When shopping for your personal computer, you will gladly pay the extra money to buy the best machine possible. However, when buying piles of workstations for your business, paying extra for the best equipment adds up quickly. Utilizing Desktop Virtualization for your business is a great way to get away with buying inexpensive computer hardware and that allows you to save money.
Desktop Virtualization allows for one computer to display two operating systems. While every computer has enough resources to display one operating system, the more you ask of your PC, especially when using heavy duty business applications, the more money that will be needed to give your workstations extra RAM and processing power. With Desktop Virtualization, these heavy computing demands that businesses place on their workstations are transferred over to powerful servers, allowing you to instead buy computers that are essentially stripped down.
A computer that offers only basic functionality and resources, while being setup for Desktop Virtualization, is called a terminal. Because terminal computers have significantly less power than workstations, they cost significantly less money. When it comes time to refresh the old computers on your network with new ones, the hardware savings that you will see from going with terminal machines running Desktop Virtualization, versus paying for the same number of top-of-the-line workstations, will save you piles of money and make you a budgeting hero.
By having your business lean more on Desktop Virtualization, you might be able to even skip out on replacing your computer hardware altogether. With Desktop Virtualization, you can perform a few basic upgrade procedures to your old machines, like adding new hard drives and RAM, and then switch the heavy lifting over to your server. Your old workstations will then have a new lease on life and be able to display whatever beefy applications your server can handle. When it comes down to it, buying new hard drives and additional RAM for your antiquated computers is a much more affordable option than buying a fleet of new workstations.
However, if you are committed to buying all new hardware, and you are interested in taking advantage of Desktop Virtualization, then purchasing new thin client computers is a great way to upgrade while still saving big money. Thin clients are computer hardware that’s specifically designed for the client/server Desktop Virtualization model, and because the applications are hosted on the server, client-resident installation is not required. Although, when it comes to thin clients, the graphical user interface and some applications may still be rendered to the client.
If you are looking for help utilizing your servers for Desktop Virtualization, then give Vantage Point a call at 225.242.9309. We will be happy to look over your network and existing workstations and explain what resources Desktop Virtualization will require, as well as go over with you other ways Vantage Point can save you money and make technology work for you!
Source: vp 300-400