KEY TOPICS

Redundancy

Disaster Recovery

Hot-Desking

Branch Offices

Deployment

Refresh Cycles

REDUNDANCY

To an IT Manager "redundancy" means having more of something than you actually need just in case one breaks.

Redundancy is how IT departments cope with failures in key components and try to recover without anyone realising that it has happened.

To a Financial Director having "redundant" IT equipment means paying for something that is not actually needed and might become outdated and end-of-life before it is ever used.

The technology behind Server Based Computing and Virtual Desktops allows organisations to provide highly reliable "redundant" infrastructure, but one that makes use of all available resources and distributes load over all devices.

This "load balancing" ensuring that no processing power is sat idle waiting for a disaster that might never happen.

DISASTER RECOVERY

IT departments will often have to dedicate a significant portion of their budget to the provision of "redundant systems". In most cases "redundancy" means buy twice as much of everything that is important, just to be sure.

As the name suggests, these systems are sat idle (sometimes for years on end) just waiting for a disaster to happen. It is quite common for redundant systems to have become obsolete before they have ever been called into service.

The modern generation of Virtual Desktops, Server Based Computing and Cloud Computing allows organisations to provide Disaster Recovery without needing to pay for redundant systems.

HOT-DESKING

Another additional benefit of Server Based Computing and Virtual Desktops is the ability to hot-desk.

Some organisations have been able to reduce the number of offices and physical desks by a third (without affecting staff), once hot-desking has been introduced.

Most businesses do not have 100% desk occupation, a 100% percent of the time so hot-desking makes perfect sense for them, and reduces office overheads.

BRANCH OFFICES

Server Based Computing and Virtual Desktops also make it easy to move between offices seamlessly.

It can also enable branch offices to have access to the same applications, databases and ERP/CRM systems as everybody else at the head office, without costly infrastructure upgrades.

DEPLOYMENT

In larger organisations some IT departments completely erase and overwrite the existing operating system and applications on the computer and replace it with a corporate "image" that is tested and tweaked by the IT department to try and standardise all of the computers in an organisation.

Server Based Computing and Virtual Desktops can eliminate the need to pre-configure or pre-image devices at one location before transportation the end users desk.

It can also deliver a standard, consistent desktop experience across each device without having to repeat each process manually on each device the end user will work on.

REFRESH CYCLES

It was not uncommon only a few years ago to replace every computer or laptop every 3 years.

This normally happened because organisations would often amortise or "write-off" the cost of computer equipment over 3 years.

Once the 3 years were up, and new computer or laptop could be bought and the process started again.

In the current financial climate these desktop refresh cycles are often extended to 4 or 5 year interval in order to keep costs down.

Server Based Computing and Virtual Desktops can extend this cycle even further and offer another 5 to 10 years of useful working life to the equipment you already own.

This could save most organisations between £400 and £600 per PC, just in purchase costs alone.