Workspace Virtualization & Mobile Device Management – Are they linked to each other?

At a recent event, one of the industry analysts was presenting the drivers of Desktop Virtualization and surprisingly mentioned cost wasn’t one. In fact, according to him, the ROI on Desktop Virtualization wasn’t so great. The investments required in back-end infrastructure (data center & network) and license costs offset the savings achieved from virtualizing the desktop environment. During a chat with another analyst during the same event, he mentioned that the biggest concern areas for IT heads in banking, insurance, utility & ITeS industries were data security, flexibility, manageability & scalability in the end user environment. With proliferation of smart phones and business demands of making the field force more agile by providing access to business applications on the go, the IT heads are caught in a catch-22 of cost savings v/s business agility. This is driving interest in Desktop Virtualization & MDM.

In my view, both of these services co-exist as mobile devices have become an intrinsic part of the end user environment. Hence, when considering Desktop Virtualization, one should also factor in MDM. Take an example of how an employee can sync data between their smart phones and desktops and the security impact for the banking, insurance & ITeS industries. If the desktop & applications are virtualized & mobilized, and a Corporate App Store is created, employees will be provided the flexibility to access applications on the go without compromising data security. The mobile devices can also be managed as part of the overall virtualized ecosystem from a centralized console thereby providing more control to the IT team. This is an important aspect not only for the IT team but also the business. Similar examples abound for other industries and use cases. One needs to figure out what is important for them and work out a fine balance in terms of solution to be adopted.

Tags: Cloud, Desktop Virtualization, Microland, Mobile Device Management, Mobility