The Virtual Workplace

Traditionally, offices are characterized by doors, walls and windows, desks and computers; a destination for those who are bounded by a workplace environment. But what if the office had no boundaries? No steel and glass to define the walls. A place that allowed organizations to focus on becoming more productive, more creative and more collaborative while maximizing their IT resources, reducing costs, and increasing flexibility. An infrastructure that presented the fewest barriers; where the only limitation is the connection to a network.  Are you ready for this paradigm shift? The Virtual Workplace?

As the technologies evolve, society is growing accustom to their “on-demand” life-style. The smart phones and tablets are becoming more powerful, and networks more secure, causing the boundaries in their personal life-styles to begin to vanish.  This has now begun to carry over into their work life as well.  As a result, people once chained to a desk at the office are increasingly free to attend a virtual meeting at home before breakfast, run a business application from their hotel room after dinner or answer an urgent e-mail over the weekend from the sidelines of a child’s soccer match. In fact, such “virtual work-styles” are fast becoming the corporate norm. This on demand work style is being enabled through virtualization technologies.

What is Virtualization?

Most computer hardware was designed to run a single operating system and a single application, leaving most of the machine’s resources underutilized. Virtualization lets you run many “virtual machines” or VMs on a single physical machine, with each VM sharing the resources of the physical server. Different virtual machines can run different operating systems and multiple applications all on the same physical hardware. This allows you to better utilize existing computing resources and even reduce the amount of physical servers needed for your business. Today, virtual technology has evolved to the point where not only servers can be virtualized but also workstations, user applications and even network security appliances.

What is Desktop Virtualization?

Desktop virtualization is a set of mainstream technologies that optimize the delivery of desktops, applications and data to users. The operating system, apps and data are decoupled from the underlying PC hardware and moved to the datacenter, where they can be centrally managed and secured. Instead of juggling thousands of static desktop images, IT can manage and update the OS and apps once, from one location, then deliver desktops and apps that are customized to meet the performance, security and mobility requirements of each individual user.

Why Virtualize?

There are a number of benefits in virtualization including productivity increases in and lower administrative overhead costs. Companies implementing virtualization strategies are recognizing the value of virtual computing in:

•  Reduced hardware and operating costs
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Increased efficiencies in maintaining IT infrastructure
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Reduced downtime for hardware maintenance
•  Greater flexibility and ability to respond to new business opportunities

Virtualization has also been shown to enhance the IT infrastructure by allowing for improved flexibility, security, productivity and mobility. This can create new opportunities for personal efficiency and business speed. Leveraging virtualization technologies can enable “virtual work-styles” for workers to improve productivity as well as virtual datacenters to help lower costs and increase flexibility and security. Virtualization can be extended to include the networking and user experience technologies critical to making on-demand service delivery a reality.