With an increase in the number of mobile workers, organisations are looking at desktop virtualisation not only for centralised administration of desktops but also for easy maintenance and to avail of benefits arising from functions like end-to-end desktop virtualisation. Ganesh Mahabala, regional director, VMWare, India and SAARC, talks to Biztech2.0 about the growing significance of desktop virtualisation.

What are the benefits of desktop virtualisation for enterprises?

Organisations today must support a wide variety of mobile and remote users, from telecommuters and salespeople in the field to call centre workers, consultants and contractors. These users access sensitive information assets from a range of equipment, including laptops, thin clients and unmanaged PCs, making it difficult to support end users in a consistent and secure manner. Desktop virtualisation can help enterprises overcome these challenges by facilitating desktop management and security. Virtualisation solutions offer a number of key advantages over traditional client-server and server-based models by improving management and control. Companies can configure, deploy and maintain hardware-independent desktop virtual machines from central locations for simpler management and more efficient desktop provisioning. By encapsulating the desktop operating system, applications and user data as a set of files in a virtual machine that can be stored centrally, stronger policy enforcement and tighter data security can be enabled. Most importantly, desktop virtualisation solutions deliver a familiar desktop experience that does not require application sharing, software modifications or user training for end users.

Do you think desktop virtualisation will pick up in India in the near future?

Absolutely, desktop virtualisation is all set to pick up tremendous pace in India. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a server-based computing technology but it offers some compelling advantages compared over terminal services or shared application solutions. VDI desktops running on a centralised server are completely isolated, which helps prevent unauthorised access to desktop images, unlike application sharing technologies, and it improves reliability as well.

What are the drivers behind desktop virtualisation in India?

The key factors currently driving desktop virtualisation in India are its uses in centralised desktop management, transactional user management and desktop backup and disaster recovery. With virtualisation, administrators can provision new desktops in minutes, give users their own personalised desktop environments while eliminating the need for retraining and application sharing. This approach helps to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for desktop infrastructure, extends hardware life cycle and helps to respond more quickly to business needs. It is ideal for delivering cost-effective desktop services to fixed function workers at branch offices and other locations.

Controlling access to confidential data is also easier because all virtual desktops reside in a central location. Integration of desktop virtualisation with security application enables support for two factor authentication, while strong network encryption protects data in transit. These features can help reduce the risk of data leakage and malicious code intrusion while also helping to ease regulatory compliance burdens. You can leverage shared storage to back up your desktop data. Automated failover helps to ensure high availability for virtual desktops, while site-wide recovery mechanisms ensure rapid restoration of service after an unplanned outage.

How far is desktop virtualisation solving the purpose of compliance along with other security issues?

One of the many inherent benefits of moving your desktops into a virtual environment in the data centre is that desktops no longer reside on employee owned PCs, laptops in the field or remote machines that you can’t control. When your desktops are centrally managed in a secure data centre, you can more easily apply virus scanning software and other standard security policies of your company. You can also lock down access to various network drives or shut a user off instantly when they leave the company. Virtualisation simplifies the security of desktops in many ways as explained above.