As more organizations embrace hybrid work as a strategic aspect of their business models and corporate cultures, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and desktop as a service (DaaS) are providing a path to streamlined operations, better security, cost efficiencies and simple, resilient scalability.
The VDI market, fueled by the new hybrid workplace, is growing at an annual pace of 19.4% and expected to reach more than $33 billion by 2028.1 These same market trends are driving 16.9% annual growth in the DaaS market, which is expected to reach $6.6 billion by 2027.2
VDI and DaaS give IT teams greater control and more structured manageability over their end-user environments. With the right solution, onboarding and scaling can be much faster and simpler, while security, data protection and regulatory compliance can be centrally managed.
Users working in a hybrid environment are increasingly focused on their own experience and have high expectations for flexibility, performance, resiliency, collaboration and productivity no matter where they are working. Similarly, IT teams in a hybrid environment have high demands for simplified manageability and scale, plus greater control over security, regulatory compliance and return on investment.
These characteristics, combined with users’ expectations of enabling best-in-class experience, collaboration tools, flexibility and performance, are vital criteria for VDI and DaaS in the hybrid work era.
However, when it comes to meeting these criteria, not all VDI and DaaS solutions are up to the task. Independent research shows that VDI and DaaS solutions from Dell Technologies and VMware provide significant advantages in user experience and overall performance versus competitive as-a-service solutions.3
The research measured the performance of Dell Technologies APEX Hybrid Cloud running VMware Horizon and competitive solutions using industry-standard benchmarking tests, such as Login VSI and SysTrack from Lakeside Software.
The Dell and VMware solutions were standouts in all four areas measured by the testing, focused on the critical criteria of remote user experience, remote user productivity and overall virtual desktop performance. The following is a brief summary of the results.
Criteria 1: Remote User Experience
The research shows that organizations are concluding that measuring the end-user experience is just as important as raw performance. They also see that monitoring the end-user experience provides a path to resolving common remote user complaints such as slow logon, excessive application load and response times, and poor graphics performance.
The results of the SysTrack user experience tests indicated that Horizon on APEX Hybrid Cloud consistently outperformed the competition. In fact, 98% of Horizon on APEX Hybrid Cloud sessions scored in the 90th percentile or higher, with nearly two-thirds of all Horizon on APEX Hybrid Cloud sessions falling in the “exceptional” user experience range.
Criteria 2: Remote User Productivity
The research indicates that remote user productivity is “extremely important when considering today’s economic uncertainty and the need for organizations to reduce all possible costs, including losses in worker productivity.” In addition to productivity, it is important that VDI and DaaS solutions provide workers with the collaboration tools they need to be able to work with colleagues and partners at all times, from any location.
The independent testing indicated that Horizon on APEX Hybrid Cloud was the only remote platform in which SysTrack calculated no loss in user productivity. The research concluded, “By demonstrating zero productivity loss, it is readily apparent that remote users can work effectively if they utilize a well-designed virtual desktop platform such as Horizon on APEX Hybrid Cloud.”
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It has become vitally important for organizations to keep their remote knowledge workers enthused and engaged at a time when user experience and work-life balance are becoming table stakes in retaining, hiring and motivating individuals with highly specialized skills.
The research report notes that workload latency is an important factor when considering the productivity of remote knowledge workers: “Lost time waiting for applications to display equals lost time in analyzing important data.” This was another area in which Horizon on APEX Hybrid Cloud outperformed the competition, based on a comparison of application latency over a highly popular video conferencing application.
Criteria 4: Remote User Boot and Logon
Once the strengths and weak points of the user experience are fully understood, performance testing can then help identify specific resources that are over- or underprovisioned. Once again, Horizon on APEX Hybrid Cloud outperformed the competition, with the beset ranking in logon times, sessions completed and latency across all load ranges. The research report concludes, “Horizon on APEX Hybrid Cloud is indicative of a robust design that is best prepared to take full advantage of a high-performance remote environment.”
Taking the Next Step
User experience, user productivity, IT productivity and overall performance are indicative of the new criteria demanded of VDI and DaaS solutions in today’s hybrid work environment. When it comes to meeting the needs of users as well as IT teams, VMware Horizon on Dell Technologies APEX Hybrid Cloud offers measurable advantages that competitors are hard-pressed to match.
To learn more about VDI and DaaS that IT can implement quickly, simply and efficiently to help your organization meet the collaboration and productivity needs of your remote and hybrid workers, please visit Dell Technologies.
1 “Global Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Market Share Will Surpass USD 33.42 Billion by 2028 at 19.4% CAGR Growth,” Facts & Factors, Jan. 17, 2022
2 “Global Desktop-as-a-Service Market Report 2021: Trajectory & Analytics, 2012-2019 & 2020-2027,” ResearchAndMarkets.com, April 28, 2021
3 “Virtual Desktop Performance and User Experience Comparison,” Cloud Evolutions, 2020
