Accelerating Virtual Desktop Adoption with Fast, Automated Access - Page 3

This combination of one-touch access with virtual desktops is becoming popular in hospitals as they adopt electronic medical records (EMR) solutions to meet the HITECH Act Meaningful Use objectives.  Giving clinicians a personalized desktop that follows them at a touch significantly streamlines the effort of EMR adoption, accelerating widespread and meaningful usage.

Add Location-Aware Intelligence

Even in a virtual desktop, physical location matters. Adding an authentication layer to the virtual desktop also gives you the ability to tailor the virtual desktop experience according to location, offering different selections of applications if the user is accessing the virtual desktop from within a secure facility or from a remote location.

For example, when a user authenticates from a specific workstation, devices such as default printers can change according to the physical location.

IT organizations can also tailor available applications by location. For example, if virtual desktops are deployed in support of offshore outsourcing, then virtual desktops accessed from the offshore location may only retrieve the limited set of applications necessary for the third party partners. A tightly integrated solution can even filter which data is presented to the user depending on their location.

The TCO Payoff: Reduced Administrative Overhead

One of the key reasons that organizations adopt virtualized desktops is to centralize the management of the desktop environment, reducing administrative overhead and costs of tasks like patch management, application provisioning, and support.

Authentication management applies a similar centralized control and administration to the various password and access policies in the organization. The IT organizations benefits from:

• Reduced helpdesk calls for forgotten passwords and user lockouts
• Centralized authentication management
• The ability to demonstrate compliance with access policies/regulations

Other Tips for Successful Virtual Desktop Adoption

To gain the full benefits described above, look for authentication solutions that are tightly integrated with the virtual desktop environment, using vendor-supported interfaces if possible. As a critical link in the desktop launch chain, it is important the integration is well-designed to accommodate the different authentication workflows and exceptions that can occur. Also make sure that the authentication solution itself is easy to manage and maintain.

Technology alone is not sufficient, of course. For successful virtual desktop adoption, you have to do the work to gain user acceptance. This includes gaining a good understanding of user workflows and requirements. For example, the hospitals that have the best success with virtual desktops for EMR technology work with specific clinicians and practices to understand how best to adapt technologies to their workflow and needs.  Do the upfront work to intelligently integrate both the virtual desktop and authentication methods into existing employee workflows.