The opportunities in the combination of economic recess, environmental problems and security issues is what we call Win³ concepts.

IT has evolved from a supportive to an enabling role within enterprises. This means that if you do not invest in your IT, you do not invest in your business. Neglecting to invest in IT during economic recessions such as we currently face, may well leave you without the competitive edge you once had. And the economic recession is not the only thing we face. It is a well-known fact that our consumption of conventional sources of energy is polluting the planet. This may seem to be irrelevant to the field of IT, but do you know how much energy it takes to save a gigabyte of data for a year? And in the face of these difficulties our instinct tells us to avoid further risks, and we are inclined to protect what we have. And we all know security is a cost center, or is it?

Luckily there are developments that let you save costs, reduce CO2 emission and increase security at the same time. A great example of these developments is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Gartner expects the number of virtualized PC’s to grow to 660 million by 2011, coming from 5 million in 2007. And this is not without a reason, let’s have a quick look at the benefits:

• Cost savings: Management costs are 80% of TCO. Helpdesk and installation, moves, adds and changes (IMAC) costscan be cut by up to 50%, resulting in a 25% overall TCO reduction.
• Decreased energy consumption: a thin client uses about 20% of the energy consumption of a regular desktop computer. Even taking into account the extra computing power that is needed for virtualization, this leaves a typical 75% reduction.
• Security: VDI is a big enabler for secure remote access – which indirectly ties in with energy consumption. In addition to that, it is easier to implement IT controls, thereby reducing compliance costs.

Please go here for a complete presentation on the business rationale behind VDI.