The Pandemic’s Impact on VDI and DaaS

April 20, 2023

During the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, nearly all but a select few industries switched almost overnight to a remote—or hybrid—work environment, prompting companies to quickly mobilize and invest (with unbudgeted dollars) in technologies that enabled employees to collaborate and work, while IT maintained control over workspaces and access to network resources.

In the wake of the pandemic, IT administrators and teams were faced with a surge in responsibilities as they grappled with the urgent needs of their businesses. Alongside overseeing the performance and capacity of virtualized workspaces, they also had to consider the long-term cost implications of their swift decision-making, navigating a complex and rapidly-evolving landscape with agility and foresight.

Three years later, as we reflect on current state of VDI and DaaS – it’s clear that, some combination of remote and in-person work is here to stay and virtualized workspaces are only growing in popularity.

Having financial acumen is more crucial than ever; due to the volatile nature of the current economy, business leaders and their IT teams must operate with leaner budgets.

As a result, controlling IT costs is a top concern while simultaneously sustaining scalable, secure environments prioritizing the end-user experience, and meeting the organization’s productivity needs.

Hybrid Work is Here to Stay: The Rise of VDI and DaaS

In the wake of 2020’s stay-at-home orders, most industries had no choice but to enable remote work. Though an up-ticking trend for years, the pandemic forced the hand of holdout organizations and sped up the digitalization efforts of most organizations by several years. According to Martine Haas, a professor from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, hybrid work will be the biggest business trend of 2023.

The rise of hybrid and remote work has significantly impacted the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) industry. With more employees working from home or multiple locations, companies have had to adopt new solutions enabling their employees to access their workspaces from anywhere. VDI and DaaS has emerged as a critical solution for many companies, as it allows for secure and efficient delivery of desktops and applications to remote workers.

Additionally, the VDI and DaaS industry has shifted towards cloud-based solutions, enabling access from anywhere with an internet connection. As a result, companies flocked to scale their DaaS solutions more quickly, eliminating the need to invest in expensive on-premises infrastructure to support their remote workforce.

Optimizing Pandemic IT Investments Today for Future Growth

Pandemic-related technology investments were essential for enabling remote and hybrid work environments, including employee collaboration tools, video conferencing technology, cloud computing, cyber security, financial process automation, artificial intelligence, and more.

Three years later, IT administrators are trying to manage and control these new environments, many of which have undergone critical infrastructure upgrades. However, it is important to note that more than simply making these investments is required. IT leaders must also prioritize optimizing the configuration and settings of these environments to control cost and capacity over time.

Despite the surge in IT spending in 2020 and 2021, with a year-over-year increase of 9 percent, experts predict that spending increases will level out around 5 percent annually in the coming years. Within the enterprise application software market, the cloud surpassed on-premise for the first time in 2020, and Gartner predicts that the cloud market will be double that of non-cloud by 2025.

As organizations move beyond the initial scramble to maintain business continuity, IT departments must shift their focus to long-term planning and cost management. This includes ensuring that their organizations operate at an optimal cost while maximizing the value from investments over time.

So, what is the best way for organizations to ensure their IT investments continue to scale and perform at peak levels to reduce user friction, maximize productivity, optimize IT efficiency, remain compliant and secure, and make the best impact on a lean budget?

Proactively manage performance, cost, and capacity of your virtual desktops and applications.

Whether trying to maintain, implement, or expand on your VDI or DaaS environment, next-level visibility is required to ensure a suitable end-user experience without blowing through your budget.

Login VSI’s easy-to-use platform, Login Enterprise, seamlessly integrates with Citrix, VMware, Microsoft, Nutanix, and IGEL across your on-premises or cloud environments to provide insights into the full stack of your virtual desktops and applications — whether in production or delivery — or across your locations, applications, settings, and infrastructure.

The Login Enterprise Platform helps manage the entire digital workspace lifecycle — from selecting the right vendor, performing initial tuning and configuration, validating disaster recovery plans and ongoing optimization until retirement. A single platform ensures your VDI or DaaS solution operates at peak efficiency. Besides making better and more defensible decisions, you’ll benefit from cost savings by eliminating overspending or underbudgeting along the way.

In the world of remote work, end-user experience (reduce frustrating downtime and lags), IT reach and efficiency (maintain control, safety and security remotely), and optimized technology performance and longevity (make the best data-based spending decisions) contribute greatly to business success or failure. Login Enterprise provides 360-degree proactive visibility so you can take control of your virtual desktops and applications.

VDI and DaaS optimization using Login Enterprise empowers IT to:

• Take the guesswork out of technology decisions
• Streamline and smooth technology migrations
• Guarantee anywhere, anytime platform availability
• Extend the life of existing investments

Are you ready to learn more? Connect with a Login Enterprise expert today to see how we can help propel you through the future of hybrid work.