February 14, 2025

Why CIOs need to revisit desktop virtualisation

6 min read

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Desktop virtualisation is not a new idea, but IGEL, which lately moved out of the components business enterprise, is now partnering with important Computer system vendors to offer you skinny-consumer accessibility to Windows. HP, Lenovo and LG are amid the hardware suppliers presenting a range of slender-customer desktop and mobile gadgets that run IGEL’s edge functioning method.

Last calendar year, IGEL and digital workplace management expert Liquidware commissioned a Modernizing the digital office examine from analyst business Freeform Dynamics, which explored desktop management. The examine found that a lot of IT final decision-makers recognise the need to have to modify desktop delivery and management owing to the restrictions that turned clear through and right after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The study report famous that owing to hybrid do the job designs, mobility and uncertainty, there is now a distinctive established of consumer desires and expectations. According to Freeform Dynamics, desktop administration techniques and procedures that have been bleeding-edge a several years ago – the likes of person virtualisation, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and application streaming, for illustration – are now mainstream and accessible virtually “off the shelf”.

Talking at the IGEL Disrupt 2023 celebration in Munich, the company’s CEO, Jed Ayres, stated the field is achieving an inflection place. The planet has moved to hybrid do the job, IT infrastructure is concentrated on hybrid clouds and, as Ayres pointed out, endeavor staff are now remote employees.

This is a single of the sweet places for skinny-client computing – giving a way for consumers to entry applications in a protected way. Because equipment are not built to operate applications locally, the moment a user logs off, facts and purposes can no more time be accessed, which makes slim-shopper computing remarkably secure and effortless to regulate.

Talking about the job of skinny-consumer computing to assist hybrid staff, Shannon Kalvar, research director for digital client computing at IDC, mentioned: “In today’s hybrid perform world, conclusion end users want equivalent obtain to their applications and info irrespective of their site or device, though IT desires lighter, much more protected and manageable options to provide workspaces.

“This is particularly vital as we carry on to see the expertise gap improve in all sectors and industries – the challenge is not exceptional to IT. Conference this problem will involve us to rethink how we accessibility, produce, control and maintain our electronic workspaces.”

Speed and effectiveness

Manageability is also tremendously simplified, according to Ayres. “One of our most significant clients, with about 100,000 seats, is actually taking care of the total IT estate with just a one particular person,” he said.

One more shopper, Luxottica, which operates Sunglass Hut, has extra than 30,000 thin gadgets in in excess of 5,000 international destinations. All over again, these are all managed by 1 person.

Simon Barlow, group chief know-how officer for functions at AXA British isles & Eire, said: “Our distant workforce, the agile application landscape and far more recurrent update cycles of unified comms need us to onboard, control and update our endpoints more quickly and additional competently than at any time right before.”

The company has started piloting the latest variation of IGEL’s working system software package, OS 12, which operates a light-weight Linux functioning technique on legacy PCs and slender client equipment.

“Based on our first tests of OS 12, we are by now confident that we can remotely configure, update and patch our distant machines more rapidly and extra competently,” Barlow included. The organization is also using IGEL’s most recent Cosmos management resource to update its Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop client.

A single of the advancements IGEL has made with OS 12 is to introduce an app retail outlet to simplify the installation and deployment of apps supported right by the new operating process. The app keep gives Citrix Receiver, VMware Horizon and Microsoft remote desktop shopper software program for accessing digital desktop environments.

According to IGEL, this implies its buyers achieve entry to new features of VMware, Citrix or Azure virtual desktop more promptly. Previously, IGEL desired to embed the consumer computer software for these virtual desktop environments into its functioning procedure.

There is also indigenous help for Microsoft Groups and Zoom. One IGEL shopper that employs Webex and Zoom natively with OS 12 is Cocc, a service provider of main banking services for community banking companies in the US.

Billy Cruz, engineering solutions supervisor for desktop engineering at Cocc, explained: “The means to now also update the Zoom and Webex offloading clients, independently from the VMware Horizon application, delivers further flexibility and lowers the time necessary to execute administration updates to raise employee practical experience.”

Time to reconsider

Even though slender clientele can supply a practical option to common user computing, Freeform Dynamics’ Modernizing the electronic office analyze found that a lot of IT decision-makers are hesitant to think about them. Just about fifty percent of the CIOs who participated in the research foresee that they would face significant hurdles in modernising their person computing technique.

In his keynote presentation at the IGEL Disrupt convention, Mark Mills, author of The cloud revolution and a partner at Montrose Lane Ventures, reviewed how big infrastructure improvements above the past century have taken about a quarter of a century to attain. Cloud computing is hitting the 25-year mark and, according to Mills, the economic electrical power generated by computational energy is accelerating at an exponential amount.

There is no reason to presume that cloud computing will reside only in the server program domain. PCs are proficiently on-premise consumer devices. Slender-customer hardware and software package has progressed to a position where the person working experience of a virtual desktop is no distinct to a physical Computer system. If the cloud is genuinely established to turn out to be the future main infrastructure revolution, it tends to make perception to contemplate the job of the humble Pc and its evolution into a cloud-based mostly Computer system.

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Source backlink Desktop virtualisation, in which a user’s desktop environment is hosted on a remote server, has quickly become a key tool for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in many organisations. With the sudden increase in remote working due to current events, it has become even more prevalent. The technology offers many advantages, but there are also important considerations for CIOs to make when utilising desktop virtualisation, particularly with respect to security, cost, and user experience.

Security has long been a key concern of CIOs when it comes to desktop virtualisation. As this technology places the user’s desktop environment on a remote server, instead of the user’s own device, there is an inherent risk of security breaches. Enterprises must ensure that all data is securely stored and transmitted, and that all endpoints are adequately protected. It is important that CIOs assess the security posture of their organisation and look to utilise the most secure virtualisation solutions available.

Cost is another factor to consider, as virtualised desktops are not always the most cost-effective solution. It is important for CIOs to do the necessary research to ensure that the cost of the virtualisation system outweighs the cost of any additional hardware or software that may be required. Furthermore, IT departments should also ensure that the technology being used is compatible with existing infrastructure and devices.

Finally, it is important for CIOs to ensure that the user experience is still positive when utilising virtualised desktops. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to provide an experience that is comparable to a non-virtualised desktop, which can negatively impact productivity. CIOs must be sure to use the best available technology and look to further streamline their virtualisation solutions to ensure the best user experience.

In conclusion, there are many advantages to utilising desktop virtualisation. However, CIOs must ensure that their organisations are employing the best solutions for their particular needs. With respect to security, cost, and user experience, CIOs must revisit their virtualisation strategy to ensure that their organisation is utilising the best technology to meet their goals.