With so many employees working from home for the first time, enterprises are scrambling to provide anywhere, anytime access to increasingly diverse workforces.

While remote work has been a hot topic and has been gaining traction across industries for several years, it’s become a necessity now, earlier than expected for many of us.

So how do enterprises who might lack a standard remote work strategy or have only limited work-from-home capabilities suddenly onboard their entire workforce to a digital workspace? With the help of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

What is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)?

VDI is a technology that enables a virtual desktop environment. In traditional server setups, an operating system is installed right on top of the hardware of a physical server. With virtualization, an additional layer is created between the hardware and an operating system, enabling the operating system to run inside each virtual machine.

How does VDI work?

A virtualization layer is an abstraction layer between network and storage hardware that creates a virtual version of a desktop, operating system, network, or server. A connection broker enables users to connect to a remote virtual desktop without sacrificing security across the devices allowed within your enterprise technology and mobile policy.

With VDI, users can securely access company data on personal desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, and changes on a parent desktop can be easily mirrored to virtual desktops in a desktop pool.

Why VDI?

VDI integrates with your existing corporate IT infrastructure for effective business continuity and to support workflows and processes already in place. It can help you reduce costs by eliminating travel and storage costs in today’s high-risk infection environment. VDI also increases the agility and responsiveness of your IT through cloud infrastructure and next-generation hardware, positioning you for future growth as things normalize around the world. Most importantly, in today’s resource-strapped enterprises, it enables cost-effective self service, real-time desktop management.

The benefits of VDI for enterprise:

• Covers gaps in infrastructure, technology, and process
  
• Enables seamless collaboration and communication for your global workforce
• Provides a contemporary alternative to a virtual private network (VPN) in an increasingly cloud-driven environment
• Centralizes IT management of company data, applications, and networks without sacrificing security
• Enables your workforce to access files, apps, intranet, and more via encrypted protocols
• Eliminates the need to provide desktops, laptops, and tablets to employees in short notice, especially as more enterprises are physically cut off from company resources
• Create better employee experiences and anytime, anywhere access to corporate data, collaboration tools, and files from their own devices.

VDI can pave the way to a connected global workforce that’s well-informed, productive, and empowered to act with confidence in uncertain times. VDI is a fast, flexible, cost-effective solution to getting your enterprise up and running even if your physical offices remain shuttered for an extended period of time.

Most importantly, this technology lays the foundation for future work-from-home policies as we flatten the COVID-19 curve and resume operations in a post-pandemic world.

From ensuring business continuity to managing crises: When does VDI make sense?

Most enterprises have continuity plans, but even the best prepared could not have anticipated the weeks (potentially months) of disruption from coronavirus. Many businesses are still in crisis-management mode and are struggling to maintain operations, sustain employees, and continuously pivot to meet the requirements of a rapidly changing situation.

Wipro’s VirtuaDesk™ enables existing desktop application suites to be deployed in a cloud-based computing model without the common compatibility or performance problems encountered when deploying a vast number of applications.

Wipro offers unrivaled deployment flexibility. We have deployed over 1.4 million virtual desktops for global customers and are experienced in delivering VDIs with Citrix and VMware as well as hosted VDIs to our customers. Additionally, we offer comprehensive monitoring tools to track infrastructure health and user experience. Wipro's "Cloud Ecosystem" enables businesses to offer up to an additional 10,000 desktops globally within a short timeframe.

Business as usual is possible in the new normal. Enterprises can lay the foundation necessary in our COVID-19 reality with minimal disruption and upscale when needed as things begin to normalize. To learn more about how to onboard your remote workforce to a fast, flexible, and cost-effective digital workspace, get in touch with a VDI specialist.