Often the consumer market drives technology adoption in business as is the case with virtual desktop deployment in the workplace. The PC is no longer center stage. Whether corporate assets or personal property; smart phones, tablets, laptops and other portable devices are being used at home and work. Employees are working differently and IT needs to be able to adapt to these users. A makeover of your desktops and the ability to provide secure access to various endpoints will provide that virtual workspace that your end-users demand.
Step 1. Modernize Your Current Architecture
The first step to providing a virtual workspace is to modernize your current architecture to make it virtual desktop-ready. Products such as the Cisco Unified Computing System integrate the compute, virtualization hypervisor, fabric interconnect and storage functions usually found in separate platforms. VMware vSphere is an integral part of this virtualized architecture that enables the abstraction of the physical processor, memory, storage and networking resources into multiple virtual machines. It also provides the means to create, manage, optimize, and migrate virtual machines from a centralized management interface. The third essential component of a virtualized architecture is unified storage from manufacturers such as EMC. Unified storage allows for resource sharing and supports VMware’s vMotion. EMC’s unified storage solution provides advanced failover and fully automated storage tiering to virtual desktop environments.
Step 2. Integrate Virtual Desktops
With a virtualized architecture in place, virtualizing desktops with VMware View, Citrix XenDesktop or other desktop virtualization software is the next step to providing your end-users a virtual workspace. These solutions provide the platform to create, administer, and deliver virtual desktops. They enable the delivery of secure desktop services so that users can access data, applications and other network services.
To provide a consistent user experience from a variety of devices from anywhere, IT must improve performance and security controls. Cisco WAAS application aware DRE enhances virtual desktop user experience and improves efficiency across the WAN. Products such as Cisco’s policy based Network Access Control uses Identity Services Engine (ISE) to provide user-based security on any device therefore enabling a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model to the workplace.
Step 3: Migrate to Integrated Voice and Video Thin Clients
Thin clients, software thin clients or Zero client devices that attach to the back of an IP phone integrate the virtual desktop with voice and video capabilities. These types of devices optimize processing to use network and data center CPU resources more efficiently. HD delivers quality graphics and provides a high quality user experience.
Makeover your desktop environment and provide your customers, the end-users, with a virtual workspace that supports their need for anytime, anywhere access from a variety of devices while maintaining control and security. Give your customers the workspace that they demand!
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