How Does Virtualization Empower Remote Teams?

Work from home is no longer a phrase that brands promote to hype their work culture. It has become a reality. The COVID-19 pandemic has established that work that happens in the office can be performed remotely with equal ease—if you have the right tools.

For teams to perform their tasks on a virtual model, it is essential that they have access to business-critical software on their personal devices. This is where virtualization comes in.

By definition, virtualization is a process that develops a software-driven or virtual representation of an environment, like servers, storage, virtual applications, and networks. It comes with the following benefits which help set the basis for digital workspaces:

Resource efficiency. In the absence of virtualization, every application server calls for a dedicated physical CPU. IT staff need to buy and configure a separate server for every application they wish to run. Server virtualization enables you to run multiple applications—each with its own OS and virtual machine (VM)—without sacrificing reliability.

Easy management. The replacement of physical computers with software-based VMs makes it easy to manage software policies. For example, an automated configuration and deployment tool enables administrators to define the collection of VMs and applications as a service, meaning these can be installed without a time-consuming manual setup.

Fast provisioning. Purchasing, installing and configuring the hardware for every application is a time-consuming process. Assuming that hardware is in place, provisioning of a virtual machine to run the applications is a faster process that can even be automated with the help of management software.

Low downtime. Application and OS crashes can lead to downtime and affect users’ productivity. Administrators can work on multiple redundant virtual machines side-by-side and handle failovers themselves efficiently when a problem arises.

How does the benefit of virtualization apply to remote work?

An effective remote work model grows on agility and elevates business continuity via uninterrupted workflow and better employee retention and engagement. This in turn calls for an intuitive technology that enables employees to work with real-time access to work applications.

Virtualization plays a crucial role here. It enhances the emerging digital workspaces in domains like desktop and application virtualization, enabling users to access virtual desktops and applications from any connected device.

Parallels^® Remote Application Server (RAS) is a textbook example of how virtualization, when done right, can help businesses maintain growth. It is a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution that offers a secure digital workplace with desktops and virtual applications. Parallels RAS:

Enhances data security.
Increases the service delivery of IT operations.
Reduces the total ownership cost.
Simplifies deployment, configuration and maintenance.

Here’s what clients have to say:

“Very simple and fast to set up and run. Parallels RAS achieves what we needed. Our staff can now access our apps and storage remotely using any mobile device, at any time of the day.” —Henley High School

“The fact that Parallels RAS can deliver all applications that my employees need over a 4G connection is, quite frankly, remarkable, and all that without any compromise in user experience, security, or compliance requirements!” —WISE Employment

What should the considerations be for an effective virtualization solution?

Virtualization solutions must be designed to be performance-driven and simple. The solution should be able to support challenging network conditions, something which becomes all the more prime in remote work scenarios. What is important to note here is that performance should never be balanced against security—the latter should always be kept as a priority.

Moreover, businesses must not overlook the IT team’s perspective. Ideally, a good virtualization solution must enable IT administrators to provision fully hosted, cloud-based desktops in a matter of minutes, irrespective of their level of Desktop as a Service (DaaS) or cloud expertise.

Here are the key considerations for a virtualization solution:

An agile solution should be implemented that does not limit where the applications are hosted or which applications can be delivered to employees.
There should be a provision for Software as a Service (SaaS), web, and mobile applications integration in the systems since, together, they act as the biggest component of modern workspaces.
The front end of the application must be closely aligned with the application’s back end.
The solution must not separate parts of the application between cloud and datacenter, thus leading to high network latency.
There should be in-built plans for handling network traffic developed by applications during their runtime.
The enforcement of security policies should be managed centrally with nothing left running locally on employees’ devices.

Parallels RAS takes care of every point to its entirety, ensuring that customers experience minimal friction.

Parting words

Organizations rely increasingly on technology to drive transformation, develop new service models and improve the employee experience. It is important for entrepreneurs to select virtualization solutions that eliminate the productivity challenges and aid intuitive interactions between users and technology.

Smith is a creative writer and active contributor who loves to share informative news or updates on various topics and brings great information to his readers. With writing as his hobby, Smith has come up with many interesting topics and information that attracts readers to unravel his write-ups.