4 Real Benefits of Virtualization for the New, Remote Workforce

Having employees work remote isn’t anything new. What is unprecedented is the number of companies looking to make remote work a permanent model for their organizations. This creates a lot of work for IT teams and can lead to over-provisioning, gaps in security, and higher overhead. Ongoing mobile device management of multiple moving parts and variety of devices means long maintenance windows and extra time to design and scale environments.

Virtualization enables you to transform your mobile device management without having to start from the ground up or overwhelm your budget. “With a virtualization platform, like VMware Horizon Cloud, you can deliver, manage, and monitor virtual desktops and applications for users who don’t need access to a full desktop,” explains Tristan Sitz, Vox Mobile’s Technical Presales Engineer.

Virtualization was made for the new world of remote work, managing and supporting digital workspaces and providing you with a wealth of benefits.

Benefit 1 – Simplified Management and Scalability

Whether it’s 100 or 100,000 devices—phones, tablets, laptops and computers—virtualization enables you to centralize desktop management with quick mobile device deployments and app distribution from a single control plane.

“IT doesn’t have to manually add apps to a new device for a new hire,” explains Zach Carman, Vox Mobile’s Partnerships Manager. “Using Horizon Cloud, they can add the person to the role group, and once the user logs in on their device, they have all the apps they need to do their job.”

Virtualization also empowers you to quickly increase desktop capacity to scale workspaces for remote and hybrid employees across any cloud. Horizon Cloud can create a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that supports multitenancy, automated provisioning, and secure data access for your internal workforce, as well as external contractors. Everyone can have all the apps and tools they need to do their job.

“Instead of investing in expensive computers for CAD and intense graphics or filmmaking, Horizon Cloud can expand virtual machines to access virtual workstations, so designers and developers could use their personal laptops and computers to access virtualized apps and continue their work from home,” says Travis.

Benefit 2 – Enhanced Security

This leads us to one of the biggest concerns for all organizations, how to ensure corporate data security on personal devices.

“Instead of data being housed at different endpoints, it’s all housed in a central location. This prevents data leaking out at those endpoints since data doesn’t exist there,” says Zach.

For instance, if a user logs in to their desktop on random computer, any data is contained inside that particular virtual desktop can’t escape even with admin access. Depending on role configuration of a fully managed device, say for an executive, they could potentially have access to share data with USBs, but for unmanaged and personal devices, that would be blocked.

By keeping corporate/sensitive data off endpoints, Horizon Cloud can help you ensure regulatory compliance, while providing secure access to business-critical virtual desktops and apps.

Benefit 3 – Cost Savings

Horizon Cloud radically transforms traditional desktop and application virtualization with a predictable and flexible cost-model where you’re only charged for what you use. Tristan points out, “This consumption-based model makes it easy for you to plan your monthly budget and benefit from low usage, like when people take off during the holidays.”

Virtualization also reduces large up-front expenditures for expensive hardware and can streamline management, onboarding and deployment, so your highly paid IT staff isn’t responsible for day-to-day tasks.

Benefit 4 – User Experience     

Remote workers expect to be able to work anywhere on any device. Virtualization provides them with the same experience no matter the device. This helps them adapt quicker to the “new normal” without the hiccups of learning something completely new.

For the long haul, if there’s any issue, like a new hire who hasn’t received their computer yet or an existing employee’s computer is down, they don’t have to wait for new computer or device. They can go to any computer and single sign on to get their work done without waiting.

Success Story: Utility Company Experiences Real Results with Virtualization

A utilities company had to scramble when state mandates made working from home mandatory last March. Unfortunately, they were nowhere near ready. Instead of using a preinstalled application on their personal PCs, users had to remote into a different PC that’s inside the network, which was not only cumbersome, but with multiple users on at the same time creating connectivity issues, it was almost impossible for anyone to work efficiently.

With a cloud-based virtual platform, like VMware Horizon Cloud, the utility was able to open access to workers, including making it possible for them to use older applications, using their home devices and without clogging up the network. Virtualizing their systems made a lot more sense than investing in new expensive equipment, building from the ground up, and training their remote workforce to use this new technology.

Vox Mobile and Horizon Cloud: Better Together

Vox Mobile is here to help carry out the deployment of your virtual environment and provide you with the level of support you need, including fully managed support. Think of our team as your mobile device management assistant, taking on the time-consuming tasks you don’t want your higher-level admins doing, including:

• New employee enrollment
• Enterprise mobility management support
• 24/7 monitoring and management
• BYOD policy, patch and advanced configurations support
• Telecom expense management
• And more

With Vox Mobile, you can reduce the demand on your IT resources, expand your support capabilities and lower management costs. Find out how we can benefit your business.