Finance departments have traditionally been responsible for their hardware, software, and associated IT costs. However, the sector is undergoing a big shift as it has begun to embrace cloud technologies, which allows financial organizations to make more strategic use of their budgets, save time and money, and boost the productivity of their staff.
Hence, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is growing in popularity in the finance sector, where it is used to bring down costs and increase efficiency and security. But many finance leaders are unsure about how to implement it and what benefits they would get from it.
How can finance benefit by using VDI?
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is an extension of client-server computing that delivers the complete desktop environment for an organization onto a centralized server, making it accessible from various kinds of devices and operating systems.
The finance sector requires a bank-level secure platform to work, and office desktops have a greater chance of getting compromised. They are also more vulnerable to cyber threats, thefts, or breaches. A virtual desktop infrastructure helps businesses install different security policies like multi-factor authentication, data encryption, AI data monitoring, and much more.
This blog will look at the introduction of VDI as a Service and how it can help businesses in the finance sector.
Introducing VDI as a Service for Finance Sector
Many financial companies have deployed VDIs in the past, creating tightly controlled environments giving users access from thin clients.
Interestingly, CIOs are turning to VDI as a service as a way to deliver greater efficiency, reduced IT spending, and greater scalability.
Below are the major reasons why companies in the financial sector are transitioning to VDI as a service –
1. Enhanced data security
In a highly regulated sector like finance, compliance, and security make computing more difficult in general. VDI as a service gives the IT team more control in the main to rescue the situation. Essentially a desktop session streamed from the data center to the end device, VDI as a service can address many of these security issues that arise from increased workplace flexibility.
Think features such as single sign-on and policy-based access controls, which safeguard the integrity of company data, which is usually highly sensitive and subject to regulatory scrutiny in the finance industry. It also removes the need for IT teams to open up the corporate network via VPN as users connect directly to the data center, which is much more secure. Because the data is removed from the end-users’ machine, a VDI session can’t be lost or stolen like a laptop, eliminating the risk of compromised data.
2. Improved Workplace Flexibility
The requirement for flexibility has been driven by the change in the workforce demographic, end-customer demands, and external factors, such as the current global health crisis. VDI as a service is a key element for a modern, flexible workplace.
In finance, companies have additional concerns compared to a company with simple operations. Think security, accountability, auditing, and compliance. These things make non-VDI Bring Your Device (BYOD) impractical for finance firms. VDI as a service change this as end-user hardware is suddenly irrelevant. The IT department retains control of the VDI session, which leaves users to access their desktop from whatever device they choose as the application and data are not tied to the chosen endpoint.
Flexibility isn’t just an end-user benefit, either. Because virtual desktop infrastructure is supplied on a per-user basis, a company can add or remove users quickly, responding dynamically to changes within the business. Working from remote locations allows CAs and CPAs to work more efficiently.
3. Cost-Effective
Most in-house VDI deployments are expensive, and critically, they have been static. Due to large upfront costs and engineering resources, they remain unchanged after deployment. Soon, they become outdated, and finance companies suffer due to limited options for adopting the latest technologies. This ultimately leads to degraded performance from the employee, posing a huge challenge for the business.
While VDI is sometimes difficult to migrate away from, VDI as a service offers a much better approach for an organization, delivering a fully managed platform from a service provider whose responsibility is to maintain the platform and its underlying infrastructure. This means you can deliver what your workforce needs without getting bogged down in delivering the platform yourself.
Ending Note
All sectors will face real challenges over the next year, and the market will not spare financial services. Finance companies will be expected to deliver greater value with reduced resources. To deliver this, the IT team needs to focus on delivering value and innovation rather than managing BAU activities. If you are in the finance sector, you need to react quickly to market changes to remain competitive, and VDI as a service ensures this is possible.
If you are looking to identify and plug security blind spots, work on compliance or optimize employee productivity and business resiliency, Wipro’s virtuadesk™, a desktop virtualization solution, can help by building on top of your existing technology investments while leaving room for modernization at scale with desktop as a service.