Small Business Endpoint Virtualization provides a great way for organizations to increase productivity and reduce costs while minimizing risk and increasing agility. There are an increasing number of endpoint options that users have from smartphones to tablets and various flavors of PCs. This gives people the option to be connected when and how they want to.
We have talked about server virtualization for small business and storage virtualization for small business in previous posts, but there is another type of virtualization for the endpoint or operating system. While there a number of ways to do it, the basic idea is that if you can create an environment whereby any device, whether it is a tablet, a smartphone, a laptop or any computer (thin or traditional) can access it in a similar way, it becomes much easier to manage. Rather than having to worry about device-specific environments, small businesses can manage a single infrastructure and make it accessible to all of these different devices.
I would suggest thinking about what types of workers you have, such as kiosk workers, mobile sales, home workers, etc. and working with a provider who can advise on the possible configurations for your business. For me, I go seamlessly from my iPhone to my iPad to my Mac Mini to my home PC to my work PC and am always connected to financial, sales, marketing and whatever internal systems I want (perhaps too often ;-)) This is important because each device has its own use – iPhone when moving about, iPad when sitting in a waiting room, Mac Mini for graphics-intensive work, Home PC when local Microsoft Office 2010 work is needed, Work PC for multi-monitor multi-window activities like spreadsheets.
For small businesses, cost reduction opportunities come into play with options for thin clients which are significantly less expensive than traditional PCs. Risk is reduced because it is far easier to secure one terminal server than a plethora of disctinct devices. Agility is improved because a new employee's infrastructure may be deployed with virtually no local configuration. What benefits are you looking to achieve in your business? How do you want to be connected?
Key Takeaways:
- Organizations may increase productivity and reduce costs through enpoint virtualization
- By eliminating management of device-specific environments, efficiency increases
- Additional cost reductions are available through thin clients
