Hosted virtual desktops are commonly used to reduce hardware and IT costs, simplify desktop management, and to make it easier for users to work remotely. As working from home is becoming increasingly popular, so has hosted virtual desktops. Once implemented, users can access their desktop environments from just about any computer as well as run multiple virtual desktops if desired. Employees enjoy this feature of being able to work remotely and access data from wherever they have internet access. But where does all the data go?
For example, if you're a typical office worker, you create a variety of files on a regular basis including documents, email messages, memos, presentations, reports, and so on. You’re also likely to generate data whenever you use your company's internal software such as point-of-sale systems or inventory control systems. When you're working within the building, you likely store your data on a designated storage device without giving it much thought. But where do you store data when working remotely using hosted virtual desktops? Should you save the data to the hard disk on the computer, use a USB drive, or do something else?
Just as when you're working in the office and saving your data to a designated drive, the same is true of working remotely. Hosted virtual desktops are set up with virtual drives that store the data in a datacenter loaded with storage arrays. Your system administrator will have pre-configured the storage requirements so that whenever you save your files to the designated drive or generate data in the company's legacy programs, the data will be saved, stored, and secured appropriately.
As an end-user of hosted virtual desktops, you simply interact with your desktop as you normally would. It doesn't matter if you access it from an old, worn out laptop with a maxed out hard disk drive because the desktop gets its resources - including storage - from the virtualized infrastructure. Not only does this mean that you can save and store data centrally without doing anything different, you can also retrieve it - no matter where you are or what type of machine you are using (Source: Hosted Virtual Desktops by Tegile).
Companies like Google have taken advantage of virtual desktops and their employees are using this technology to get more work done when when commuting to work in the company shuttle. Will your company take advantage of virtual desktops?
This is article is written by Stephanie Rose.
David
