Getting IT right for the recovery

“Never let a serious crisis go to waste … now is the opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before”. So said Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s Chief of Staff. Well financial institutions have certainly had their crisis and any organization that uses the economic slowdown to upgrade and standardize its IT systems is bound to be far better placed to make a fast recovery when the time is right. The question is, what’s the best way to go about it?

Asking the difficult questions

Sticking with your established IT infrastructure and hoping for the best isn't really an option. Existing and new government legislation, changing market conditions and developments in technology make it imperative to take a long hard look at your current IT arrangements. At the same time, any changes you decide on will have to answer to some pretty exacting requirements.

Security and compliance remain crucial and complex issues for the financial sector. The challenge today is that business drivers and end-users are increasingly demanding flexibility and ease of access to data and applications. On the other hand, any breach of confidentiality or leak of sensitive client information becomes front-page news, overnight and worldwide, with inevitably damaging effects. Getting the accessibility/security equation right is a tricky but necessary balancing act.

Current market conditions are also insisting on cost-efficiencies from IT departments. As they seek more effective ways to deliver services to end-users, IT managers are expected to reduce the attendant costs. Both Software as a Service (SaaS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) are secure solutions that are also cost-effective. When implemented, however, they too often add a layer of complexity to the existing IT infrastructure and that can compromise productivity. More importantly, a solution like SaaS that involves cloud computing is immediately unattractive to most IT managers who are not prepared to store sensitive information outside their organization's four walls.

Then there's a whole new breed of end-user to consider. The generation that's been rapidly rising through the ranks in financial institutions does things differently. Their preferred way of working is on a collision course with the strict regulatory regime of the traditional IT department. They expect to be able to use their own computing devices, with scant regard for the associated security risks for their organization and the extra support that's required from IT. On the other hand, these are the employees that any institution needs to attract and to accommodate.    

VDI could be the ideal solution

The criteria are tough but finding an answer is not impossible. In fact, many organizations worldwide have already implemented a solution that seems to fit the bill and is available off-the-shelf from a number of large vendors - desktop virtualization or VDI.

Desktop virtualization works on a client-server model by separating the desktop environment from the physical machine. This "virtualized" desktop is then stored on a remote central server. Users work from their remote desktop client, with all their applications, processes and data kept and run centrally. They have access to their own personal desktop on any capable device, whether it's a traditional PC, laptop or thin client.

The VDI solution certainly has plenty of advantages, especially when some thought is given to its implementation.

For a start, it's highly secure and manageable. Centralization can ensure compliance, as well as making certain that sensitive information is stored safely within the organization, thus minimizing the risk of lost or leaked data.

The potential savings are enormous. Centralizing desktops reduces management costs and cuts helpdesk calls. And further cost-efficiencies become possible when the right User Workspace Management solution is used to help automate desktop creation, delivery and management.  

The experience for the end-user is improved. And it's even better when you combine VDI with a solution like Scense. An IT department can then provide users with an extremely personalized desktop, whether the device in use is company or employee-owned. A secure, manageable and personal desktop is available any time, any place.

Taking the right route to VDI is crucial

Setting up a virtual desktop environment is comparatively easy. The real challenge is preparing it for operation. Migration can be complex but the benefits of getting it right are enormous. After all, when else do you have the opportunity to get a grip on your entire desktop and application environment, to enforce compliance once and for all, and to remove any applications that shouldn't have been there in the first place? That's why it's worth some serious thought before you start.

Every single application or process, all data and settings (personal and corporate) which once resided on the physical desktop, need to be migrated to the virtual environment, without anything being overlooked and without adversely affecting the user experience.

The issue is that most VDI migration tooling simply moves personal data and settings in a one-to-one conversion of physical to virtual desktops, ignoring the most important element of desktop computing - the application. With Scense VDI migration tooling a mainly automated process converts large numbers of desktops rapidly, with all user-specific applications and drivers installed and all user data and settings, as well as corporate policies, in place. The result is an IT environment that's thoroughly manageable.

On its own, VDI is not enough

Achieving VDI, as already outlined, is one thing, but if not implemented with care, the much-trumpeted VDI can add a layer of complexity to your IT infrastructure that you really don't want. For all its promises, in fact, it can turn into an IT manager's worst nightmare. What is needed to stay on track and make VDI deliver its promise, is an effective management tool for the virtual desktops. Without that, issues will inevitably arise around location-based printing, image management will once more become highly time-consuming and delivering applications efficiently may simply be impossible. If it's going to deliver, really deliver, VDI has to be combined with a User Workspace Management solution.

Getting the best out of VDI with Scense

After 11 years' experience of creating application delivery and management solutions, Dutch software vendor, Scense is a leading expert in User Workspace Management. In response to a world that's been moving rapidly away from traditional locked-down computing environments, Scense has developed a solution that focuses on users being able to work flexibly and efficiently - at any time, in any location - whether on their own laptop, logging on to a server-based system, a VDI infrastructure, thin client or desktop, whilst allowing IT to remain firmly in control.

Scense separates all information about applications, desktop configurations and users from the underlying operating system and hardware and stores it in a central database. Managed centrally from a single management console, this information is made available for the entire user session from machine start-up to shutdown. This allows Scense to create personal virtual desktops dynamically, independent of the type of machine being used. In order to deliver the right application and desktop at the right time, with the best possible desktop experience, Scense considers a range of workspace aspects from the type of device and user identity to the date and physical location. As a result, such typical VDI issues as location-based printing, extended log-on times and cumbersome image management become a thing of the past.

The ultimate authority still remains with IT. They can do a much more effective job of application delivery and user personality management in a far more stable user environment and with fewer demands on resources, whilst enabling users to work the way they want to work without irksome restrictions.

Doing the things you couldn't do before

Security, compliance, the need to work within increasingly tight budgets and the demand for employee empowerment are all factors demanding change in existing IT architectures. The current economic crisis has brought a new focus and urgency to the task and, at the same time, created a real opportunity. Financial institutions that get this right will come out of the crisis with a more efficient IT department and an infrastructure that's more flexible, more cost-effective and harder-working.

Organizations are certainly right to be looking at VDI. It's a solution that appears to answers all the key challenges facing today's IT management and it's relatively simple to set up. However, unless implemented with a great deal of thought, it can bring its own problems. Making it deliver on its promises requires the collaboration of an effective User Workspace Management solution - a solution like Scense that has proved its worth time and again, in collaboration with VDI technology from partners such as Microsoft, VMWare and Sun.