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Born in the cloud or cloud-enabled? For virtual desktops, there’s a world of difference

In its Voice of the Enterprise: Cloud Transformation survey, 451 Research analysts found that 90 percent of organizations surveyed are using some type of cloud service. Last year, the cloud market was worth $28.1 billion; by 2021, it will almost double in value at $53.3 billion. And by next year, 69 percent of respondents intend to have some type of multi-cloud environment.

This is just one of the many analyst reports that document the fact that cloud use is on the rise. All kinds of software companies have jumped on the cloud bandwagon – huge numbers of organizations already have a cloud presence or are quickly moving in that direction. You hear the terms “born in the cloud,” “cloud-enabled” and “cloud-native” all the time, but often the differences between them are fuzzy, causing confusion among potential buyers. So, for the sake of clarity, let’s take a closer look.

Defining our cloud terms

One of the latest buzzwords is “born in the cloud,” but what does it mean and why does it matter? Techopedia defines it as “a specific type of cloud service that does not involve legacy systems but was designed for cloud delivery.” Techopedia also notes that “born in the cloud” products deliver certain benefits, such as “rapid elasticity” and “on-demand availability.”

Those cloud attributes support important features and benefits, such as desktop provisioning in minutes, instant scalability and better-than-physical-PC performance. Sounds pretty compelling, right? Then there’s simplicity. If your virtual desktop solution doesn’t simplify your world, it’s time to re-evaluate. 

Cloud-native or cloud-enabled?

A solution that was “born in the cloud” was meant to be delivered exclusively via the cloud. How is this concept related to the notions of “cloud-enabled” and “cloud-native”? These terms are sometimes used interchangeably and can be easily confused, yet the difference between them is significant.

Here is the heart of the matter: A cloud-enabled VDI solution is a legacy product that was originally designed for a traditional data center and was then plunked into the cloud. A cloud-native virtual desktop solution is built from the ground up using micro-services; it’s multi-tenant, and it features fast and easy scalability.

Cloud-enabled VDI drags along all the same baggage it had in its data center incarnation. It’s complex, single-tenant and hard to scale. The cloud-native solutions deliver all the simplicity, elasticity and scalability benefits mentioned above. So, “born in the cloud” and “cloud-native” are the same thing. It’s the “cloud-enabled” solutions you need to worry about.

Of all the VDI solutions available, only two are actually cloud-native. All the other vendors have cloud-enabled VDI solutions that cannot deliver the simplicity, scalability and performance benefits that made moving to the cloud so attractive in the first place. It’s ironic that a solution described as “cloud-enabled” is actually missing so many capabilities that the cloud makes possible. That’s why it can be confusing and why it’s so important to drill-down on whether the solution can meet your requirements.

Going native 

With so much business moving to the cloud, many vendors are scrambling to offer cloud-enabled versions of their products. That might work for some needs, but when it comes to virtual desktops, clunky legacy systems that just get moved to the cloud will never make users happy. With a cloud-native solution, IT doesn’t have to worry about infrastructure or continually put out fires started by legacy solutions, so IT staff can focus on more strategic projects for the business. Getting those resources back to focus on advancing business goals is just one of the many reasons to choose cloud-native virtual desktops.

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Cutting the cord: Why the cloud is the future of app delivery

(c)iStock.com/Stephan Zabel

IT is challenged by the line of business to deliver a competitive edge to compete in a global market. Securely delivering apps and data to any device is a core IT workflow to enable productivity. 

However, if you are like most companies, your IT budget is not growing at the same pace as demand for IT services. To be more agile, the current paradigm around app delivery needs to be turned upside down. IT needs to cut the cord.

IT’s evolution: From plow horse to racehorse

IT and the work world have come a long way. Remember the days when the IT department issued you a standard black PC and employees worked at desks? Back then, IT was focused on analysing available IT solutions and then executing multiyear plans. It was common for IT to be working on multi-year programs for SharePoint, ERP, and CRM systems.

Those days are gone. Today, businesses are competing in a much faster paced environment, which requires them to be agile and responsive to market changes. They must also be in tune with their customers’ needs and empower them to make critical business decisions in real-time.

Top executives at the biggest corporations are now handling most of their business via their mobile device because they need to be able to make decisions where customers, suppliers, and employees are at exactly the moment it matters. CEO of Coca-Cola Germany, Ulrik Nehammer, says about his need to be mobile that «the most dangerous place to make a decision is in the office.”

Today, IT is really the X factor that drives business success. Speed is the new IT currency. IT departments must rollout highly flexible plans that can deliver tangible results within a single quarter rather than in 1-2 years. 

A changing workplace: Mobility requires agility

Increasingly, productivity occurs outside the office.  More than 50% of employees work in a remote office outside of headquarters. That means IT needs to provide them with real-time access to productivity apps and data. For many IT departments, these new demands must still be met using a constrained budget. It’s typical for IT to be expected to do more with less.

In response to new user requirements,IT often deploys app delivery technology, such as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). This solution quickly delivers desktop, applications, and data to any user on any device.  

Building infrastructure slows IT down

The problem with VDI is that many companies still believe it requires building significant infrastructure. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t result in more agile IT. While building IT infrastructure does give the IT department ultimate control, the downside is that it can take several quarters to build it and then move it into production. Typically, it takes at least six to nine months to deploy VDI, and even then it often doesn’t perform well for users. By then, business demands have changed. 

One of the biggest drawbacks of buying and building infrastructure is that it locks IT into a generation of technology and a set of vendors for three to five years.  It also makes it more difficult to adopt best of breed technology and meet changing business demands.

The cloud: Speed, flexibility, and agility

In today’s environment, IT must respond to business needs as fast as possible. Ideally, the technologies it adopts should be nimble and capable enough of deploying and scaling quickly with rollout completed within a single quarter, and be neutral or platform agnostic, not locking a company into a specific technology or vendor.

The cloud meets these two most important criteria. When companies can figure out how to cut the cord and move to a cloud service, IT gains the agility it requires. Cloud services are platform agnostic, as well as highly flexible, deploying and scaling instantly.

App delivery via the cloud

The most efficient method of providing secure access to desktops, applications, and data to any employee’s device is VDI – deployed via the cloud. As a cloud service, VDI does not require IT to build any infrastructure because its infrastructure lives in the cloud.  Keep in mind that not all VDI cloud services are the same. Typically, they fall into two categories; traditional architecture hosted on the cloud and offered as a service, or a 100% cloud-based service.

Both provide the benefits of speed. However, the 100% cloud option features these additional benefits:

  • Reduced operational complexity results in lower total cost of ownership
  • Companies are not locked into long-term proprietary platforms or technologies
  • Technology agnostic, which ensures seamless support for new technologies

Summary

In the current economic climate, businesses must be highly responsive to customer needs, and employees must be empowered to make critical decisions on the spot. Because the market is constantly in flux, IT must transition to a more agile model that is cost optimised, highly flexible, and doesn’t lock the companies into any long-term solutions. Cloud services are the ideal response to these needs, and a 100% cloud-based VDI solution is the best available.