How to Drastically Reduce Your VDI Dependency in 2024

Desktop virtualization is a mature technology that’s been in use for decades. When the pandemic emptied offices around the world in 2020, desktop virtualization saw a huge jump in deployments. Enterprises were forced to implement widespread remote work strategies — in the span of weeks — and understandably adopted the strategy in droves. At the time, it was the best choice to deliver a flexible workspace and enforce security away from the mothership. 

Four years later, desktop virtualization is still gaining ground and the market is projected to top $20 billion by 2027. As we enter 2024, the technology landscape has changed. And yet the world is still using 20-year-old technology, such as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), to solve its problems. Maybe it’s time to reconsider if desktop virtualization is the right approach for the modern enterprise workforce.  

Desktop virtualization is a mature strategy that can solve important IT and security needs, but it comes with high complexity, steep costs, and — it’s greatest weakness — a dreadful user experience. By offloading the application and data layer to a centralized service, every action the user takes requires an additional round trip that adds some lag. In the real world of noisy Wi-Fi networks, bandwidth-constrained environments, and dropped connections, this can be quite painful. The result is time wasted waiting on images to instantiate, frozen screen experiences, lag between input and response, and even reauthentication challenges.

That’s not to say that desktop virtualization could or should go away tomorrow. However, it is clear that organizations and users are hungry for avenues that help them reduce their dependency upon such application delivery experiences. 

It’s also important to consider the outlook on desktop virtualization. With recent acquisitions of the tech’s major players, it’s likely costs will only continue to rise while innovation stagnates.

With alternatives now available on the market, we can even go as far as to say that the vast majority of enterprises that will adopt VDI this year don’t actually need it. 

Let’s dig in on why.

The niche role of VDI

VDI gained traction as a technology that provided end users a streamed, self-contained computing environment, regardless of their device, delivered from a centralized data center. This approach gained popularity with IT and security teams, as it offered centralized management and access controls for a distributed workforce. 

Given the different needs between IT and security teams, it was the “least common denominator” they could agree upon. IT teams could put applications in the hands of their users, while cybersecurity could feel comfortable keeping data in the organization’s control. 

The onset of remote work made the strategy much more widespread, given that many organizations already had VDI infrastructure and experience. To many, it was the only imaginable avenue to empower the needs of the organization. The resulting downside? Most organizations are often upside down in their VDI investment (given that the costs are exceptional) and it seems there is ubiquitous disdain for the experience across practitioners and users. 

That’s not to say that desktop virtualization could or should go away tomorrow. However, it is clear that organizations and users are hungry for avenues that help them reduce their dependency upon such application delivery experiences. 

In most organizations, 80–90% of the applications being used are web-based external or internal applications. The remaining 10–20% are a combination of command line or thick application needs. Sure, VDI may be valuable for certain situational needs. But if an organization can reduce its dependency — and subsequent cost — of VDI by 80% or more, it seems foolish not to consider. Even if the reduction is, say, only 50%, that can be a huge win for the organization.

Most importantly, to allow such a small footprint of resources to negatively impact the user experience for everyone needing application access is simply unnecessary. This is particularly true given not all users use or need VDI in the same ways, so even targeted reductions or eliminations can be very valuable. In the eyes of most practitioners who live with this frustration every day, a transformational change is needed.

The enterprise browser: a modern way to reduce VDI

The inherent challenges with desktop virtualization stem from the very thing that made it appealing in the first place: a safe way to give audiences access to critical applications they need. At the time, there were IT and security benefits to moving the computing layer to the cloud or on-premise servers. But end users paid the cost with unavoidable latency and performance penalties. The solution to this dilemma is to shift as much compute back to the endpoint as possible, and restore a natural end user experience, all while delivering applications safely to the appropriate audiences. Today, we have an alternative to desktop virtualization that does just that. Enterprise Browsers present a more user-friendly, lightweight option while still meeting the needs of most enterprises. 

• Secure application access: If the primary requirement is to provide employees with a secure and controlled environment for accessing web-based applications (internal or external), command line needs, or remote desktop needs, an enterprise browser is a fitting choice.
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• Endpoint security enhancement: Organizations looking to enhance endpoint security by protecting users, applications, and devices from potential threats can benefit from an enterprise browser.
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• BYOD policies: In environments where employees use personal devices for work, an enterprise browser can offer an application delivery experience without the invasiveness of other technologies. They can even provide a perfect level of privacy, allowing the user to continue using their browser of choice for personal and non-critical work needs. Most importantly, it can ensure protection for the organization’s key applications and data at the time of engagement.
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• Compliance requirements: Industries with strict regulatory requirements, such as finance and healthcare, can deploy enterprise browsers to secure application access and comply with industry regulations. The audit perspective from the physical position of the browser at the presentation layer is exceptionally rich and highly unique.
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• Resource-constrained environments: In situations where deploying virtual desktops might be resource-intensive, using an enterprise browser on existing devices can be a more practical solution.
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• Single client experience: In situations where VDI may still be required for a specific application need, the Enterprise Browser can be the singular client for web application access and for rendering VDI needs over HTML5 within the browser. Given that all major VDI players support this today, it can be your single natural interface to all applications.

VDI expenses the enterprise browser can mitigate or eliminate

By delivering and securing applications directly through the browser, an enterprise browser significantly reduces the infrastructure complexity and costs associated with traditional VDI deployments.

• Infrastructure: Traditional VDI requires robust server infrastructure to host desktop images and applications. Plus, to manage the connections and maintain availability and performance, VDI solutions often require sophisticated load balancers. And in persistent VDI environments, the storage costs can be immense. These influences, while critical, add to the complexity and cost of VDI. An enterprise browser shifts the workload to the last mile within the browser, reducing the need for virtualization infrastructure.
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• Maintenance and administration: Maintaining VDI can be costly due to the need for extensive infrastructure maintenance and VDI  administration — including patch management, hardware upgrades, and support for end-user issues. An enterprise browser eliminates maintenance costs associated with traditional VDI systems because it requires no additional hardware. It also lowers administrative costs by centralizing controls within the browser, reducing the need for multiple security tools and streamlining policy management.
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• Licensing costs for backend systems and VDI platforms: VDI solutions and their backend systems can have substantial licensing fees. This includes the VDI platform and any extra licenses for the operating systems and apps used in VDI sessions. And these subscription costs only continue to grow. An enterprise browser can reduce the need for VDI by 80-90%, saving money on licensing costs.
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• Endpoint controls and management: Ensuring secure and compliant endpoint interactions within a VDI session often necessitates additional endpoint controls and management solutions. These solutions require their own licenses, infrastructure, and administrative overhead. By reducing the number of virtual desktops in your environment, you will directly reduce the number of agents and management tools deployed to those virtual desktops.  

The right choice for you

Ultimately, the right solution is the one that allows you and your IT team to work smarter, not harder. Whether you want to empower a third-party business process outsourcer to function as your call center, significantly simplify your contractor onboarding process, or enable a fully secure BYOD program, the Enterprise Browser can help you reduce your dependency on VDI while fully balancing security and productivity with a vastly better user experience.

Read the recent research from Gartner®️ that predicts: 

“By 2030, enterprise browsers will be the core platform for delivering workforce productivity and security software on managed and unmanaged devices for a seamless hybrid work experience.”

➔ Read the full report

Gartner, Emerging Tech: Security — The Future of Enterprise Browsers, Dan Ayoub, Evgeny Mirolyubov, Max Taggett, Dave Messett, 14 April 2023 

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