impacts end-user computing is desktop virtualization or centralized desktop infrastructure. This basically means the shift of end-user computing, applications, and storage to the cloud, allowing users to access these resources from a web browser. This is crucial because businesses are entrusting employees with high-performance EUC devices, which will require updates, patches, support, and replacement. And it seems more convenient and sensible to just let them access all the organization resources needed for work through secure, company authorized EUC services in the cloud.

The shift to IT and EUC over the years

If we took a look back twenty years ago, end-user computing didn’t exist. During the time, users worked only with Windows Pcs and applications, and firms had desktop administrators for infrastructure management. However, today’s users work in heterogeneous environments and so, acknowledging end-user computing is necessary.

During the course of a day, modern users may be working with internal apps, virtual apps, SaaS web apps, or native mobile apps either through their Windows computer, or Mac, or iOS tablet. They could be working at the office, or home, or maybe connected to public Wi-Fi. There is a growing diversity of apps, devices, and work styles, and that’s what has made the changes in EUC over the years.

However, the major shifts to EUC happened only over the last decade. Web and SaaS apps became more feasible alternatives to Windows applications, and mobile devices made a rapid transition from just being portable email machines to devices that can replace computers or laptops for many tasks. Moreover, mobile devices have even become powerful enough to open up and support new business models.

One significant turning point was when end-users started adopting web and SaaS applications and mobile devices and bringing them to work. This reversed the old traditional way when IT was entirely in charge and led to the consumerization of IT. Although it caused chaos and security risks, it also paved the way for major technological leaps forward.

Another trend that eventually put IT in a different position than before was the mobile revolution, where end-users combined work and personal data on a single device. One of the advantages that mobile devices and SaaS apps brought to the table was resistance to many traditional forms of viruses and malware. But it also gave rise to some of the top security issues like phishing campaigns and stolen passwords in this new EUC world.

Considering the end-users, applications, data, devices, and security concerns, conditional access technologies can be improved to offer a common framework to deal with the heterogeneous EUC world over the next few years. Eventually, EUC deployments should also become unified and resilient.

The shifts to IT and EUC over the years

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Significance of EUC in the modern world

Whether it is the pandemic or the urge to hire the best talents, the work environment has changed drastically, irrespective of their locations. Businesses have to look for newer ways to survive, retain their success, and look for ways to grow. These pointers are prompting the organizations to recalibrate and revamp their operations. EUC services are one of the forerunners as one of the most successful application deliveries to a workforce, which is not hindered by geographical presence. The main benefits can be summarized as follows:

  • Productivity and collaboration: EUC is nothing but an umbrella term, covering all technologies like VDI and DaaS. Organizations can use these tools to deliver and manage desktops, data, and applications securely to all their end-users.
  • Enhance the power of automation: EUC services help automate most of the steps associated with computing the delivery of the resources. These services can improve efficiency and reduce the staff’s workload so that they can devote more of their time to other innovative projects.
  • Centralized management: Have you ever lent thought to how arduous managing the traditional IT infrastructure can be? There are hundreds and thousands of physical computers at the enterprise level, and managing all of these is an administrative nightmare. The EUC has a solution to this issue. Right from installing updates, applications, patches, and operating systems, that too all from a centralized location, is relatively easy now.
  • Supporting the BYOD concept: Many organizations nowadays prefer BYOD or Bring Your Own Device Policy. This policy helps in reducing a lot of IT expenses. Once these devices are delivered over the cloud as virtual desktops, we have to leave it over to the end-user computing services to provide the ideal technological platform.
  • Better security: When talking about cloud-based EUC infrastructure offered by third-party service providers, availing a better security profile becomes relatively easy. The data is not spread across multiple devices; instead, it is centrally located on cloud data centers.

Significance of EUC in the modern world

How enterprises perceive end-user computing (EUC) as a key enabler of digital transformation to enhance workforce productivity and deliver seamless experience to their employees

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The future of End-user Computing

The end user computing services have already proven critical in aiding businesses in sailing smoothly through the COVID-19 scenario. Suddenly, organizations had to shift to a remote working model. But now, they are also considering making the work from home model permanent even when the situations are favorable. Even before the pandemic, a huge percentage of the workforce worked from their homes, at least some days of the week. Looking at all these prospects, organizations will stick and adopt every service that will help them get the work done on every device and every network. Thus, the future of any productive workplace will be based on end-user computing.

The future of End-user Computing

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FAQs

Why is end-user computing important?

The knowledge workers of today are highly mobile and prefer working across multiple devices in different environments. Additionally, they have also been accustomed to access everything instantly through the cloud on their mobile devices. Therefore, organizations have to focus on offering a high-performing EUC infrastructure to ensure their employees receive all the key applications and data they require.

What are the benefits of EUC?

Organizations today have a huge requirement for offering mobility and BYOD to end-users. With EUC, they can deliver that. Moreover, end-user computing services also present IT organizations with the ability to centralize desktops and data within the data center, thereby helping them to keep the data and resources secure. As a result, end-users can work on multiple devices from anywhere and any time they like.

What are the applications of EUC?

EUC can be used in organizations with a diverse physical presence so that access to desktops and other applications can be offered consistently. EUC solutions can be beneficial for organizations looking to improve the management of their software licensing and provide a centralized platform for all user desktops and applications.

What are end-user computing needs?

As more and more enterprises are moving their way of working to the cloud with the help of EUC transformation, some criteria have to be followed. The first need is to have a user-centric approach that will maximize the availability of the applications and increase workforce productivity. The pay-as-you model should be available as it will help in streamlining the way the companies can build, manage, deliver and configure the desktops to the users.

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The Future for Cloud VDI Is Here Now!

By 7 Mins Read
The Future for Cloud VDI Is Here Now!

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of our life, right from the way we commute and work to the way we conduct business. While it still seems impossible to lay down a perfect prediction of how the steady-state outcome is going to be, one thing that we all can be sure of is that remote working will play a significant role in organizations going forward.

As several organizations are shifting out of the traditional confines of physical office space towards hybrid work ecosystems, it can be challenging to administer the security, manageability, and infrastructure requirements. Consequently, it makes more sense for business leaders to rely on End-User Computing (EUC) technologies to manage such environments. VDI and DaaS have come up as a solution to all the challenges that enterprises face while implementing or expanding work-from-anywhere solutions. VDI solutions are handled and maintained by the in-house staff, while DaaS is an entirely outsourced solution handled by a third-party vendor.

What is Cloud VDI?

DaaS (desktop-as-a-service) is also known as cloud VDI. Here, third-party providers create hosted virtual desktops on their cloud servers bundled with all the necessary pre-installed applications deployed on the customers’ end-point devices. DaaS or Desktop as a Service is a more pocket-friendly option for enterprises supporting remote workers and their need to access all the enterprise applications securely from anywhere. Besides, much of the burden is taken off as DaaS providers offer entirely managed desktops.

Over the past few years, several industries from medical, legal, accountancy, manufacturing, and other spaces have adopted DaaS and experienced significant growth as a result. In fact, from a Gartner’s report, we can see that DaaS will likely see revenue growth of $1.9 billion by the end of 2021 from its earlier valuation of $616 million in 2019.

VMware and Citrix are the big players in the market that make significant contributions to the VDI space. Many new companies have also joined the space, trying to deliver the best solutions to different industries. Usually, desktop-as-a-service providers partner with Citrix and VMware to offer completely managed or customized services to their clients.

Benefits of DaaS

Some of the main benefits of DaaS are:

Cost controlling: This has to be one of the most sought-after benefits of the model. The users will not have to invest in servers, licensing, or desktop hardware. DaaS ends the investment cycle associated with desktop hardware, servers, and licensing by allowing users to enroll for the yearly or monthly subscription models. This reduces capital expenditure which can be utilized for other value-added initiatives.

Agility and scalability: The dynamic nature of desktop as a service enables businesses and enterprises to scale up or down as and when required quickly. Depending on the needs of the business, users can choose to bring the hosted desktops online or push the newer applications through a hosted estate of desktops.

Continuity of business: The desktop is continuously available, along with centralized storage and backup of data making it an excellent alternative to the existing disaster recovery options. The companies can continue operating even when there is any unforeseen event or other disasters, like the current pandemic situation.

Flexibility and accessibility: With DaaS, employees can access their desktops, applications, and data over the Internet through any end device like laptops, PCs, smartphones, and tablets from anywhere and at any time. This offers employees greater flexibility and the freedom to structure their work times when they are most productive.

Security: DaaS takes over the real concerns regarding data security from the enterprises. Critical data is stored within a data center infrastructure and is regularly backed up in an environment with high levels of protection. As data isn’t stored on a local device, there is no chance of data loss. DaaS providers also ensure that the data is encrypted and is accessible through tight authentication protocols.

Cloud VDI: The Current and Future of Businesses

Cloud VDI is the current and future of businesses. To establish that, we can stress the following points.

  • Low utilization of resources: Cloud VDI is much better when it comes to pooling all resources to enhance the utilization of the devices and reduce costs.
  • Data security: Guaranteeing that the data on the PCs has an effective backup and can be immediately restored whenever there is any disaster or failure is the most significant differentiating factor of the cloud VDIs.
  • Desktop management: Cloud VDIs are capable of centralizing desktop management, although it is a complicated task. The desktop as a service provider takes it as a primary task to enhance on-demand access to the desktops from any place.

The need and demand for cloud-hosted desktop services are building traction and are expected to grow even more going forward. In fact, a survey titled “Are Desktops Doomed? Trends in Digital Workspaces, VDI and DaaS” conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) supports the statement.

Some of the major findings of the survey include,

  • Security is among the top priorities for businesses and IT professionals, and 79% of the survey respondents believed that VDI and DaaS are more secure than the traditional desktop models.
  • 40% of respondents said that they are already working with VDI and have aggressive expansion plans. Besides, 60% of the organizations that don’t use VDI are already on the verge of implementing it.

Hosted virtual desktops sure look attractive and sensible primarily from a financial perspective. But the earlier predictions regarding the rapid growth of the DaaS market didn’t go as expected. That doesn’t mean that DaaS models won’t witness a rise in their popularity now. It’s just that there are a few hindrances to their adoption as large companies will still need time to convert to a DaaS model. On the other hand, companies that aren’t heavily invested in the traditional desktop infrastructure can easily migrate to DaaS. Hence, it might take a little longer for the DaaS market to match the hype.

FAQs

What is the future of VDI?

Considering the inception of VDI over a decade ago, it has made significant progress as a top desktop solution for several businesses. The traction can also be attributed to big giants like Citrix and VMware, who have successfully helped organizations eliminate their operational and performance challenges.

The VDI market is still evolving and trying to be aligned with the current market requirements like faster desktops with flash storage and high-end graphics processing.

Is DaaS the same as VDI?

VDI and DaaS have some clear-cut differentiating factors. In DaaS, applications and desktops are hosted either on a private or a public cloud, whereas in a VDI, the workspace is hosted on the private data center of an organization. DaaS is also quite flexible when it comes to deployment as geographical location does not matter, but in VDI, the data center has to be in the vicinity.

What is DaaS in cloud computing?

Desktop as a Service or DaaS is a virtual model of deployment of desktops in which the VDI technology gets hosted on a cloud. Organizations can deliver desktops with cloud hosting to their employees with the help of this model.

Is DaaS the future?

Undeniably, DaaS is the future. Many companies resort to permanent work-from-home models, and DaaS helps replicate the office hardware infrastructure and offers several other benefits.

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Effects of Pandemic on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

By 6 Mins Read
Effects of Pandemic on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Key Takeaways

  • The COVID-19-induced shift to remote work has piqued the interest in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and its cloud spin-off – Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS).
  • With many schools and universities sticking to remote learning, VDI helps bridge the desktop divide and enhance outcomes.
  • Rising spending on public cloud infrastructure will augur well for VDI now and beyond the pandemic.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) has been around for a few decades. But the COVID-19 pandemic has put a big spotlight on VDI, and 2020 may well have been the game-changer for this technology to go across the board.

While the pandemic has impacted almost every industry around the globe, VDI and DaaS services have seen tremendous adoption as more and more businesses shift their entire process to remote working.

A recent report found that the global VDI market is likely to be worth around $13 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 14.4% from 2019 through 2027. Such staggering growth reflects the current disruptive impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

So, what’s driving this trend? Read on to know more.

Sudden Shift to Remote Work

Following the nationwide shutdowns to contain the coronavirus spread, several businesses have to swiftly adapt and execute compute groundwork to support remote employees. VDI has emerged as a logical fit, and businesses have employed VDI solutions at length.

Experts anticipate that the COVID-19 crisis will influence 70% of desktop virtualization business cases through 2023. Now, businesses are looking for technology that is mobile, scalable, more secure, and cost-efficient. They are switching to centralized virtual desktop infrastructure solutions, including both cloud-based and on-prem solutions, that are safer and leaner.

The COVID-19 crisis is expected to influence 70% of desktop virtualization business cases through 2023 and businesses are switching to virtual desktop infrastructure solutions for better mobility, security, scalability and cost savings.

As most of the processing for VDI is done on the centralized servers, businesses don’t have to bank on expensive hardware for workers to access resources. Also, this streamlines device management, security, and support.

None of the linked devices store any confidential information. This approach is highly secure for remote employees. Software patches and updates can be easily applied across all access device hardware securely and effectively, ensuring everybody is well on track.

Flexibility and Speed – Much-needed while Working from Home

Moving ahead, VDI allows businesses to provision and de-provision systems with typical application sets as needed within minutes instead of hours or days. This speed and flexibility of service delivery offer a terrific opportunity for VDI in the post-COVID-19 world. Properly leveraged, VDI can curb the hardware ownership and support personnel needed to support the remote employees.

VDI service providers will do well to comprehend their customers’ particular needs and their potential challenges in the future. Exploring the critical areas that stem from a sudden switch to remote work will, no doubt, result in sales.

Putting the Classroom in Cloud

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a great deal of pressure on educational institutions to swiftly turn to a virtual learning experience. Now, the remainder of 2021 won’t be business as usual for several school and university students. While some educational institutes have announced plans to resume in-class lectures, others are planning for continued online classes.

User experience is king in this context. It has to be on-par or better compared to in-person. VDI provides a means to bridge the gap by offering students streamlined, simple, straightforward options for remote access.

While remote learning remains a prerequisite, it’s not sufficient to simply enable limited IT access and provide canned lectures. The student experience and user-friendliness are critical to stepping up academic outcomes and bolster ongoing student enrolment. Executed smartly, VDI provides a potential way to achieve both.

Furthermore, as educational institutes embrace DaaS to set up new virtual education labs, the market growth opportunities for VDI are likely to boom.

Public Cloud – An Unsung Hero

In a way, the public-health crisis has served as a de facto catalyst for unfolding the flexibility and value of cloud infrastructure (once again) and triggered faster adoption. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the global end-user expenditure on public cloud services will surge 18.4% in 2021 to total $304.9 Bn, according to Gartner.

Earlier, businesses were reluctant to shift critical workloads to the cloud due to security worries. But with tech giants such as Microsoft alone investing over $1 Bn on public cloud security and roping in more than 3,500 worldwide cybersecurity professionals, the industry is almost accepting that public cloud is becoming safer versus conventional data centers.

(In this case study, we explain how even critical cyberattacks like ransomware can be contained promptly in a DaaS environment and how organizations can achieve seamless business continuity with zero downtime: Proactive System Protection by Anunta against Ransomware with DaaS)

We have already seen conventional on-site applications such as Microsoft Office shifting to the cloud with Microsoft 365. VDI looks set to follow along the same path. Moreover, with the rise of cloud service providers, the capability and pricing of VDI have improved a great deal.

A Shift to Non-persistent Desktops for a Persistent User Experience

Conventionally, cost and experience have been two of the biggest challenges to large-scale VDI employment. Businesses looking to ensure a continuous user experience to their customers had to invest in cost-prohibitive dedicated hardware to back each virtual machine (VM) – persistent desktops.

On the other hand, non-persistent desktops deliver considerable cost-cutting but do not save user preferences and set up a new machine every time a customer logs in to their virtual desktop.

VDI service providers, including Microsoft and Citrix, have addressed this hurdle by putting an additional personalization layer over non-persistent machines thus ensuring a persistent experience to non-persistent desktops. Furthermore, the adoption of non-persistent VDI will skyrocket 18% through 2026.

What Lies Ahead for VDI post-COVID-19?

People and industries are still bouncing back from the pandemic shockwaves, and it’s a little too early to make overly specific predictions about the future of VDI following the COVID-19 pandemic. That said, a post-COVID world promises to spur recovery as enterprises of all sizes facilitate their entire workforce with secure access to business-critical applications – irrespective of device, location, or browser.

Virtual desktop infrastructure solutions have matured, and the infrastructure that supports VDI has also matured. Now they are a bit cheaper, more stable, and no longer confined to use-cases in particular domains. The market is still evolving, with more potential developments in the virtualization space after the COVID-19 chapter ends.

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How Hosted VDI Can Help Maintain Business Continuity?

By 6 Mins Read
How Hosted VDI Can Help Maintain Business Continuity?

Key Takeaways

  • Hosted virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) establishes both infrastructure and workspace recovery and ensures business continuity for the end-user.
  • VDI enables better traceability, transparency, and control over application resource consumption.
  • Coupled with UC&C, VDI encourages businesses to have a unified, secure, and effective collaboration experience across the board.

Power outages. Cyber-attacks. Human error. Natural calamities. Any of these can be the fatal tipping point for potentially disastrous disruptions to the IT services on which businesses depend. And let’s not forget the COVID-19 pandemic, which has uncovered crucial business continuity downsides across every industry.

If anybody still believes that having a business continuity and disaster recovery (DR) plan shouldn’t be a top priority, you haven’t been catching sight of recent events. For instance, over 100,000 small-scale businesses in the US alone were forced to shut down due to the COVID-19 crisis, due no doubt in part to their inability to maintain business continuity in the face of an unexpected crisis.

At present, the majority of the people have to work from home due to the prevailing public health crisis across continents. In these challenging times, businesses need to keep their business continuity plan up and running. Now is the time to consider migrating to smart cloud solutions like virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), which by its nature helps to optimize business continuity.

VDI is designed to support businesses in the modern era. Let’s understand how it helps companies maintain business continuity.

En Route to a Flexible Home Office

Remote work isn’t going anywhere, so businesses have to ensure a top-notch customer experience while reimagining their remote work strategies. Today’s hosted virtual desktop, which is one form of VDI, solutions scale up endpoint security while improving workforce fluidity and streamlining network access.

VDI runs a thin client on the end-user system, a virtual workspace instance, to offer the virtualized applications, desktop, or other resources. Solutions and tools typically contain on-site storage, servers, and network components. However, cloud-based deployments are becoming more prevalent owing to recent events.

What’s more, the value of VDI continues to increase significantly. The VDI industry is presently worth $4.8 Bn, with cloud deployment making up for around a tenth of the revenue. Considering the existing business environment, VDI is seeing a demand upsurge as businesses look for resilient, cost-efficient ways to deliver scalable, high-grade services to remote users.

VDI is seeing a demand upsurge as businesses look for resilient, cost-efficient ways to deliver scalable, high-grade services to remote users.

Nonetheless, VDI solutions are intricate service chains that bank on several other IT services. They’re subject to both server and client network bandwidth and cluster capacity, the number of hops, and distance. Businesses have to ensure that they are providing an optimum user experience. This, in turn, requires transparency across this complicated service chain to see the pattern across multiple silos.

Curbing Risks by Improving Transparency

Hosted VDI is not a set-it-and-forget-it technology. Like any business solution, it is highly susceptible to data packet loss and network latency. Also, lack of server cluster capacity is a primary reason behind a slow VDI connection because it can increase application response times and slow down resource-poor client devices. With a record-breaking number of synchronous users, the pressure to achieve high performance is paramount.

However, efficiency takes a hit when the user experience is below par, implying the system has little room for errors. Businesses require a smooth log-on experience and a highly responsive desktop session for each user. IT experts must stave off silos and boost efficiency by constantly optimizing performance and creating a robust VDI infrastructure.

The ideal way for hosted virtual desktop providers to spot the problems early is by monitoring the user experience while tracking key performance indicators (KPI) for all tiers of the service chain. This becomes possible only by adding vendor-neutral tracking capabilities to current native solutions. Only then can businesses enjoy the benefits of collaboration across all relevant IT components to curb operating expenses (OPEX) and provide excellent service.

Getting Businesses Ready for the Long Run

IT experts adopted VDI at an early stage of the pandemic-induced quarantine because it offered them the ability to deliver a secure computing climate to the remote workforce and lock applications and privileges. But for VDI solutions to remain efficient over hte long term, the IT crew needs to ensure a good user experience.

If VDI has emerged as one backbone of remote work technologies, another is unified communication and collaboration (UC&C). This technology can greatly simplify remote work, but, like VDI, it is highly susceptible to packet loss, network bandwidth problems, and jitter. Given that the VDI-driven workforce can access UC&C services from within VDI sessions, operators encounter the additional hurdle of monitoring delivery of a complicated service like UC&C across another complicated service like VDI — further highlighting the need for end-to-end transparency.

Profile and policy-based management, which is one of VDI’s strong suits, can also become one of its pitfalls amid frequent changes such as a pandemic. A policy devised for a regional branch office might not apply to another area across the country or the globe.

Furthermore, UC&C and VDI must go through meticulous capacity planning. The last capacity planning cycle did not contribute to the explosive growth in remote work in 2020.

As such, market leaders should handle risks by embracing a pre-emptive approach that enables the quick sorting of headwinds and long-run (capacity) metric accumulation across UC&C and VDI, and the services they depend on, including network infrastructure and servers.

Connecting the Dots

VDI solutions have helped businesses of all shapes and sizes by allowing them to realize their objectives without the large cash outlay required for conventional desktop infrastructure. But to extract full value from VDI, you have to invest in additional technologies and tools. While most technologies were primarily developed for on-site and bare metal deployment, they were later re-invented for VDI.

When properly implemented and managed, the benefits and value of VDI offset the additional investments needed in technologies and tools. But the key to successful VDI implementation is cashing in on the right expertise and implementing an efficient plan.

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In Desktop virtualization

Digital Workplace Trends for 2021

By 5 Mins Read
Digital Workplace Trends for 2021

Key Takeaways

  • Organizations’ response to change by adopting digital technologies helped them stay relevant and productive.
  • Some top digital workplace trends:
    • Increased need for decentralized technology services
    • Need for on-demand workforce and virtual collaboration between the employees
    • Hybrid working model as new normal

The pandemic forced enterprises across the world to shut their doors and have employees work remotely. It was a monumental change, and transition to remote working took effort for most businesses. But, many organizations realized that their response to change is what will help them stay relevant, improve their bottom line, and remain productive in this digital era.

As a result of this, some very apparent digital workplace trends in 2021 have emerged – these trends have been on the rise for a while now, but the pandemic has no doubt increased their adoption and importance.

So, what are the trends that businesses should be taking into account with regard to the digital workplace, going forward? Let’s discuss.

Top Digital Workplace Trends in 2021

Need for decentralized technology services increases

Digital workplaces are a lot more democratized, which means going forward, businesses will be relying less and less on a centralized IT team to handle their digital requirements. Instead, the top businesses right now are shifting to an end user computing model, which helps employees connect to virtual desktops from anywhere in the world.

Switching to virtualization technologies like these helps businesses reduce their expenses and efforts. While in the past IT personnel would have had to manually install updates and new software applications in each device, with end user computing, the changes can be deployed just on a central server to reflect in every desktop image.

Automation of routine work

The pandemic has accelerated the usage of algorithms to automate several routine operational activities, and this trend is only expected to grow in the future. Many enterprises have recently made the switch from physical desktops to virtualization technologies, which helps automate disaster recovery, security, and updates. In the past, these tasks would have required a mammoth effort from a dedicated IT team within the organization.

Digital dexterity takes centerstage

One of the key digital workplace market trends this year (and possibly what we will see in the future) has been how artificial intelligence is helping the digital dexterity of employees.

Business users already know how to perform familiar tasks like sending emails, creating documents, and storing data on the local drive, among other things. But, given how fast new systems are being adopted by companies, not everyone can figure out how to best use these technologies, causing employees a lot of stress.

What this ultimately results in is employees resorting to outdated tools and systems to solve novel issues. It’s safe to say that you can’t compete in this digital era by working in this fashion. But, that’s where artificial intelligence steps in. AI can do a lot to improve the digital dexterity of your employees with on-the-job learning. This has an impact on productivity and, in turn, corporate returns.

The need for on-demand workforce

Circumstances have made it such that remote work is a necessity for almost all organizations. While not all businesses were prepared for it, they had to embrace the change. Fortunately, technologies like end user computing allow businesses to sustain a remote, distributed workforce that goes beyond the boundaries of a traditional office setup.

With virtualization technologies, companies can hire the right employees and assemble talented teams in a matter of days. Gone are the days of spending weeks and months trying to find employees with the right skills and competencies. As on-demand workforces become the norm, companies around the world will also increasingly move towards solutions like virtual desktops.

Working beyond physical boundaries will become the norm

Given the impact of the pandemic, it’s likely that we will never go back to our pre-COVID working ways. Remote working has become one of the top digital trends in workplaces, and both organizations and employees have adapted to it.

While some businesses will adopt a completely remote working model, many others will implement a hybrid working model. Fortunately, with virtualization technologies like end user computing, your business can support remote workers, without any hassle or security concerns.

Virtual collaboration becomes more significant

Virtual collaboration is a key trend that has increased in significance over the years. There are software solutions available now that can practically replace all in-person interactions.

Through things like social forums and virtual meetings, your employees will never feel the need to have a watercooler catch-up or in-person meeting, provided you’ve invested in the right tools. Solutions like file-based collaboration and screen sharing enable employees to have fruitful discussions, share inputs, and come up with innovative ideas, in real-time, without being in the same room as each other.

Conclusion

Adopting digital technologies to enable a mobile workforce that can improve your bottom line is key. Fortunately, with our virtualization technologies, like DaaS, Managed Virtual Desktops, Digital Workspaces, and Cloud Transformation, you can be at the forefront of the ever-changing digital workplace service trends.

As a partner to leading industry OEMs like Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, AWS, and Google. Anunta offers managed virtual desktop solutions and digital workspace solutions. Premier organizations, across the banking, healthcare, finance, and other industries, are already using our services to scale their business. To know more about our offerings and how you can deploy virtualization technologies in your workplace, reach out to our experts today.

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End User Computing – How Does It Help Businesses?

By 5 Mins Read
End User Computing - How Does It Help Businesses?

Are you wondering what end user computing is all about? Over the last decade, end user computing (EUC) has changed the face of IT infrastructure. EUC works by providing users access to business data and applications at any time, from anywhere in the world. This is done by connecting to a virtual desktop infrastructure, through the end-user’s own device.

End user computing offers support for a number of user devices including desktops and laptops, thin-client terminal devices, tablets, and even smartphones! These devices, of course, can be provided by the business to their employees or the business could implement a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model, wherein employees can use their personal devices to connect to their virtual desktops. Regardless of the means that are used, the benefits for businesses are many, especially right now, given that the pandemic has forced many employees across the world to work remotely. Here’s all you need to know about this technology if you are considering making the switch to EUC.

Why Should Your Business Consider End User Computing?

If improving your bottom line, increasing business efficiency, and supporting mobility are goals for your business, you need to adopt EUC. From a security standpoint, it offers several benefits. For instance, you can be sure that sensitive data will never reside on your employee’s (or any other end user) device. Instead, the end user will need to connect to the application server to access their confidential data.

This means even if a device is damaged, stolen, or lost, you don’t have to worry about your data being compromised if you have deployed EUC.

EUC also frees up your employees, so they are able to work from anywhere and at any time. This solves a number of problems for businesses and for employees. Eventually, this will save your business time, effort, and money – resources that can be channeled elsewhere to improve your business profits.

Key Benefits of End User Computing

    1. Centralized Management: Managing a number of desktops is a daunting task for your IT personnel. Imagine having to update each workstation every time there is an OS update or new software application. It would take days, if not weeks, for a large, dedicated team of IT professionals to update multiple desktops. EUC solves this issue for you with centralized management. This makes it immeasurably easier for your IT personnel to manage your IT infrastructure. Not to mention EUC will also reduce the need for dedicated IT staff.

 

    1. Bring Your Own Device Support: Traditionally, organizations of all sizes and industries provide devices to employees. While this may have sufficed in the past, it is no longer the case in the digital era. Employees, today, want the freedom to use their own devices for business tasks, especially if that means they will have the opportunity to work from anywhere.

 

    1. Secure Environment: Another key benefit is the enhanced security offered by EUC. Anunta’s end user computing technology will allow your employees to access business data and applications, without storing anything on their devices. You can further control this access using authorization technologies and modern authentication. Given how important it is to avoid data breaches or intentional cyber attacks, it acts as a safeguard against security threats and malware.

 

  1. Supports Business Mobility: While the pandemic has now forced scores of companies across the globe to migrate to a remote working style, there has always been a need for mobility – that is for employees to be able to work from any location remotely. Given the current state of affairs, the need for mobility is only going to increase. If you go the traditional route, this puts a lot of pressure on your resources and IT personnel since you will have to support all your employees with company-owned laptops and other e-devices that they can access from remote locations. That’s why switching to end user computing right now is a wise choice. With EUC, you can ensure that your employees are able to use their own devices to connect to virtual desktops, irrespective of where they are or whether they have organization-provided devices to work from.

Conclusion

Now that you know what end user computing services are, you know this technology provides a range of benefits. It may, of course, require some operational changes along different stages, starting from design to deployment. But, given its long-term benefits and the fact that it may just be the default computing model in the very near future, it’s essential to make the switch.

That’s where we come in. With our EUC solutions, we help your employees collaborate in real-time, in the most secure manner, helping you scale your business and giving your employees the opportunity to thrive in this remote working era. Our partnerships with some of the largest OEMs including VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, AWS and Google cloud, and helps us offer solutions that will benefit businesses in all sectors, be it healthcare, banking, finance, or anything else. To know more about our offerings and how our end user computing solutions can help your business, schedule a consultation with our experts at Anunta Tech today.

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3 Factors to Consider When Moving to the Cloud

By 5 Mins Read
3 Factors to Consider When Moving to the Cloud

Change is difficult for everyone, and enterprise computing is no different. The degree of difficulty can be minimized based on the strategic approach and project plan, as well as maximizing end-user acceptance.

But first, what exactly is a cloud desktop? A cloud desktop, which is commonly referred to as Desktop as a Service (DaaS), presents a full operating system workstation and applications as hosted externally by a cloud infrastructure. The user device is largely irrelevant and can be a tablet, desktop computer, laptop, or even a smartphone.

Strategic Approach to Cloud Desktops

Enterprises that successfully adopt cloud desktops incorporate solid justifications; lack of clear goals or simply joining a technical wave are not good enough reasons. Common drivers for initiating this type of transition are based on cost savings, offloading IT services, lack of availability of qualified IT personnel, data center hardware maintenance, licensing intricacies, application integration issues, and other complexities. Typically, cloud desktops are considered for not just one reason but instead multiple business and technical requirements.

The size of the enterprise bears weight as well. Small businesses are more likely to be plagued with most if not all of the above drivers and thus have a more immediate need to make a strategic change in short order. Small businesses must be flexible and agile, and strategy is often determined by the business owner or a few members of management. Although cloud desktops can positively benefit large companies as well, these larger entities often have IT staff, expertise, and equipment and thus spend more time defining strategic direction and facilitating change.

Selecting a partner that aligns with your strategic approach is an important success criterion. Querying the partner about the number of years in business, the number of virtual desktops supported, how little or how much technical support is provided to users, service level agreements, customer administrative interface and expectations, as well as testimonials will weigh into the decision. In addition, a trial period will provide a realistic demonstration of potential partner capabilities and services.

Planning for Success

The adage, “failure to plan is planning to fail,” is certainly true when it comes to cloud desktop implementations. The project plan should include clearly defined goals. In addition, key aspects of the project plan include testing “what if?” scenarios, application integration, databases/file storage and repositories, and network connectivity, as well as the actual transition process.

In addition, the actual cutover may require consulting, technical, and/or training assistance, depending on the complexity of the current computer environment. For example, if the new virtual cloud desktop environment will be based solely on Microsoft Office applications, even including Dynamics CRM, Visio, SharePoint, or other add-ons, these can easily be incorporated into the cloud. However, more complex client/server applications including backend resources will necessitate additional time, integration effort, and storage requirements that should be incorporated into the project plan.

User Acceptance and Transition

Ensuring that users are content with a new computer model, as well as a satisfactory transition, are the most critical keys to success. If users do not fully embrace the new computing system, achievement of project goals and work effort may be compromised.

If users are complaining about slow computers, application response times, the time necessary to upgrade anti-virus software and the like, they will probably be receptive to a new system that addresses these items. But keeping in mind that a percentage of users are resistant to change no matter the benefit, it is important that communications regarding upcoming changes are clear and concise.

Engaging some users in a pilot is an excellent way to minimize resistance to new cloud desktops. These early adopters should be composed of individuals from various departments and work titles, and they should be encouraged to share their experiences with their co-workers. As a result, their co-workers will build up excitement for the upcoming change and be receptive to it.

User training helps drive adoption. Whether that training is formal or consists of a few short videos, these tools help by addressing questions and potential issues before they alienate new users. Access to Q & A materials will serve as reference materials.

Some users may be fearful that their jobs or their co-workers’ jobs will be eliminated due to adoption of cloud computing and thus express resistance. If this is the case, a straightforward announcement should be made to dispel grapevine rumors.

A few users will be hesitant to give up their beloved computers for their day-to-day work. Users that are accustomed to accessing local files or other data stored on the local hard drive may feel that they are losing an element of control in the workplace and that the cloud is monitoring every computing activity. These concerns should be acknowledged, and users should be encouraged to appreciate the centralization and advanced computing capabilities that cloud desktops offer.

The transition process and timeline should likewise be communicated clearly to users, including dates, events, and activities. If a weekend cutover takes place, a few users should be involved with testing to ensure full functionality on Monday morning.

Conclusion

As you consider transitioning to cloud desktops, a robust strategic approach, project plan, and user acceptance engagement are keys to maximizing success. User acceptance can be the most complex aspect of a cloud desktop rollout, and achieving user adoption goals is contingent upon involvement and clear communications.

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4 Reasons Why Cloud Desktops Matter in 2021

By 4 Mins Read
4 Reasons Why Cloud Desktops Matter in 2021

Many folks declared 2020 the year of the cloud desktop, due in no small part to the onset of the pandemic and the pressure it placed on businesses to implement more flexible IT systems.

But even with 2020 having come and gone, there remains plenty of reason to believe that cloud desktops will remain critical for the foreseeable future. The pandemic may finally (hopefully) be ending, but the benefits offered by cloud desktops will remain very relevant in a post-Covid world.

With that reality in mind, here’s a look at four reasons why cloud desktops continue to be a valuable solution in 2021.

1. Ongoing remote work

The slowing down of the pandemic means that more workers have the option to return to their offices. But many won’t, at least not on a full-time basis. Remote work is here to stay, according to most analysts.

Indeed, a survey by the National Association for Business Economics found that only 11 percent of businesses expect all of their employees to return to pre-pandemic work arrangements in the near future.

For businesses, then, providing desktop environments that can be accessed from anywhere and at any time — as cloud desktops can — remains a priority in 2021 and beyond. The pre-pandemic world, in which most employees spent all of their working hours at their on-site workstations, is not coming back.

2. Increasing compliance challenges

The regulatory compliance landscape is growing more and more challenging by the year. As new compliance laws come online — such as Brazil’s LGPD, which took effect in late 2020, and California’s CPRA, which goes live in 2023 — businesses face new requirements surrounding data security and privacy.

At the same time, enforcement of existing regulations is intensifying. GDPR fines increased by 40 percent in 2020, for example, a trend that is likely to continue for some time.

For businesses, increased regulatory challenges mean that protecting private data is becoming more and more important. Cloud desktops help to meet these challenges by eliminating risks associated with physical device insecurity. They also make it easier to centralize data in the cloud, where it can be secured in a more consistent and standardized way than if it were spread across sprawling on-premises workstations. And they provide greater control over data sovereignty: With cloud desktops, you can store data in one region while making accessible to employees in another, a feat that can’t be achieved using traditional desktops and local storage.

3. Growing IT costs

The overall costs of IT resources continue to rise. Gartner forecasts a 6.2 percent increase in IT spending in 2021, which comes on top of the investments businesses made in 2020 to respond to the pandemic.

As IT spending continues to spiral, businesses must work harder to ensure they can control costs and maximize return on investment. Cloud desktops, which can be deployed with no capital expenditures and can be turned off when they are no longer needed, offer critical cost advantages in this respect. They also provide organizations with desktop environments that can be used indefinitely, with no maintenance costs. In contrast, physical workstations typically last only a bit longer than five years, and they require constant maintenance.

For businesses seeking to keep IT costs in check, then, and to ensure that they reap a full return on their IT investments, cloud desktops offer a clear advantage.

4. Everything else is in the cloud

More than four-fifths of organizations already host the majority of their workloads in the cloud. That’s a trend that is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

For businesses that host virtually everything else in the cloud, it only makes sense to move desktop environments to the cloud as well. Doing so ensures that desktops don’t undercut the organization’s ability to take full advantage of the agility that the cloud enables.

In other words, when your desktop infrastructure is as scalable, flexible and cost-effective as the rest of your cloud-based workloads, your business can live fully in the age of the cloud, without traditional workstations dragging you down.

Conclusion: Cloud desktops are here to stay
Even as we look forward to a post-pandemic world, the trends that made cloud desktops an obvious answer to the challenges businesses faced last year are not going away. The need to enable anytime, anywhere work, meet tight compliance and security requirements, optimize IT spending and take full advantage of the cloud all mean that cloud desktops remain a powerful solution for 2021 and beyond.

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