Superstorm sandy threatened the Eastern seaboard from the Carolinas to Maine causing the federal government to close down on Monday and Tuesday. The storm finally made landfall Monday night, leaving record power outages, mass flooding and electrical fires in its wake.
Does desktop virtualization solve user’s ability to work during emergency situations? The answer is no. First, you need electricity and the Internet to be able to connect to your virtualized desktop. Maybe it will not solve all your problems, but desktop virtualization would allow many users’ that did not have any power outages to be connected, which would have made life easier and provide somewhat of a consistent user experience if this technology been adopted before the disaster.
Desktop virtualization is a useful strategy that enables essential employees the ability to work during emergency situations. The main points of the Telework Enhancement of 2010 are listed below:
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Is a useful strategy to improve Continuity of operations to help ensure that essential Federal functions continue during emergency situations
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Promotes management effectiveness when telework is used to target reductions in management costs and environmental impact and transit costs
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Enhances work-life balance, i.e., telework allows employees to better manage their work and family obligations, retaining a more resilient Federal workforce able to better meet agency goals.
Business continuity is one reason to think desktop virtualization. There are many other drivers that would make you think desktop virtualization:
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Cost
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Security
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Manageability
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Remote access
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Green IT
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BYOD
Now if any of the reasons above makes you think that desktop virtualization is something you’re your agency would benefit from, then start planning now. Maybe you can have a proof a concept or test environment before we see a major winter storm that will close down the DC area.