Makeover at the Workplace: PCs Turn Tablets, Desktops Turn Virtual

A study has shown that allowing workers to telecommute at least half the time results in annual savings of $10,000 per employee and the total benefit to U.S. companies resulting from this would be around $400 billion a year¹. That is huge. Today, people can work effectively without being physically present at the workplace. Workplaces across sectors are transforming - thanks to Unified Communication and Collaboration, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), social and mobile applications. You will find that the companies adopting these technologies are typically high on productivity and innovation.

Recently Wipro sponsored a survey of business technology professionals who manage end user computing devices. According to the report, the respondents said that mobility received the highest support from IT. When it came to VDI, 26% of the participants said they have deployed virtual desktops in multiple departments and 4% said they were using a Desktop as a Service (DAAS) solution.

When I discuss virtual desktops with businesses that have implemented the technology, I generally hear complaints about the difficulties of rollout, poor performance, licensing hassles and concerns about security. Some are disappointed that they didn't realize the expected cost savings. The findings of the report on this issue are in-line and states that rollout problems were the biggest challenge faced by the respondents. So, I think there is a clear need to focus on these challenges and find ways to work around them. Additionally, according to the respondents, their highest investments would be in Wi-Fi infrastructure and mobile-related security. Respondents said that more than 50% of the mobile devices in their organization were personally owned. In fact, 55% of the respondents also expected bulk of the ROI to come from productivity gains.

There are a few challenges on the path to workplace transformation and shifting to new cloud delivery models. For instance, in the course of my interactions with customers, many have expressed reservations about migration of their legacy applications to a cloud environment. The survey report confirms this. A sizeable number (60%) have said that they see legacy migration as a complication in their workplace transformation plans. Desktop and Application Virtualization may be the way to "Web-Enable" a set of these legacy applications and make them available on the new generation of mobile devices?

Despite all the challenges, the workplace transformation is picking up pace. In 2015, tablets sales will clearly outnumber the PC sales. VDI investments are expected to zoom to USD 5.6 billion in 2016². Business investments in the cloud in 2014 are expected to rise by 20% over last year³.

So where are you positioned on the business transformation curve? What changes have you already introduced? Which changes are in the offing?

About the Author

Andrey Zhulenev is leading the VirtuaDesk Practice focused on Desktop Virtualization Appliance and Workplace as a Services offering that cover desktop virtualization and end user computing domains. These solutions create an integrated end-to-end virtual workplace with self-service capabilities for end users and sophisticated backend automation for support.

Andrey is spending substantial amount of time and effort on research and architecture, creating the next generation hardware architectures based on cloud architecture principles, leveraging the latest software defined storage and networking technologies. Identifying and incubating next generation Wipro cloud solutions and offerings involves in-depth understanding of the industry needs, identifying core and non-core business processes, analyzing the technology trends, and maintaining the latest view of the IT ecosystem including Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and cloud providers. Andrey brings a deep understanding of IT technology, Cloud Architectures and practical expertise in IT services, BPO and Product Engineering. He is an expert in advanced delivery models and quality systems.

Andrey has over 20 years of experience in IT Services, management consulting and private equity. Over the past twelve years with Wipro Limited, he has worked with customers in different industries including Banking, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Software, Aerospace, Retail and Healthcare. Prior to Wipro, Andrey worked in a variety of roles with LUXOFT, AIG private equity fund and AT Kearney management consulting. He lives in Seattle, WA.

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Makeover at the workplace: PCs turn

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