Modernizing the digital workplace

Accelerating your desktop delivery in the post-pandemic era

For many IT departments, it was tough getting working from home (WFH) going. Their immediate pandemic response was focused on “Just make it work, and now!” Pragmatism, supply shortages and the need to act fast often took precedence over cost savings and planning for the future.

So, some two years on from the first lockdowns, we set out to ask the question: What next for desktop delivery, do we go backwards – or do we go forwards?

Main Points

The pandemic has left many IT teams stressed and distracted

A recent survey of senior IT professionals confirmed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on IT teams: The rapid implementation of home (and now hybrid office/remote) working has made it harder, more complex and costly to deliver, support and secure the desktop ‘digital workspaces’ that so many workers now rely on.

But it’s also brought an opportunity to rethink desktop delivery

Who’s ready now to turn round and go back the way they came? Although there is now considerable technical debt to deal with, there is little sense in going back to the former way of doing things. User needs and expectations have changed dramatically, and there are now new and smarter ways to deliver desktop services. Clearly, it is time to rethink desktop delivery and build a new foundation for the future.

Consistency and flexibility will be key as we go forward

One of the things most likely to have crept in during the pandemic is inconsistency – many IT leaders had to buy and do anything they could, just to get WFH underway. To go forward, we need consistency of management in order to get greater simplicity of delivery. And we need flexibility, because we know we will need to adapt again in the future, but of course we don’t yet know what form that adaptation will take.

The changes will favour modern desktop delivery platforms

We created a scorecard based on how well survey respondents say they are performing on desktop delivery, along with which modern solutions and practices they’ve already adopted or planned. This and all the above suggests that a key first step is to adopt a flexible desktop delivery model and a set of platform and management solutions that are specifically designed to quickly and efficiently accommodate change.

Download the Research Report to read more…

Bryan Betts

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Bryan Betts is sadly no longer with us. He worked as an analyst at Freeform Dynamics between July 2016 and February 2024, when he tragically passed away following an unexpected illness. We are proud to continue to host Bryan’s work as a tribute to his great contribution to the IT industry.