Virtual computers save money for small businesses

November 12th, 2018
Virtual computers save money for small businesses

When we say virtual computers, we’re not talking about virtual reality or anything spooky like that. It’s simply a way for office employees to do work at their cubicles using something that approximates a typical desktop computer, but is fundamentally different.

Virtual computers, or virtual desktops as they’re also known, take advantage of technology that allows a computer to run on an operating system like Windows or Mac OS that is installed on a different machine.

That machine running the operating system will be either a server located onsite in your office or off-site in the cloud, which is becoming more and more common for small- and mid-sized businesses.

Wherever it’s located, each employee’s files, folders, desktop shortcuts, recycle bin, and background image will reside on that server -- yet everything will appear like it resides right there in their cubicle.

Stripped-down desktops mean savings

So when your employees sit down at their cubicles and turn on their computers, everything they see on screen will be appearing to them over the office’s local network or over the Internet -- the former if the other machine is located onsite, the latter if it’s in the cloud.

Since the other machine will provide everything the employees need to do their work, those desktops can be built to very basic specifications. In the parlance of virtual computing, they’re often called “dumb terminals” because they’re so simple.

And since the other machine will be doing all of the processing, the dumb terminals can be comprised of not much more than keyboard, monitor, mouse, and network connection. This provides SMB owners an easy opportunity to reduce operating costs over the long term.

Dumb terminals are easy to maintain

While it’s true that dumb terminals can reduce your hardware spend from around $750 per employee to a much more manageable $250, savings isn’t the only benefit of virtual computers. These stripped-down computers will make it much easier to manage your IT network, too.

First of all, dumb-terminals’ hardware will be easier to manage simply because there are far fewer components involved in each machine. Secondly, the software will be easier to manage because the installation, licensing upkeep, and security patching that’s normally required is completely removed from the equation -- remember, the desktops’ operating systems and software apps will be running on the other machine.

And if you go with cloud-based virtual desktops -- meaning the other machine is located off-site -- everything about the virtualization except for the simple dumb terminals will be managed by your provider. Neither you nor an in-house IT Admin will have to lift a finger to ensure your employees’ virtual desktops work right.

Virtualization enhances employee efficiency

For your company’s technical support staff, the stripped-down dumb terminals free up time since they won’t have to deal with fixing problems related to insufficient memory, inadequate processing power, or shortages of hard drive space.

And, assuming the server’s located onsite and isn’t a cloud-provider’s responsibility, your technicians will be able to administer software security patches and licensing updates on only one machine. Gone will be the hassle of having to go one-by-one through 10, 100, or however many PCs you’d otherwise have installed on your network in a traditional “non-virtual” desktop-server arrangement.

These advantages save a lot of resources over the course of a day, week, or year allowing technicians to tend to more important, revenue-generating or -saving projects.

For the rest of your workforce, virtual desktops make computing quicker. They allow users to access their applications and data at any time, from anywhere, on any device. But the coolest feature is how they allow users to access different desktops from one dumb terminal or device.

So if your organization runs QuickBooks on Windows, but other applications run on Mac OS, there’s no need for two computers to handle the two operating systems. A user would simply switch over from one virtual desktop to another on the same server as if they had logged out of one computer and logged into another.

For more information on how OC-IT can help you move to a virtual-desktop environment to reduce IT costs, simplify computer maintenance, and increase employee productivity, visit us at our Costas Mesa office or call us at 949-373-8180 today.

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