5 Reasons the Mortgage Industry Needs VDI

The mortgage industry is interesting in that it takes both old school and forward looking approaches to technology. Between long standing security concerns and workers who are often away from a central office, mortgage organizations have adopted a variety of ways to address these challenges.

Dizzion recently attended the MBA Technology Solutions Conference and Expo and had the chance to spend some time with mortgage technology professionals. Based on our conversations, here are five reasons that virtual desktops and desktops as a service are a good fit for the mortgage industry.

1. They’ve already gone “thin”

Many mortgage organizations have already adopted some flavor of “thin” tech, be it application streaming, terminal services or a form of desktop virtualization. These moves are largely to support the ability to work from anywhere while maintaining a secure environment.

That being said, many of these approaches aren’t working as well as hoped and many organizations are looking for new ways to get better results. The solutions currently in place may have been fine when first implemented, but there are new, better solutions available. Modern desktop virtualization is the natural next step for organizations that have already adopted a thin, mobile approach to technology.

2. Legacy apps & processes need updating

The reason that many of these legacy processes and applications need to be updated is because they’re difficult to manage and run slow enough that they cause frustration and a noticeable impact on productivity.

At the pace technology advances these days, upgrading solutions is a common undertaking for organizations. You wouldn’t use a first generation iPhone, so why should you keep struggling with legacy solutions that don’t perform as well as needed?

Desktop virtualization (and even application virtualization and streaming to support necessary legacy apps) lets organizations build on those early ideas of mobility, thin tech and high performance. It essentially lets companies maintain the environments they already built but upgrade to newer, better performing tech.

3. Performance lag is causing problems

For many mortgage organizations, time is literally money – particularly when contractors are involved. But the current technology in place at many of the organizations Dizzion spoke to is slowing down productivity instead of improving it. Solutions that were originally intended to allow employees to work from anywhere or continue working via disaster recovery solutions have such lagging performance that employees often have to wait for applications to launch or files to download. This could be the result of aging infrastructure or even infrastructure that wasn’t properly designed for the task in the first place (which is the reason early VDI struggled).

While changing technology solutions may seem like a major undertaking, organizations need to focus on the productivity gains that new solutions offer. When viewed in the light of lost productivity and lost revenue, the “it works well enough” opinion often quickly changes.

4. Security is a top priority

While no industry can safely ignore the need for top level security practices, mortgage companies (as part of the broader financial services industry) have long been held to a higher standard in this respect. While technology is rapidly advancing, security threats are moving even faster, leaving organizations with legacy technology at greater risk.

The increasing threat profile has many organizations looking for solutions that will not only improve performance, but also enhance security. Desktop virtualization offers a range of desirable security features, from enhanced control to ensuring sensitive data is never stored on the endpoint. It also make it easy to revoke access for contractors or remote workers, even if IT teams can’t physically access the endpoint.

Mortgage organizations are also increasingly taking it upon themselves to enacted advanced security measures that will put consumers at ease. While certain companies within the industry do not necessarily need to be PCI DSS compliant, a large portion of them are adopting these strict practices. PCI compliance is notoriously difficult to maintain in-house, so tech solutions that cover a portion of PCI compliance are particularly appealing. This level of security often can’t be achieved with legacy processes.

5. Experiencing massive growth

Growth is a good thing, but it also presents its own challenges. Dizzion spoke with the same cohort of mortgage IT professionals last year and a resounding theme this time around is the massive growth and expansion of many organizations in the industry. But to achieve successful growth, organizations need a reliable way to support new workers and locations.

On premise and legacy solutions are notoriously difficult to scale, leaving many companies looking at modern solutions to solve the problem. One of the major benefits of DaaS is its scalability. By issuing desktops off a virtualized Golden Image (instead of provisioning and shipping a physical PC), IT teams can have new locations and individuals productive in a matter of minutes. Because an outsourced provider handles the necessary backend, organizations that deploy DaaS can move at a rapid pace without being limited by existing in-house infrastructure.

The mortgage industry has long been looking for ways to improve performance and security and have historically implemented solutions towards that goal. Virtual desktops offer the next step in that evolution, allowing organizations to achieve performance and security on par with modern expectations and needs. It’s an exciting time in the industry and we can’t wait to see where it goes over the next year.