2010 Prediction: Bob Janssen, RES Software By Bob Janssen published: Tuesday, January 05 2010
Keys to Success for Desktop Projects in 2010
History has proven that IT can expect a major desktop infrastructure change every three to five years. These changes are typically marked by the introduction of a new operating system or delivery technology. As we head into 2010, two major shifts are quickly taking place at today’s organizations – Windows 7 migrations and/or the move to a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). If not managed effectively, these changes can have serious implications for the organization especially at the desktop layer. There is potential for negative impacts on employee productivity and satisfaction as well as significant strains on IT resources in terms of time and money spent managing these transitions.
As IT begins planning for these major changes, there are also tools they can employ to help accomplish these goals more quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively, specifically sophisticated user workspace management technology. User workspace management enables the transformation of the traditional desktop into dynamic user workspaces that provide users with access to their applications, printing, data and personal settings based on the context of the user.
The following will highlight key areas for any major desktop change and will explain how these factors will make the difference in managing the major desktop change.
User Workspace Management As a Prerequisite
With the right user workspace management solution, organizations can make the process of migrating their desktop infrastructures much more seamless. This type of solution helps organizations automate the desktop management process which means IT does not have continually make the same changes over and over again during a migration. IT has the ability to build a new form of management that requires minimal oversight and maintenance, saving them a significant amount of time. In assessing these solutions, there are several key capabilities an organization should look for to ensure they are able to truly transform their current desktops into the dynamic workspaces their end users need.
Context-Awareness: Context-aware, or user-centric, capabilities are critical in building a dynamic user workspace independent of the delivery platform, device, time, identity or location. These identifying factors are assessed at logon and used to compose the user workspace with each user’s specific applications, printing, data and user settings, ensuring uninterrupted user productivity on the desktop.
Independent User Workspaces: A workspace management solution should also have the ability to dynamically compose the user workspace (desktop) independent from the Windows operating system. By separating the two, IT can automate the dynamic composition and management of user workspaces for their desktop populations. This is a critical factor in driving the context-aware, user-centric delivery of access to applications and data.
User-Centric Security: Today’s users are working from multiple desktops, both in and out of the corporate network. As a result, it can become difficult to offer them all the desktop settings they need without comprising network security when they aren’t at their home station. With a user-centric approach to security, organizations can customize a host of security policies that take into account who the user is, where they are, what department they are in, what time it is, etc. This ensures on-demand availability of the right services to end users, without compromising the necessary overall organizational security protocols.
Centrally Managed and Automated Solution: A centrally-managed, automated workspace management solution is essential in streamlining oversight of the solution, enabling IT professionals to quickly, easily and cost-effectively apply changes to their user bases, without interruption. This contributes to overall user productivity and minimizes overall strain on IT resources.
Critical Success Factors
Once the decision has been made to migrate the desktop infrastructure and the right tools and management solutions are in place, organizations should take into account the following factors to ensure a seamless rollout with minimal impact on organizational productivity.
- Leverage Live Data To Aid Success: There is a wealth of information residing in your current desktop infrastructure, before you begin your deployment gain insight from the data that you have. Intuitive workspace management solutions can help you easily learn how end-users are using their desktops today. IT can leverage this information to develop new and improved desktop designs that take into account each specific user’s application, printing, data and personalization needs.
- Control the Speed of Change: If an implementation is executed too quickly and without proper testing, it can cause interruptions to workflow and impact overall business objectives. To mitigate this issue, IT should take a slow, tactical approach to roll out, focusing first on the pain points that can be easily addressed. This can be accomplished by sampling how desktops are being used and analyze the changes to test them before implementation. This enables IT professionals to identify the areas that are ready for transformation first, helping them strategically roll-out new services. It also provides IT with insight over the areas that may require more time before they can be successfully implemented. The end-user enjoys ongoing productivity and is satisfied. Further, because IT is able to test and sample the environment prior to implementation, they are able to reduce the amount of alternations needed post roll-out, saving them valuable time.
- Manage Outcomes and Predict the End Result: As discussed above, when the user workspace is independent from the operating system, IT can dynamically compose the user workspace without depending on the underlying application or desktop delivery technology. Through this process, IT can always guarantee that the right applications, data, printing and user settings are automatically available to the user based on current locations, identities and time.
In Conclusion
The coming year will mark significant infrastructure changes for many organizations. Windows 7 and the virtual desktop infrastructure both offer tremendous benefits. However, if not implemented correctly, both could be risky for operations. To ensure success, IT should employ intelligent user workspace management solutions and keep in mind the above considerations. Together, these factors will help to enable an easy, cost-effective and seamless transition that will, in time, increase user satisfaction and productivity while at the same time, minimize the strains facing IT, freeing resources to focus on new, mission critical business needs. I wish you all the best of luck in 2010.
Bob Janssen, CTO
Bob Janssen is the co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of RES Software. He has been responsible for product vision, strategy and development at RES Software since co-founding the company in 1999. He was instrumental in the creation of RES Software’s flagship products, RES PowerFuse User Workspace Management and RES Wisdom Run Book Automation, released in 1999 and 2005, respectively. During his tenure, RES Software has sold over one million licenses worldwide. Janssen also holds several patents for the solutions he has developed at RES Software. He holds a Business Computing degree from the Fontys University of Applied Sciences. Early in his career, he worked as a System Administrator and later as a Software Developer building pragmatic software solutions using the eXtreme Programming (XP) methodology for Air Liquide; the world leader in industrial and medical gases and related services. In the late 90s, Bob became an Information Architect for Schenker, a leading International provider of integrated logistics services. He modeled, designed and supervised the construction of system and enterprise-level application solutions.
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