Many large companies have already announced permanent work-from-home options for their employees and others are discovering the strategic benefits of work-from-home policies. After so many years of promoting the theoretical benefits of working from home, the proof is finally in the pudding (or “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” if you’re a 14th-century expression purist.) With the pandemic acting as the forcing function, when put to the test, working from home has demonstrated many benefits, including increased productivity, job satisfaction and location-less hiring. Of course, working from home is also helping to slow the transmission of COVID and will be an important tactic in the fight against future epidemics and pandemics.
When Microsoft recently announced its permanent work-from-home option, Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer said, “We will offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual workstyles, while balancing business needs, and ensuring we live our culture.”
Flexibility as a human resources directive is only executable, however, when the company’s IT strategy and technology choices are also anchored in flexibility. This need to be able to easily adapt to a fast-changing business landscape is why we’re seeing cloud desktop adoption accelerating; IT teams are able to address business challenges more nimbly and avoid disruptions.
Flexibility to Boost Productivity
We’ve all known work-from-home naysayers. Setting aside technology complexity for IT, the fear has been that left to their own devices, people would be prone to distractions in the home and would be less productive for the business. It didn’t seem to matter that anecdotally, people really felt that they were more productive at home. Now the numbers are in. Workspot customers have produced quantitative analysis that proves significant productivity increases, and happily, cloud desktop flexibility has helped these organizations thrive in an extremely challenging business environment.
The Perfect PC for Every User
Without the right technology for end user computing, productivity could suffer despite the best intentions of employees. Enterprises can’t settle for a one-size-fits-all approach because people have unique needs. The key is providing what we call the “Perfect PC,” and of course, it’s in the cloud. Combine the right end point for the job, the right Windows 10 desktop, whether single or multi-user, and the massive scale of the public cloud. Have designers and engineers using 3D CAD apps? They need GPUs. Have a call center? Server-based, multi-user Windows 10 may be the right choice so the resource can be shared. It’s important to select a solution that delivers a variety of configurations to ensure all your use cases are covered and to optimize price/performance.
Low-Latency Cloud Desktops
Unfortunately, latency is a performance killer. Anyone unlucky enough to be remote from the data center in which their virtual desktop runs is going to be pretty unhappy. Poor performance has long been a reason why on-premises VDI projects have stalled or failed, but those days can be over when you move desktops to the cloud. Cloud desktop flexibility is important, but you won’t achieve it unless user’s accept the solution. Workspot cloud desktops are placed in the cloud region closest to each person for latency that is less than 50ms. Low latency means great performance – that’s why users love their Workspot cloud desktops!
Flexibility to Expand the Business
Physical PCs and on-premises VDI actually limit your ability to grow, because they are rigid solutions that slow you down. Cloud desktops drive growth – here’s how.
Hire the Best People – Anywhere
Now that the work “place” is truly an obsolete notion, hiring managers no longer have to worry about finding the right talent within commute distance to an office location. People can be anywhere when they work! Location-less hiring opens many new doors, including the possibility of right-sizing office space to accommodate a hybrid work-from-home model that may only require periodic gatherings in an office space going forward.
Pursue New Business Globally
With cloud desktops, you have the flexibility to reach beyond prior geographical boundaries to find new opportunities. Now that it’s easy to hire the best people and have them work from home, not having a branch office in a certain location is no longer relevant to your success. Plus, the global ubiquity and elasticity of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, combined with Workspot’s cloud-native, SaaS, cloud desktop architecture, means you can scale instantly across cloud regions – in minutes – to accommodate new projects, onboard new people, and accelerate growth.
Flexibility to Achieve a Competitive Advantage
Workspot customers have told us they’ve been able to deliver their products and services to their customers faster and with higher quality, creating a competitive advantage. Similarly, organizations that rely heavily on joint ventures and partnerships – such as financial services, life sciences, and engineering & construction firms – have found that cloud desktops improve collaboration across project teams and simplify JV operations, speeding time-to-market for products. Cloud desktop flexibility prepares enterprises to meet or exceed customer expectations.
Ready to learn more about how cloud desktop flexibility can benefit your organization? Schedule a demo and let’s explore your challenges and requirements.
