Anyone tracking virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) has seen numerous claims over the past 5+ years that “this is the year of VDI.” The technology has been compelling but limited in deployment for corner cases and specific employee profiles. It’s never bounced past these use cases. Until now.
COVID-19 has found companies left unprepared for this unplanned event and without a solid business continuity plan in place for WFH (work from home) employees. Prior to COVID-19, business executives were reluctant to support WFH and feared the impact to employee productivity. The technology to deliver a secure workspace for an employee is rarely the issue but was often used as an excuse to restrict WFH policies. A small percentage of companies had a local business continuity plan in place for local natural disasters, but few had plans in place to address the scale of WFH we are seeing today.
Since companies were unprepared, they naturally rushed solutions for WFH employees knowing that there were security risks, questionable impact to productivity, and unknown network issues. As companies work through addressing any shortcomings, now is an ideal time to consider VDI and other digital workspace technologies that can deliver a secure and productive experience for WFH employees. ESG research validates that the top benefits of VDI are improved security, reduced operational expense, and improved employee productivity gains. This is exactly what businesses need right now.
ESG research continues to monitor how VDI is empowering WFH employees and more importantly, the role VDI and digital workspaces will have post-COVID-19 and how business can prepare as we welcome back some normalcy to our lives.
