Gregor B Maas is managing director of T-Systems in Japan.
Traditional PCs—with the exception, possibly, of those used in computing-intensive areas such as R&D and development—are more than less a phased-out model.
The workplace of the future will involve the operation of user environments employing virtualisation technologies from the cloud, with centrally managed services and applications.
This brings together the traditional user desktop, mobile enterprise services, as well as unified communication and collaboration.
Implementing a future workplace will enable the chief information officer to deliver tangible improvements in the areas of security, application standardisation, flexibility in the device rollout, end user experience and collaboration.
At the same time, the resultant significant cost improvements can be used for strategic IT investments, or to contribute savings to the organisation.
More security for the whole environment and individual devices
Access to the centralised environment in the private cloud is highly protected using modern security technologies—and much better than in a distributed environment possible. It includes two-factor authentication with a single sign on.
Dynamic session roaming enables restricted access to sensitive data and software if the user is connected with a device from outside the corporate network.
Moreover, a device that does not carry any data (the applications and files are in the cloud) does not pose any security risk if lost or stolen.
A changing world: be faster, more flexible
Cloud-based clients revolutionise device use. Instead of a fat desktop or a costly laptop, all that is needed is a simple, low-cost piece of hardware to gain browser access to data and applications.
The centralised approach permits tremendous speed and flexibility in the rollout and updating of applications. The provisioning of new clients is available within hours. Even large rollouts are extremely quick, since only the hardware to operate the browser needs to be connected to the network to operate a browser.
Changing defective hardware is easy and fast, while work can even continue on another device in the meantime.
The growing trend to utilising personal equipment for professional use can be fully supported (bring your own device). Such assets can be completely and, most important, securely integrated into the corporate infrastructure.
Application standardisation: stay in control
The available modular client packages, from which end users choose applications in the service portal, can be tailored to specific tasks or departments.
The available applications span a broad spectrum: from office software, web applications and enterprise resource planning to customer relationship management and enterprise-specific applications.
New applications, updates and maintenance are centrally administered and immediately available to all users.
Outdated software and version conflicts, for example, are avoided by having centralised control over the complete installed base.
Enhanced user experience: better acceptance
Future Workplace delivers a consistent user environment across all types of hardware. User acceptance is extremely high as it is driven by positive user experience and increased usability.
Seamless collaboration: beyond corporate borders
Collaborative business models are entering our daily work more and more. Future Workplace allows you to seamlessly integrate suppliers, customers and external employees.
No hardware needs to be distributed, as all parties can gain easy access to the centralised environment. This ensures access to the same consistent data, and utilisation of modern collaboration tools.
Delivering business benefits AND cost savings
Compared with the traditional model of the x86 (Wintel), the future desktop can provide savings of 30–50% on top of the business benefits.
This is possible with significantly lower requirements on the part of the end user device, as well as savings in IMAC processes as a result of reduced administrative and maintenance overheads.
