Consumerisation of IT

The ‘Consumerisation of IT’ refers to a general movement towards consumer-driven IT, where employees are increasingly the ones who determine how new technology is adopted in the workplace. Consumers are driving change in the role of IT.

IT savvy employees all around the world are laying the foundations for a fully digital era. They are changing the way in which they conduct day to day business within their organisation by being more and more pro-active in building or finding new IT services that can enable them to perform various aspects of their jobs with more ease, on a self-service basis.
 
This increased demand for employee flexibility, mobility and empowerment poses a significant challenge to IT departments who are finding it harder to obtain visibility and control over how data used, stored and shared inside and outside the workplace. Building and developing new capabilities and implementing new services needs to be implemented in partnership with employees. This means building secure, standardised, highly available computing environments, as well as centralised application management.
 

IT challenges

High costs

Desktop and application support and management consume a large amount of financial resources especially during operating system and software patches or upgrades. Centralised management, reduced support time and cost represent a significant improvement for IT.

BYOD

Today’s workplace is starting to be dominated by tech-savvy users who want to make use of their own computing and mobile devices to get their work done. This in turn means additional pressure for IT departments to support various connections, desktop and application access. Fluctuations in staff numbers as well as work habits mean that IT departments need instant capability to turn on and off desktops and applications. BYOD has turned attention to cloud-based services due to the seamless integration with current business systems; extended access, availability and security compliance that they offer. IT support cost and time is decreased and the integrity of critical business data maintained.

Security

With an increased number of employees using both personal and company supplied devices in the workplace, data security becomes a great issue. There is less control over access and user management. In case of theft, business sensitive data is lost and can compromise the whole business should it reach the market and or competitors. With cloud based services, in particular with hosted desktops which benefit from built in backup and disaster recovery and can be complemented with file and app servers, an IT department can overcome these issues.

Changes in User Requirements

Increased Mobility

Users today are increasingly mobile, with fewer users working only from a single corporate desktop. Even users with a single primary location are asking for the ability to access their applications and data from different locations across corporate offices. Many users also want remote access while traveling, both to remote offices connecting inside the corporate intranet, and when connecting from outside the firewall, over the internet. Economic conditions have increased the number of contract workers being
used, creating the need for companies to give contractors temporary access, often from computers that are not owned by the company, and often over international borders. And of course, with workdays no longer being nine to five, working from home has become the new norm, again often from computers not owned by the company.

Variation in Users & Requirements

As the workforce becomes more mobile, the number and types of users to support increases. IT departments need to cater for the needs of task workers, who need limited customisation as they access the same type of applications; to call centre workers who need enhanced access options to published applications; to power workers, such as developers who need high-spec systems and access options; to mobile workers who need anywhere access. Depending on their needs and requirements, the systems used can range from regular desktops to Hosted Virtual Desktops or both.

The Desktop is dead, long live the desktop!

The recent boom in usage of iPhones, iPads and Android tablets is most likely the biggest driver of desktop transformation/modernization. Most users complement their personal and or business desktop or laptop with a smartphone or tablet. This trend is extended to C-level executives who need flexibility in connecting to the company network. Supporting many devices and offering secure access to applications has become a necessity.

Business Transformation Drivers

Application Installation and Conflicts

Virtualising applications simplifies software deployment, especially when having a large number of devices to install on. At the same time, removing an application from the whole network is easy as it is stored and accessed from one location. Installing multiple applications can create conflicts in case they are incompatible. Virtualizing applications reduces the risk of conflicts and can also help keep the size of the registry and system folders untouched, increasing computer performance and decreasing the risk of failures associated with running a large number of applications locally.
 

Multiple Runtime Environments and OS Deployment

The runtime environment and application can be deployed simultaneously, enabling users to run different versions of an application on a desktop successfully. Virtualised applications are not affected by the deployment of a new OS in the network. Users can access applications from servers, which simplifies the IT Departments job when needing to re-install an image on a desktop.Separating OS deployments from software distribution is made easy with desktop and application virtualisation. Once the application is successfully virtualised and deployed, it can be accessed by all users, and changes made on the desktops in most cases do not affect the virtualised application.

Deploying Apps on Unmanaged Computers

With virtualised applications, external stakeholders who need to use an app to access an organisation’s services, can just be given the executable. The environment is already configured and client and or partner satisfaction is increased.

Application Updates

Virtualised applications can be updated only once, at a centralised location on the server, and will be made available in real time to all users. This reduces deployment times drastically and helps increase productivity and efficiency. Should a user change settings on the local desktop to the extent that an application stops working properly, it can be reset to its original state in a matter of minutes.

Improved Security and Support

Virtualised applications and operating systems are completely isolated from each other. This means that malware cannot infect other parts of the system as easily as before. The fact that the applications can be accessed easily from a central location, makes the IT Support’s job easier as they can run the app in the same environment as the users.

DaaS and SaaS

Colt provides both DaaS (Desktop as a Service) and SaaS (software as a Service) solutions.

Our Hosted virtual desktops and fully isolated, customisable virtual machines that benefit from added security. Alongside the Hosted Virtual Desktop offering, we offer a One-click Solutions catalogue containing both general-use and industry specific applications, that can be deployed extremely rapidly.

Consider Desktop Virtualisation?

  • Windows 7 Migration
  • Cost Saving and Green IT
  • Helpdesk Efficiency and desktop
    management
  • PC Lifecycle Management
  • User Experience
  • Business Continuity and Disaster
    recovery
  • Bring your own device (BYOD)

Consider Datacentres?

  • Management
  • Access
  • Security
  • Performance
  • Single instance storage

Consider Application Virtualisation?

  • Centralised management
  • Easier licensing
  • Accessibility – remote access
  • Enhanced security 

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