As a hybrid worker, I have always enjoyed the flexibility to work from anywhere, perhaps now even more than ever.
In a week, I might meet with customers in our San Francisco headquarters or review engineering specs with software teams in the Nashville office. I might fly to Europe to climb the Alps, while still checking on the business from my hotel room. No matter the location, my laptop, and Wi-Fi should give me full, secure access to my corporate workspace, without compromise. My experience should be the same at home, in the office, or anywhere.
As work styles change, connectivity, security, data, and resources need to be available. Remote, cloud workspaces are even more vital to the delivery of business services and customer experiences. However, not everyone will run their business entirely in the cloud. Some may need private, data center-hosted applications for security or compliance reasons or to provide functionality that some SaaS apps cannot. Others have heaps of legacy hardware that they cannot replace.
Because of this, virtualized desktop infrastructure (VDI), delivered both in the cloud (desktop-as-a-service [DaaS]) and from a company’s own data center, will likely become more strategic to business success in the years to come.
The opportunity to reduce operating and capital costs will encourage organizations to invest in virtual desktops, thin clients, and edge environments. Modernizing IT services ensures that end users stay productive from anywhere and that their organizations operate efficiently. Toward this end, the endpoint will no longer be just another commodity or depreciated asset; it will become a strategic business tool.
For endpoint virtualization initiatives to be successful, they must improve the user experience. Virtual desktops and thin clients should become easier to deploy as emerging technologies move mainstream.
We often view virtualizing endpoints as the last frontier for IT. Yet an end-user computing strategy should be one of the first things business and IT leaders think about. It’s a strategic initiative that supports the continuum of business needs—connectivity, security, computer, and data assets. The strategy for how endpoints are provided to the hybrid workforce can then become an enabler of competitive advantage.
Read the full article in Forbes on how endpoints become a strategic business tool.
