Potential Side Effects of Desktop Virtualization

We talk a lot about the benefits of desktop virtualization, like centralized IT management, tighter endpoint security, more easily supporting remote employees and the ability for employees to work from anywhere, on any device.

While those are compelling enough for many organizations, they aren’t the only benefits. Adopting desktop virtualization can lead to major organizational improvements but it also comes with smaller, positive “side effects” that many companies don’t initially realize.

Energy Cost Savings

Because the majority of your computing resource needs are now virtualized, you no longer need power-hungry hardware to run desktops and applications. Replacing desktop PCs and laptops with lower cost, more energy efficient thin clients can noticeably reduce an office’s energy consumption.

Giving employees the ability to work from home either part time or full time further reduces the energy requirements for a company and can have a major impact if the organization is able to downsize its physical space. One study found that companies can save up to $11,000 per employee annually by allowing part-time remote work.

Increased Hardware Longevity

Companies that don’t want to issue new thin clients or embrace employee BYOD (bring your own device) can still see a positive hardware impact by extending the useful life of endpoints via virtual desktops. Because the desktop operating system is virtualized, organizations don’t need to replace entire endpoint collections if OS updates require different computing resources (an issue some companies are currently running into with Windows 10).

If endpoints do become unusable because of a lack of native resources, they can be wiped and converted into thin clients. This allows organizations to extend their hardware refresh timelines and potentially reduce budget spent on endpoints.

Faster Desktop Trouble Shooting

When an employee is experiencing IT issues, they aren’t productive. Depending on the nature of the issue, the location of the employee and the availability of IT, these issues can take a while to resolve, compounding the problem. With virtual desktops that include monitoring capabilities, organizations can access deep analytics instantly, allowing IT teams to dig into an individual user’s environment and pinpoint the exact issue without playing the guessing game. Support never has to leave their desk and the end user doesn’t have to attempt to accurately explain the problem.

In worst-case scenarios, the desktop can be wiped and quickly reissued from a Golden Image, allowing the employee to get back to work without waiting for an entirely new machine. Between fast provisioning and quick, accurate troubleshooting capabilities, organizations are able to achieve better productivity.

Deeper Access to Business Analytics

The same desktop monitoring capabilities that help IT quickly troubleshoot issues can also help businesses make smarter, more informed decisions. Desktops are the portal to productivity, the way employees interact with every application and dataset important to a company. Because this “portal” is now in the cloud instead of confined to a box on a desk, organizations can see exactly what their employees are doing, what they’re interacting with and trends.  

By accessing this data, companies can make business decisions based on real information rather than guess work. This can include smarter decisions on things like:

• Which applications are highly used and which can be removed/replaced
• If desktop and application licensing is accurate or if seats need to be adjusted
• If the workforce itself is the right size or if a large number of employees are sitting idle
• When usage and demand peaks and ebbs to more accurately plan staffing and scaling
• And much more

Making smarter decisions can have a massive impact on businesses, but you need access to your own data in order to make these decisions. With virtual desktops, you can get that access. It might not be the reason your organization initially embraced virtual desktops, but it’s certainly a welcomed side effect.