Introduction
Organizations are switching from conventional desktop solutions to more effective and secure virtual desktop solutions in response to current business needs. However, choosing the best virtual desktop solution can be difficult due to financial considerations. Virtual desktop solutions are generally acknowledged to provide greater security and better functionality for a lower price. This essay aims to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of virtual desktop solutions to traditional desktop solutions. Moreover, it explains why Virtual Box is the best virtual desktop solution recommended for the company operating under a financial and resource constraints.
Improved Data Security
Virtual Desktop solutions like Virtual Box have various benefits to a company. The most important aspect of virtual desktop solutions is the high level of data security. Companies always lose their sensitive data through intrusion from internal staff or external attack by malware (Marlos & Antonio, 2014). With the outsourcing of cloud based servers, it’s difficult for the data stored to be attacked by malware.
Increased Functionality
The virtual desktop solutions increase efficiency and performance of the machines (Khalid et al., 2016). Unlike the normal operating systems that require regular updates, virtual solutions like Virtual Box will be able to have remote operations thereby ensuring that all systems and software are up to date. There is increased performance speed hence increased functionality.
Cost Reduction
One of the benefits of virtual desktop solutions is the reduction of the money used for the purchase of hardware whenever the system requires an upgrade (McGough et al., 2014). Since the service providers allow companies to bring their already purchased hardware, there are less funds used in purchasing new devices during a migration to a virtual desktop solution. Running a virtual system not only reduces such costs but also saves on administrative expenses. Some of the costs of virtual desktop solutions include the cost of setting up the server, licensing cost, storage and backup cost and any other direct or indirect costs incurred.
Recommendation
Given that the company is operating under tough financial time, considerations must be given to virtual desktop solutions that will incorporate the available resources and requires less capital to purchase. Thus, the recommended virtual desktop solution is Virtual Box. This is because, it’s an open source (free for use desktop solution) (McGough et al., 2014). Moreover, Virtual Box will allow the company to set up a virtual network, drop and drag files, copy and paste files between the guest and host machines (Khalid et al., 2016). All the features of Virtual Box function very well without booting up into a full Windows System. Since the product comes with user support from its support community, there will be no need to incur an installation service cost since the accompanying videos can help set up the virtual machines (Marlos & Antonio, 2014). It guarantees data security from both internal and external intruders. Also, Virtual Box has a suspend and restart session ability which saves time and helps in troubleshooting various site application features whenever it’s needed.
Conclusion
Although outsourcing a desktop operation used to be a challenge to many organizations, the development of virtual desktop solutions have provided companies with an opportunity to weigh the costs and benefits of moving to virtual desktop solutions. Migration from normal operating systems to virtual desktop solutions enables organizations to reduce operating cost while increasing efficiency, performance, and data security. Virtual Box will be able to address all the concerns while maintaining operation cost at its lowest level at the same time.
References
Khalid, F., Shoaib, U., Sarfraz, M. S., Shabbir, A., Shaheed, S. M., & Rubab, U. E. (2016). Desktop Virtualization: An Art to Manage and Maintain affordable PC infrastructure. International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, 14(11), 187.
Marlos, S., & Antonio, T. (2014). Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and remote infrastructure management outsourcing (RIMO) technologies for IT outsourcing: FI4VDI project. In Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI), 2014 9th Iberian Conference on (pp. 1-2). IEEE.
McGough, A. S., Forshaw, M., Gerrard, C., Wheater, S., Allen, B., & Robinson, P. (2014). Comparison of a cost-effective virtual cloud cluster with an existing campus cluster. Future Generation Computer Systems, 41, 65-78.
