While several large enterprises have been reaping the benefits of their VDI investments and many more are already in the evaluation and pre-production stages, businesses in the small and medium enterprise (SME) space have still been mostly, albeit by their own volition due to the expense, on the outside looking in.
Why SMEs are behind in VDI adoption
It’s not that SMEs are completely unaware of the economic benefits of VDI. It’s just that they haven’t found the cost-benefit attractive enough yet. Small businesses who wish to embark on a VDI project must divert a substantial chunk of their already limited funds on physical servers, hypervisors, storage, networking and licensing.
And then once they have the basic infrastructure ready, they then still need to hire third party experts for whatever virtual desktop delivery solution they picked to get that solution up and running. That’s because traditional VDI solutions like those coming from Citrix and VMWare are just too complicated for the average SME in-house IT administrator. These capital and skill requirements, which are easily met by large enterprises, are currently just too high for SMEs.
The arrival of hyperconverged infrastructure solutions has changed all that.
How a hyper-converged solution puts VDI adoption within reach
A hyperconverged solution like Scale Computing’s HC3 can reduce the usual datacenter costs associated with server, storage and virtualization (all of which are vital to VDI) by bringing them together into a single appliance. We’re not just talking about savings in upfront costs. Because an appliance like HC3 automates a lot of administrative tasks, it also reduces operational costs. Incidentally, this capability also lowers the skill requirement of VDI adoption.
The time for SMEs to embrace VDI is now
Being a late adopter of a business-enabling technology like VDI can put your organization at a competitive disadvantage. That means, compared to competing businesses who have embraced it, you won’t be able to:
- Boost employee productivity through work anytime, anywhere capabilities;
- Eliminate several endpoint device vulnerabilities through centralized security;
- Solidify business continuity/disaster recovery capabilities through rapid application and desktop deployments;
- Slash time-to-market through (again) rapid application and desktop deployments;
- Save on costs by lengthening hardware/software upgrade cycles; and
- Save even more through reductions in endpoint administration costs.
But with the arrival of hyperconverged infrastructure solutions like HC3, there’s no more reason to delay VDI adoption. VDI adoption is even more compelling now, knowing that your options for virtual desktop delivery are no longer limited to the expensive and highly complex solutions from Citrix and VMWare.
If you can seamlessly combine HC3 with an equally affordable and easy-to use VDI delivery solution like Parallels RAS, the barriers to VDI adoption can be virtually eliminated.
You can do that with the latest version Parallels RAS, which already supports Scale Computing’s HC3. What this means is that Parallels RAS now has the ability to spin up and manage VMs through Scale Computing HC3’s API. To experience affordable and simplified VDI, grab a free trial of Parallels RAS now.
References:
- Scale Computing: HC3 Virtualization Platform
- SysGen: How VDI benefits your business
- New Horizons: 4 Key Benefits of Desktop Virtualization
- Computing: Is VDI viable for SMEs
- TechTarget: Top drivers behind desktop virtualization adoption