User Virtualization – A tonic for nagging IT headaches?

In today’s device obsessed world, IT is increasingly a series of coping strategies designed to meet the needs of ever more demanding and digitally savvy employees. Yet, IT is also responsible for major and incredibly time consuming projects such as desktop management and migration. Which begs the question, what is the solution to IT effectivity? The answer itself is quite simple. Redesign the digital world around an individual, instead of the device, so that IT can become user-centric. Enter - user virtualization.

User virtualization is driven by the increasingly popular IT trend of user-centric thinking. It decouples the user from their devices and operating systems. It separates user settings, such as application usage permissions, from the system, thereby allowing individuals to choose the device and operating platform that suits them, instead of the application settings forcing the device choice on them. It also means that time poor IT managers only need manage a single layer of an individual’s digital existence, instead of an exploding number of devices and applications, with millions of potential user configurations.

This is because user virtualization, when correctly implemented, allows IT managers to manage a single set of user settings instead of each individual device. It also means that employees experience greater user consistency – as no matter the device they log onto, they are provided with exactly the same settings and interfaces.

But how do you know if user virtualization is the answer to your IT effectivity woes? To be honest, if it is being done for the right reasons, the demand for user virtualization will actually come from within the business. A part of the operation will knock on the IT department’s door and say “this is what we want to do – make user experience consistent on all devices, no matter where employees are or what devices they use to log on with. Now how do we do it, how quickly can we do it and what is it going to cost?” Often, that will be the opportunity in which user virtualization can be introduced. It then becomes IT department’s job to sketch out the finer details on what the business actually needs, especially if they want to drive the solution beyond just a single department.

To do this properly, IT managers need to ask the right questions, and even then there will be some back and forth. What tends to happen is that the business will only come up with its real requirements when IT has provided it with a first stage proof of concept, because the experience of actually having to use multiple devices is what gets them thinking. But IT must also be careful not to fall into the trap of creating a “one size fits all” strategy too early on in the proof of concept phase, even if they hope to keep support costs down. If they do, there is a good chance their proof of concept will fall at the first hurdle.

IT managers need to start thinking about meeting an individual’s needs or resolving a particular issue, not about meeting the device needs of the business. Of course, it is about balance and what is right for that organisation.

Ultimately, user virtualization technology can have a huge role in helping an organisation to transform and modernise itself. But for it to work IT must help the business to ask the right questions, to make sure it gets what it is looking for – without losing focus on the individual.