In the past two years, due to COVID-19, the demand for remote work has surged. How to enable employees to work outside as if they were in the office, deploying 'convenient to use' virtual desktops (VDI) has become an urgent priority for companies. However, virtual desktops are not a new product, and their design and applications are not limited to employee remote work. Jason Cheng (鄭郁霖), consultant at 5xRuby Software Development (5XRUBY), points out that companies must first clarify their own structure and needs before establishing and deploying in order to truly leverage the effectiveness of virtual desktops.

[Figure 1] Convenient virtual desktops allow employees to seamlessly log in and work from anywhere. (Image source: Pexels)

Remote Work Accelerates Virtual Desktop Construction

Jason Cheng states that the reason virtual desktops are important for remote employees is that they can provide necessary software and documents for work at any location under the company's information security policy. Even when employees are outside, it's like working in front of a company computer. In addition, more demands come from within the enterprise:

1. Protecting Personal Data from Leaking

Taking e-commerce as an example, much consumer personal data is stored on cloud servers. Internally, companies must build independent virtual offices with tight security and easy control. Only qualified accounts can connect and browse, and data cannot be stored on personal media, achieving "data never lands."

2. Maximizing Software Productivity

Many sophisticated high-end software products are extremely expensive. Installing them on every employee's computer is not cost-effective. In this case, companies choose to install software on virtual desktops and provide them for those who need to log in and use.

3. Creating Special Laboratories Engineers Need

Behind specialized professional products is a massive amount of programming construction, such as developing large machinery. When engineers need to test, modify, and optimize, they can log into virtual desktops and complete work in an environment that simulates real scenarios.

The goals that virtual desktops can achieve can be diverse and complex. Therefore, big brand virtual desktop functions are comprehensive and have everything, and construction costs are also high. Companies often discover after spending a lot of money to "buy everything" that it's complex and unusable, leading to a surge in demand for virtual desktops that "can be scaled according to budget and needs" and "are convenient to use."

[Figure 2]: Deploy virtual desktop infrastructure early to respond immediately when situations arise. (Image source: Pexels)

Demand for User-Friendly Virtual Desktops Rises; Ease of Use and Management Are Primary Goals

Among these, the most obvious demand comes from "facilitating employee remote work." If most company employees lack an information engineering background and cannot use complex virtual desktops at home, lowering the user threshold is the primary task. In response, choosing easy-to-use virtual desktops can comprehensively balance management, security, and convenience. Employees can smoothly complete remote document processing and management processes without special connection specifications. Such virtual desktops also need to pay attention to whether they can support peripheral devices, such as personal printers.

Second is the purpose of IT server room operations (also called jump servers or bastion hosts). In the past, companies used VPNs to allow external vendors to operate and maintain remotely, but there were no corresponding recording, auditing, and control mechanisms, leading to not knowing how to solve problems when they occurred. Now through centralized virtual desktop control, plus recording, video playback, behavior recording, and strict permission application and approval process mechanisms, IT can have greater control.

These functions and mechanisms are all important. The virtual desktop service that 5xRuby is about to launch also attaches great importance to these keys. Whether it's UI and UX design persistence, developing virtual desktops that combine centralized management and convenient use, or the feature of being able to connect and log in without installing software, all can make remote operations and management transparent and easy. It can also "adapt on the fly" according to customer budgets, adjusting as needed according to different host environments used by customers, achieving flexible scale and function adjustments. The virtual desktop configuration that each company values is different, and the scale of virtual desktop construction can be large or small. Breaking brand myths, clearly seeing the benefits behind each virtual desktop specification and data, corresponding to one's own needs and goals, can find virtual desktops that truly meet needs.

Finally, Jason Cheng reminds from years of practical experience that for companies to successfully implement virtual desktops, besides having sufficient budget, bosses or senior executives must be willing to roll up their sleeves and take the lead in using them. It's recommended to start with approval processes. When employees see that bosses attach such importance, they will follow suit. Facing various uncertainties in the future, preparing virtual desktop infrastructure early enables immediate response when situations arise, and can also avoid problems such as inability to use and data leaks brought by temporary construction.

※This article is also published on the development team's "5xRuby Software Development" company press release※

Company Profile

5xRuby Co., Ltd. was established in 2014 and is one of Taiwan's most representative companies proficient in the Ruby programming language. The company provides web services primarily based on the Ruby on Rails development framework. Brand clients are distributed across Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan. The company has assisted overseas startups in developing cross-border e-commerce services, successfully raising Series A funding, and has also developed proprietary apps and website services for many publicly listed companies in Taiwan. The company provides technical consulting and enterprise technical advisory services for brands, completely establishing a solid web development foundation for brands and providing professional Internet solutions.