Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

First there were mainframes with terminals used to interact and to obtain information. Then came the PC revolution where every PC could work alone; or to be attached to an early network running Novell NetWare, the dominant LAN software of the 80’s. Then came the client-server applications, such as accounting applications where the work was done on the server and the results sent to the PCs.

Finally, we’ve come full circle… the PC has become the smart terminal displaying Windows, but the actual Windows 7 or Windows 10 “desktop” actually running on the server. The user thinks they are using a PC, but they are just using a “terminal.”

Why? Because it’s far less expensive to do it this way that using the old technology of powerful, underutilized PCs and a server(s) in a separate room. Servers are now cheap, and extremely powerful. That power is allowing hundreds of users to run Windows XP or Windows 7 (even both from one machine) from the server, and not at the desktop.

Look at it from another perspective. Just imagine that you have a hundred desktop PCs in your office and that you want to move the CPUs, or the actual boxy computers into your server room, but leave your monitors, mice and printers, etc. on the desktops so your employees can work as usual.

Now imagine having some big racks in your server room, with those 100 PCs stacked side by side on each shelf, each with very long cables snaking back to each corresponding monitor, keyboard and mouse. It’s totally impractical, and will make that server room very, very hot with a hundred machines generating heat and using the same amount of electricity as at the users desks.

Clearly, you couldn’t do this using your actual PCs, but you can using thin or zero client technology. The 100 PCs can be installed inside of one or more servers, using virtualization technology, each working completely independently the others. You may have two servers, each with 50 PCs installed using virtualization technology rather than 100 PCs stacked together.

The results are almost identical from the user’s perspective.

One of the key reasons to do this is that it makes maintenance really easy, and will save companies over 70% of standard support costs, notably because support technicians won’t have to walk around a business all day to fix problems, but can access the errant PCs from any computer they have access to!

That means your techs can support your network from anywhere. If you want we can support your entire network, without entering your premises. All done using secure encrypted Internet connections.

Virtual desktops enable users to access a standard Windows operating system installation, along with whatever applications and data they need, running on centralized servers running in a data center. These servers use specialized software to create a “virtual machine” that simulates the same capabilities as a physical desktop computer.

Desktop virtual machines connect over local area networks to a piece of hardware at the users location that are connected to peripherals like monitors, keyboards, mice and other devices to make a complete system. In other words, the CPU or PC is replaced with an inexpensive, SILENT box. Your office computer noise problems just goes away.

These boxes lasts much longer than a PC and uses a tiny fraction of the electricity that a PC does. For example in a 50 user network, the PC (excluding the monitors, printers, etc.) use about $500-$600 a month in electricity, or over $6,000 a year! The same Windows network will use $15 a month using thin client technology, an enormous savings! Why? It’s because the server does all of the work, and the “PC” does very, very little. So rather than the server loafing along with 50 hard working PCs, the situation is reversed and provides huge cost savings.

You can also buy Software as a Service, known as SaaS. What is it? Watch this –

And because data does not reside on the desktop PC, but in your server room even if one is stolen, it is useless to the thief as it doesn’t contain any programs or data. We are also not considering how much heat that your expensive air conditioning has to deal with with the old style PCs. More money saved…

While this technical description may make virtual desktops initially sound more complicated than traditional desktop PCs, we think you’ll see that centralizing all of the software, storage, processing and management within the data center makes the lives of both IT staff and the users they support much simpler.

Consolidation of desktops onto centralized servers also promises to produce a harder working server providing Windows desktops to lots of users, in addition to operating as a server. And just imagine, your users can easily switch between Windows 7 and Windows 10 on a single desktop if they need to run particular programs on different operating systems.

Early versions of the silent designs did not provide much benefit as they didn’t offer the savings promised so companies tried thin computers and returned to the standard PC. The new generation products we offer actually work as advertised, providing a fast return on investment, very low power use, easy management and stellar performance.

The key to using the new generation technology is that we offer an end-to-end solution and not just pieces that require your IT people to figure out all of the missing pieces, giving up and returning to standard PCs.

Contact us today for an analysis of your network so we can work together to save your company time and money.

Call us at 678.269.8111 or reach us by email.