The PC hardware refresh cycle; a topic that is fraught with anxiety. For many years, the conventional wisdom was to conduct a refresh of the PC hardware fleet every 3-4 years. These days, depending on who you talk to, that timeframe has extended to every 4-6 years as IT budgets have remained constrained and personnel focused on more pressing matters. Organizations have been trying to make do with what they have; it makes sense to derive as much value as possible from an investment in PCs, so refresh cycles are longer than ever before.
But therein lies the problem. Studies have shown that refreshing more frequently, even every two years, makes greater economic sense than extending the time between hardware refresh cycles.1 Why? Let’s go back to the word “value”. While it is certainly attractive to avoid the upfront costs of a PC refresh cycle and save money in the short term, there are long term costs and tradeoffs that must be considered if you decide to stick with the older technology.
- Support costs for old PCs increase
- Dealing with break/fix for old PCs is expensive
- Security risks rise when older PCs can’t be updated
- Old PCs don’t perform well, lowering productivity
The security risks alone make the case for moving away from physical PCs – especially old technology that can no longer be updated or patched. But when people are forced to spend valuable time troubleshooting their devices or waiting around for the Help Desk to figure out why their PC performance is so slow, productivity suffers. In a study by OnePoll in June 2021 58% of responders called their IT-issued PCs “awful to work on.” 62% of people with work-issued computers said “their devices prevent them from getting any work done.” That’s pretty dire! On the flip side, in the same study, 7 in 10 said “they would enjoy their jobs more if their tech was better.”
What is the cost to your organization of productivity loss and disgruntled employees? Is providing a better PC the answer?
The Advantages of a Shiny New (Cloud) PC
If the conventional wisdom holds that newer PC technology helps mitigate risk, makes people more productive, and they feel happier with their jobs, then it’s also true that having the newest technology all of the time would be the ideal scenario. That’s what you get with a Cloud PC. When your PCs are running in the cloud, they are not beholden to the age or state of the endpoint. Workspot Cloud PCs are evergreen – this is what allows you to stay current at scale. Workspot Cloud PCs don’t degrade, they don’t get slower as they age and they don’t annoy people. They just work!
While any endpoint can be used, many enterprises are discovering the benefits of using Chromebooks for people to access their Cloud PCs – they’re particularly attractive because of their low cost and portability, and since apps and data stay in the cloud, security risks are reduced. Plus, instead of scrapping old laptops, Google’s CloudReady turns them into Chromebooks that can access high-performance Workspot Cloud PCs, breathing new life into old PCs and making them faster and more secure.
No more break/fix hassles or high third party management fees
Whether you’re still using a break/fix model or you have an MSP providing ongoing PC support services, these are expenses that don’t make much sense anymore. Plus, the number of Help Desk tickets rise substantially as PCs age. Cloud PC adoption can significantly lower end user computing (EUC) management costs, but that’s not true for every Cloud PC solution out there. To lower TCO, you need a SaaS platform for Cloud PC delivery because much of the management is done for you, and that reduces your costs. The Workspot Enterprise Desktop Cloud platform is a massive innovation that enables IT teams to dramatically simplify PC management and reduce Help Desk tickets and therefore, lower overall EUC costs.
Keep apps and data secure in the cloud
When you have thousands of physical PCs distributed around the country or the world, that’s also how many threat surfaces you have. IT teams are doing the best they can to keep all those end points secured, but it’s a losing battle – even for the most highly-skilled team. One Wipro study revealed that as a PC ages, the number of security incidents rise, because many older PCs are either overlooked in the update process or they can no longer be updated.
On the other hand, Cloud PCs are always available for updates and patches to be applied. Workspot’s SaaS platform has a unique architecture that was designed for Zero Trust Security. Plus you get to take advantage of the billions of dollars in security investments from Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. With Workspot Cloud PCs, you can stop worrying about endpoint management.
Optimize productivity and boost employee satisfaction
If PCs are performing poorly, there’s no doubt that people are less productive. We’ve seen this with legacy VDI too. People expect to be provided with technology that gives them an easy, digital experience that does not require them to spend time troubleshooting. Often a technology will be imposed upon people without their input because it lowers costs or provides some other administrative benefit. However, if peoples’ needs are not being met, they become disgruntled and they’ll find a way to work outside the lines – that’s shadow IT and it creates risk. With Workspot, your end users are the center of the Universe, because we know they are critical to the success of your business. User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is a standard part of our rollout process, because we believe, as do our customers, that a great user experience inspires people and increases productivity.
Lower TCO and peace of mind too?
Reduce costs, strengthen security and increase productivity. These seem like great reasons to never go through another PC refresh and move your organization forward with Cloud PCs. There’s more to the story. It’s peace of mind for IT teams. IT has never been more strategic to the business. The technology decisions you make are critical business drivers, and that’s where your focus should be. “Keeping the lights on” tasks such as PC management or micro-managing legacy VDI are not strategic activities. You can leave the Cloud PC SLA to Workspot. Our enterprise-proven SaaS Cloud PC platform, which includes 24×7 monitoring via Workspot Watch and our Network Operations Center, has you covered so you can get back to what really matters for your business.
Ready to learn more? Schedule a demo at your convenience and we’ll show you how it works!
1 Research Report: J Gold Associates Replacing Enterprise PCs: The Fallacy of the 3-4 Year Upgrade Cycle
