Whether workers are treated fairly and ethically by their employers is a hotly debated topic, but in most cases, they generally fare better than a herd of cattle. Workers, much like the devices they use, need to be treated with some degree of care since they aren’t easily replaced, just as their devices aren’t always easily fixed when broken.
A recent Virtualization Review article makes the case for applying herd management strategies to end user computing. Now, this doesn’t mean that workers are a dime a dozen and easily replaceable, nor are their devices. But there is something to be said of herd management strategies, and through the power of virtual desktops, they may be used to more efficiently manage end users.
Very simply, virtual desktops offer a means to decouple a user from the device or machine they use. For instance, if Worker A prefers to work on a laptop and something happens to make that laptop unusable, valuable productivity and output may be lost while it is being repaired or while Worker A’s applications and data are migrated to a different device. If, however, a virtual desktop is in place, all data and applications are safely located in a data center or the cloud, ensuring Worker A may quickly log into another device to continue working.
There are generally two ways that virtual desktops are provisioned for end users, and these two methods are often at odds with one another. The first is known as the persistent desktop, which means that the desktop persists with Worker A’s changes even after this user logs out of the system. This means both Worker A and the system administrator benefit from an experience that mirrors the physical machines they typically use, while administrators may use many of the same tools to manage both the VM’s and Worker A’s applications.
The downside to the persistent desktop is tying Worker A to a specific VM, which becomes a high maintenance situation. If the VM should fail, Worker A is still in the same position of losing productivity as if a laptop or other device failed.
The second approach is known as non-persistent desktops, and in this case, user changes are not retained after Worker A logs out. Instead, the desktop is rolled back to a known good state or destroyed upon logout, meaning the desktop itself becomes disposable. This method is most in line with the herd management approach to virtual desktops, enabling a massive amount of scalability and flexibility. The downside to this approach is that Worker A’s changes are lost when logging out, requiring a separate tool to capture and roam the user’s profile.
Application deployment can also be a challenge with this method, although layering solutions are now available that are specifically meant for virtual desktop environments. As long as your business is cognizant of your application licensing structure, deployment should be relatively smooth with this approach.
Worker A and Worker A’s laptop and other associated devices definitely need to be handled with care by your business. But a virtual desktop approach allows your business to efficiently and cost effectively provision resources for your users through a herd management approach, one that will benefit your entire business in the long run.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson