What Is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure?

What Is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure?

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) allows IT administrators to host and administer end-user desktops in a virtual machine running on a server in a data center. VDI offers compelling benefits by increasing the manageability, performance, and security of user devices.

The Benefits of Virtual Desktops

The benefits of VDI include:

• Streamlined deployment, management, and maintenance of employee laptops, desktops, tablets, and other devices. 
• Improved flexibility of endpoint maintenance—onboarding new employees with the latest tools and software through a virtual desktop.
• Remote-friendly—virtual desktops can be deployed securely and remotely to personal devices. IT admins maintain full control of the deployed environment over files, downloads, virus updates, etc.

Common Challenges of VDI Deployment

Slow or erratic virtual desktops can bring productivity to a halt and result in higher administration costs. Storage performance is often the number one problem—as well as the most expensive component—for VDI. 

All-flash storage in combination with efficient data reduction dramatically improves VDI success while keeping costs in check. As a result, IT departments are increasingly looking to converged infrastructure and integrated architectures to alleviate problems with performance and deployment, and to help standardize and consolidate desktop workloads.

Unfortunately, many existing converged infrastructure solutions are based on old, slow, and inefficient disk storage or on nonoptimized hybrid storage systems. As a result, they’re unsuitable for VDI workloads which demand an always-on, high-performance foundation.

Why Choose Pure Storage to Support Your VDI Deployments?

Pure Storage® FlashStack™ provides prevalidated architecture and fast, resilient, and scalable all-flash performance for VDI that meets the demands of end-users as well as the IT department. It ensures successful deployment and simple ongoing management of VDI.