2021 and the future of desktop as a service: Data centres, multi-cloud and 5G

If 2020 taught the world anything, it’s that we can’t know what’s coming next. Yet we can learn from what has come before and take an inventory of current resources to anticipate how they may influence the future. Otherwise, commerce screeches to a crushing halt. In light of the events that have affected businesses across the globe this year, we’ve seen a significant uptick in cloud adoption and in particular, desktop as a service. And we expect to see these trends continue into...

7 January 2021 | Data Centres

The scalability of cloud-based remote working: VPNs, VDI, and desktop as a service

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced a massive shift to remote work. It is clear that, going forward, a much larger percentage of workers will work remotely. Organisations that deployed quick, short-term solutions for remote workers must now consider what will serve business goals and employees alike for the long term. Flexibility, security, performance and scalability are paramount in these uncertain times.

The scalability problem with VDI and VPNs

Giving employees secure access...

28 August 2020 | Collaboration

How can VDI support an edge computing strategy?

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is, as the name suggests, a virtualisation technology that creates individual, fully personalised desktop virtual machines with user profile control. It has been in existence since 2006, and while it has experienced some variation in popularity, in recent times, it has seen considerable growth. This is reflected in market research, which estimates that the global VDI market will be worth around $5 billion by...

22 July 2019 | Infrastructure

Three essential questions to ask VDI providers in the cloud era

As the workforce has become more dispersed, organisations have looked to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to provide 24/7, anywhere access to corporate apps and desktops. But legacy VDI has fallen far short of its promises, especially when it comes to performance and simplifying IT. However, with cloud adoption accelerating, organisations have the opportunity to completely transform end user computing, deliver beyond the promise of VDI, and take advantage of new levels of agility that...

28 June 2019 | Applications

Born in the cloud or cloud-enabled? For virtual desktops, there’s a world of difference

In its Voice of the Enterprise: Cloud Transformation survey, 451 Research analysts found that 90 percent of organizations surveyed are using some type of cloud service. Last year, the cloud market was worth $28.1 billion; by 2021, it will almost double in value at $53.3 billion. And by next year, 69 percent of respondents intend to have some type of multi-cloud environment.

This is just one of the many...

17 August 2018 | Software

Why building a cloud-native desktop service is a different game to VDI

Since virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and remote desktop session host (RDSH) technology has been available, vendors have offered on-premises solutions. Because these companies have made a name for themselves, most people familiar with the VDI space assume that the vendors who’ve been in the game for a long-time must lead sales in desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) solutions as well.

That’s a reasonable assumption, but it happens to be wrong – and the reason says...

17 May 2018 | Collaboration

VDI deployment best practices: A guide

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) can bring significant benefits to organisations looking to be more agile, as well as reduce the cost and complexity of managing a variety of client desktops, laptops, and mobile handheld devices.

Organisations using VDI are able to benefit from centralised desktop management, rapid deployment, lower support costs, standardised deployment, increased security, and other management efficiencies. However, VDI can also bring along several challenges to...

9 May 2018 | Infrastructure

Putting the D in VDI: How virtual desktop infrastructure got its desktop back

The point of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is to offer employees anytime, anywhere accessibility to your organization’s applications and data. VDI is a “desktop away from the desktop.” The problem is that more emphasis has had to be placed on the infrastructure part of VDI due to outdated technology that creates complexity. But newer VDI technology is about to restore the desktop to its rightful place.

A promising beginning

In a tradition dating back more than...

4 April 2018 | Architecture

The endpoint and VDI: Moving beyond the last piece of the puzzle

There are mixed feelings on the importance of the endpoint’s role in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployment.  We are currently living in a time where companies are finally starting to make great use and adoption of VDI and more generally of cloud services (on premise and localised resources are still largely adopted).  If VDI and cloud services define the way resources and applications are delivered, there is still a big question mark on the future of the endpoint...

6 March 2017 | Infrastructure

Case study: I built XenDesktop, I built View

Amitabh Sinha (left), CEO of Workspot, and Puneet Chawla (right), CTO of Workspot

There’s been a fundamental shift in the way we work since the year 2000. Over time the desk job became the home office/plane/coffee shop job, over the objections of those nostalgic for the traditional 9-5. Employees wanted access to their work wherever they happened to be and technical staff scrambled to keep up with the demand. Enter virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

When VMware...

10 June 2016 | Case Studies