Being able to perform your job anywhere in the world has become crucial for business survival, especially in the age of Covid. While some of us managed to get by with an email address and the occasional video conference, most employees are demanding more from their devices, and small businesses are struggling to keep up.
If your business needs to keep up to date with the latest technology for your workers on a limited IT budget, then workspace virtualization may hold the answers to fulfilling your businesses tech needs.
What is workspace virtualization?
Workspace virtualization at its core is a way to take an employee’s workflow and untether it from their physical device or location. This means that no matter where the employee is or what device they are using, they have access to the same software, applications and data as usual, and continue their work without interruption.
A common example of this is desktop virtualization — where your workstation is run from a data centre instead of from your physical PC. In this example, you can log into your workstation from any device connected to the network. This means you can be preparing a slideshow for a meeting from your desktop computer one minute, close that session and move into the board room for the meeting, and open the same session back up on a different laptop.
What are the benefits of workspace virtualization?
The main benefit of workspace virtualization is flexibility and adaptability for your employees. An employee could be sitting at their kitchen table, but through the use of technology, have access to everything that they would normally have access to in the office.
This is crucial not only during lockdowns where the majority of your employees are suddenly forced to work from home, but also during normal operations as well. Imagine your key sales people being able to pull up any and all information on your business from their phone during a meeting with an important client, or travelling employees being able to continue their work while on the road or from a hotel.
Another key benefit of workspace virtualization is that it simplifies IT management for your business. By centrally managing the personalization, data and settings, your IT team can reduce the complexity often associated with managing users.
Workspace virtualization also promotes improved collaboration both within and between teams in your organisation. By keeping all data and working files stored centrally, it is very easy for employees to share their work and for other employees to join in to provide additional support.
How can my business implement workspace virtualization?
The fastest way to get started with workspace virtualization is to look at your employee’s most common daily tasks and find software that allows these tasks to be done virtually.
Workspace virtualization is a broad field, and can encompass a wide range of software and network setups depending on the industry and business requirements. It can be as simple as utilizing cloud software for document management, or as complex as running personalized virtual workstations for every employee in an entire building.
Common office tools like word processing, slideshows and spreadsheets can now all be run via cloud software such as Microsoft 365 or Google Suite. Couple this with Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems to provide large-scale data storage, and nearly 90% of the average office worker’s daily tasks can be accessed via any connected device.
The most crucial part of a successful virtual workspace is a strong internet connection. Make sure your team is ready to succeed with high quality and reliable business internet from RISE. Find out more today at rise.ph/business-internet.
