Q&A with Brett Johnson of Centrix Software - Page 2

VSM: I’ve heard Centrix Software talk about big data for end-user computing. What do you mean by that and why is it an important concept?

BJ: Big Data means different things to different people. While many people see it as harnessing the cloud’s massive and fast-growing amount of information to be more competitive, there’s a whole other, equally critical, angle to Big Data that most enterprises haven’t considered: how to gather, analyze and use as much end-user data as possible so you can ready your company for the cloud and other desktop transformations. Without the right end-user data, you won’t get the depth of understanding about your users and what they’re doing that’s needed to determine optimal desktop delivery strategies for your business, whether that’s via virtual desktops, physical desktops, the cloud, or more likely, a blend of them all.

At Centrix, we focus on helping businesses obtain the exact kind of data needed for analyzing  and selecting the most economical and effective strategies for their various groups of users, applications and systems. This includes in-depth, event-driven data collected at individual session levels for users, applications, content, connectivity, systems and devices. Centrix WorkSpace iQ is helping hundreds of businesses monitor and meter the technology assets consumed across their end-user computing environments and accurately plan desktop transformations.

VSM: When it comes to successful cloud computing transitions, are there other factors that businesses need to consider?

BJ: Yes, one of the biggest factors is application bloat. Most enterprises have thousands of applications, many of which are outdated, don’t deliver enough business value, are used by a small minority of employees or in 50% of cases, are not used at all! Yet they’re still supporting and paying for these applications. While IT organizations have long grappled with how to manage and rationalize all these applications, most don’t have a handle on exactly what’s being used, by whom, how frequently, via what delivery methods, and under what circumstances. As a result, instead of being able to rationalize their applications, they watch as the pool grows exponentially. As companies plan transitions to the cloud, this lack of knowledge, combined with a bloated application portfolio, can potentially derail the migrations. It would be virtually impossible—or at minimum, tremendously time-consuming and costly to migrate all these applications to the cloud. Moreover, most companies simply will not do so, requiring that many applications are hosted in their own data centers, or installed or run virtually on employee desktops.

As you can see, this application bloat problem stems from a lack of end-user data. In order to rationalize your applications to prepare for the cloud, you need detailed insight about users, application usage and device usage.  Only then will you be able to accurately determine which applications make sense for the cloud and which are best served by other delivery methods.