Manage Distributed Enterprise Desktops

The IT staff of a large global consulting firm faces the quarterly challenge of reimaging and updating over 100,000 employee desktops in more than 100 countries. IT wants to dramatically streamline the image management process and ensure that each distributed laptop is updated and in compliance.

Complicating this desire are the many desktop images driven by the complex matrix of roles, business functions and geographies supported. Administrators need to ensure that consultant laptops are protected, up-to-date, and in compliance, but they must work around consultants' schedules, where downtime can be costly.

In fact, IT is under pressure to reduce downtime across the board. By decreasing the amount of time required to update systems, and the downtime related to system issues and recovery, IT hopes to increase its own productivity as well as that of the consultants. Investing capital to improve productivity, however, is not an option. The desktop management group has already rejected a number of solutions based on the extensive server and storage infrastructure required.

Administrators responsible for desktop management face an additional obstacle: consultants are frequently located on-site at client locations for extended periods. The lack of consistent high-speed connections with the corporate network makes it difficult for consultants to receive the latest updates, and further complicates the ability of IT to manage and control these end-user PCs.

Finally, the consultants want superior performance and availability regardless of their location, network connectivity and offline use. Consultants also require the ability to customize their desktops and the flexibility to add applications.

Objectives

• Improve IT's ability to manage remote and mobile desktops more efficiently
  

• Ensure that all laptops, including those that are mobile and remote, are up-to-date with all relevant patches and security updates
  

• Back-up edge devices and ensure they are in compliance
  

• Avoid forklift upgrades to the data center or the network
  

• Enable consultants to customize their desktops, add applications and work offline
  

• Provide consultants with superior performance and availability regardless of their location and network connectivity
  

Finding a Solution

The IT staff of this large consulting firm investigated many solutions including Virtual Desktop Infrastructures. None of the existing solutions meet their needs for managing, protecting, and supporting remote employees.

• Server-hosted solutions lack support for remote and mobile users. Updating images over the WAN takes days and limited offline support means lost productivity for consultants. Moreover, these solutions require a massive data center infrastructure investment.
  

• Client-hosted solutions provide support for offline use, but none of the solutions addressed the core problem of how to improve and streamline management. In fact, there was concern that client-hosted solutions make management more complicated by adding an additional unmanaged hypervisor layer at the client.
  

The Wanova Difference

Wanova's architecture provides a vastly different approach to enterprise desktop management, especially for remote and mobile PCs. Wanova streamlines image management and protects the desktop while optimizing the user experience over the WAN and providing full support for offline use. Specifically, with Wanova, IT can:

• Centrally provision, update, troubleshoot, patch - Perform management tasks without requiring end-users to be in a local office or connected to the corporate LAN.
  

• Streamline image management - Conduct mass provisioning from a single base image. With Wanova, administrators can update a single base image and propagate changes to the appropriate distributed endpoints.
  

• Quickly perform hardware refreshes - Provide full, high-speed, desktop restore (base image, apps, settings, and user data) over the WAN.
  

• Recover from lost or stolen laptops - Quickly replace an endpoint, including complete restoration of applications, personal settings, and user data, without requiring the user to re-install.The restore can be performed across different hardware devices, over the WAN, and without sending technicians onsite.
  

• Support end-user requirements - Meet the consultants' needs for flexibility without losing control over the base image integrity. Consultants can use their laptops offline and avoid lockdown. They are free to personalize their systems and install applications in conjunction with corporate policies.
  

• Avoid an expensive datacenter build-out - Enable centralized management while leveraging endpoint execution. This architectural approach, coupled with Wanova's Global Data Reduction technology, provides highly efficient data center operations and minimal footprint.