Author: Dr Graham Jervis
We all feel firmly tied to our desks now and again. But there is a way
to avoid being chained to one workspace. Desktop virtualisation has its benefits and consequences, as Graham Jervis explains.
In March last year, renowned IT research body Gartner predicted that virtual desktop infrastructure revenue will grow globally from around $1.4 billion, currently less than one per cent of the worldwide professional PC market, to $65.7 billion in 2013, “more than 40 per cent of the worldwide professional PC market.”
That is enormous and in the state of the current market and with the technologies still developing that forecast seems incredible; but even if their figures are wildly exaggerated it does imply a major change in PC application deployment.
The current economic conditions have ensured that both large and small organisations are looking for substantial savings on their base operating costs. For many, the largest costs after staff, are those associated with their buildings.
Fortunately, there are substantial opportunities to reap major cost savings through better utilisation of workspaces – many offices have workstation utilisations less than 50 per cent and interest in desk-sharing has never been higher. Equally fortunately, advances in IT have made this much more achievable for all by enabling telephone services to follow a person to any desk and for those IT applications that are particular to an individual to be available wherever he or she works.
However, the current business climate is also one which challenges any new additional investment in technology that may be required. It is the purpose of this article to outline the various options and their consequences that are available for those who seek to make the changes to enable desk-sharing now.
For the complete article, please download the pdf
