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Microsoft virtualization solutions help place your company on the leading edge of technology.

Desktop Solutions

Employees increasingly want access to applications and data from anywhere or from any device. While this adds to workforce productivity, it can create complexity and higher pressures on cost control for IT departments. Additionally, as hardware theft rises, securing laptop and desktop PCs requires significant resources. How can your IT department meet these challenges with better efficiency?

Companies are increasingly turning to virtualization as the answer to their desktop challenges. Desktop virtualization involves decoupling the different computing layers and storing some or all of them in a data center. Through virtualization, employees can access their applications and data very safely over a network, minimizing the risk of data loss. On the IT side, virtualization accelerates deployment of new capabilities without needing to acquire new hardware and configure components. It also helps reduce application testing requirements and compatibility issues and simplifies disaster recovery and compliance.

Each business is different and requires its own balance between user flexibility and centralized control across various organizations and even across various user groups within organizations. The Windows Optimized Desktop Scenarios give your business the ability to choose what works best for your needs.

Mobile Knowledge Workers

Workers such as sales professionals, consultants and accountants need access to their data and applications virtually anywhere, anytime. While users expect flexibility and the ability to take their data with them while on the go, the IT department needs to make sure that data is protected and end user productivity is not significantly impacted in the case of a lost or stolen laptop. Additionally, both the user and IT share the concern about easily having a "replaceable PC" to get the user back up and running with the same applications and, most importantly, the user's data, while reducing downtime.

Microsoft's recommended "replaceable PC" solution for mobile workers includes Windows Vista Enterprise with Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption to better protect data, Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid) to deliver users the applications they need for online and offline use without installing them, and Folder Redirection with Offline Files and Folders to centrally store and make data available to the user, online and offline.

Office Knowledge Workers

When in the office, many knowledge workers such as analysts, architects, designers, and doctors typically run multiple applications which require a rich user experience to ensure high productivity. In addition, these users may need to access Line of Business applications which are run centrally on a server, for example, for compliance reasons when the application uses highly sensitive data. Organizations want to provide high levels of productivity to these workers by providing them access to their highly personalized set of applications and data locally on their PCs as well as provide the same list of applications from different PCs across organization, for situations where the workers need to continue uninterrupted work from a different PC.

Microsoft's recommended "hot desking" solution includes Microsoft Application Virtualization and System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 to deliver the applications the users need, Folder Redirection to make centrally stored data available to user, and access to centrally executed applications via Terminal services.

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Task Workers

Workers such as call center employees, warehouse workers, and retail employees tend to use one or few applications, such as bank branch teller software, terminal applications or even CRM or line of business applications. They usually do not have a dedicated work station and must be able to access their applications and data from any desk within their workplace. Organizations want to provide a highly secure, low-cost solution and enabling free-seating in an always-connected environment so that users can work productively from shared client devices, while data is stored more securely and centrally.

Microsoft's recommended solution includes using Terminal Services to provide the user with access to the application they need to perform their task as well as Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, which gives organizations the opportunity to extend the life of older PCs and provide task workers with a cost–efficient client device.

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Case Studies

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Contractors or Offshore Workers

Organizations hire outside contractors such as offshore developers to gain the benefit of their expertise. These workers work on projects that need access to sensitive data or source code. Organizations need to protect their intellectual property and data with centralized storage, management, security and compliance while also dealing with unmanaged, non-corporate PCs on their network.

Microsoft’s recommended solution includes using Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Windows Server Hyper-V 2008 and Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (WinFLP) so that contract workers can have controlled access to specific applications and data while keeping the applications and data stored only on central servers.

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Case Studies

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Access from Home

Organizations may want to provide their employees with access to their office environment from home. There may be occasions where a user needs to access their applications or data but cannot get to their office, for example, during a snowstorm or other disasters, or they don't have access to their work PC.

Microsoft's recommended solution is to provide users with access to Windows Vista Enterprise virtual machines hosted on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and managed by System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Through Windows Server 2008's Terminal Services Gateway, the users can access their complete desktop, including data, settings, and applications delivered via Microsoft Application Virtualization.

Partner

Connect now with a partner to see how your business can be optimized by virtualization.

Case Studies

There’s much more to discover. For other relevant information on this topic, visit: