IT costs - The BIG Elephant

Most businesses have adopted their own "standard" PC configuration for their employees. Standard desktop PC configuration is software for e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets and presentation. This practice is becoming increasingly expensive for corporations and institutions. "Hosted Desktops," on the other hand, which provide secure access to software applications that reside on a central server, can substantially lower the costs, increasing productivity and lowering the total cost of ownership of personal computers.

When corporations, institutions, and to an extent individual users purchase their computers they are generally delivered to the end user with software already pre-configured on them. Applications for e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, accounting, and databases are pre-installed on each and every computer as a "standard" pre-configured package. The standard configurations vary widely depending upon vendor, company specifications, and end user, resulting in higher overall operational costs for technical support. IT professional configure, maintain and support this software/hardware combination on individual personal computers, creating an ever-expanding requirement for software licensing and updates.

The standards paradox

While corporations and institutions attempt to maintain "standard PC configurations", the computer world and particularly desktop PC's are constantly changing. Computer vendors and manufacturers are constantly improving technology with faster chips, memory, graphics and communication interfaces. Software designers, in turn, take advantage of this improved technology and create new or improved programs and operating systems that take advantage of this improved technology. Users likewise need hardware and software upgrades periodically to maintain a certain level of service and to facilitate electronic document sharing in the new environments. As a result, the "standard configuration" is constantly changing. Unfortunately, budgets do not allow for throwing out old systems and replacing them with brand new systems every time the standards are changed. Enter in a hosted desktop as a solution.

These factors combine to yield a very diverse PC hardware landscape, with a wide variety of PCs, operating systems, software and software versions. This environment creates tremendous challenges in providing end users with the tools they need to effectively and efficiently accomplish their jobs. It also makes for large operational challenges in training, task coordination, information sharing, and IT resources required to fulfill the needs of the users.

Non Standard Configuration: Higher Total Cost of Ownership

• Uncontrolled software updates
• Purchasing software and hardware beyond what is needed - more powerful computers than what is immediately required
• Each PC must be individually "configured" by support staff to maintain and upgrade applications
• Loss of productivity - lower customer service
• Lack of desktop tool portability means users are tied to one machine
• Users must learn the new tools when moving from computer to computer
• Users cannot easily access desktops or information from varying locations
• No possibility or severely limited telecommuting opportunities
• Downtime associated with software upgrades and support delay
• Complications in sharing of data files - software version differences

Capital Expense Comparison

Monthly Operating Expense Comparison

Taming the Elephant

While the "Total Cost of Ownership" for a pc is about $9,500 annually as estimated by the Gartner Group many of these costs are hidden or intangible. Although we cannot see the dollars leaving the checkbook ledger the costs are real and therefore should be associated when calculating the bottom line. Many corporations use values of between $5,000 - $10,000 when they calculate the total cost of ownership on an annual basis.

A "Hosted Desktop" delivering your applications can cost much less on an annual basis and the cost is calculated as an expense.

One of the biggest cost savings in a "hosted desktop" is the lack of upgrading individual computers. Unlike the standard model, PC's can be re-purpose for use as a hosted desktop because the processing takes place on the server as opposed to the desktop. In essence less powerful computers are needed to access current applications. Computer power is determined by the server parameters and not the desktop pc, hence an increase in computing power can be delivered on demand to the end user without upgrading the current desktop.

Overall infrastructure cost are significantly lower as the need for processing servers, storage, and applications reside with the data center. Local LAN connections and peripherals are all that is required at the point of access, pushing the burden of application and server maintenance onto the data center. As the data center operates, professional technicians monitor each and every instance to tweak the best performance. And because the technical staff is shared among all users the level of expertise is generally greater as a whole.

Hosted Desktop: Lower Total Cost of Ownership (Instance Model)

• Monitored software updates and patches - applies to all users of the same instance
• No need to purchase new more powerful computers - the server provides the power
• Only one instance is created for a user group that everyone shares - therefore all applications run the same way
• Increased productivity and customer service - redundant servers ensure uptime potential
• Portability - machine independent, users can select any available PC
• Every desktop within a group is identical
• Users can easily access desktops or information from varying locations
• Telecommute from anywhere
• No downtime associated with software upgrades - Instances are patched and upgraded offline, logging back in will deliver the new desktop
• All user of a group share the same instance so complications in sharing of data files are a thing of the past

Experience for yourself how a hosted desktop can increase productivity in your organization.