For decades, end-user computing (EUC) has been defined by its physicality. EUC was centred on a depreciating physical asset sitting on a desk, sustained through a relentless cycle of hardware refreshes, a locally installed operating system (OS), applications with ceaseless distributed software patches and updates, and interspersed with panicked calls to the IT helpdesk because a laptop got left in an airport lounge. Managed services providers (MSPs) spent their days fighting fires at the device and OS layer. Whether it was patching operating systems one machine at a time, managing physical inventory or trying to secure a perimeter that had long since dissolved, the work was tactile and required all key elements to be physically present.
Today, that model is fast becoming entirely obsolete.
In just a few short years, the workspace is no longer a place you go to utilise physical computing assets but rather an EUC experience that can be delivered securely to wherever you happen to be and tailored to the type of work you need to do.
As businesses face mounting pressure to optimise costs while supporting hybrid teams, the traditional approach to managed services must shift. The goal is no longer just managing hardware and staff physically in office. Now, we must shift to decoupling the people, operating systems, apps and data from the physical machine.
As a long term-Microsoft partner, with expertise across security, modern work, Azure infrastructure and data and AI solutions, iqx sees this transition being driven by two flagship virtualisation platforms from Microsoft: Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Windows 365 Cloud PC. According to global market research by Gartner, Microsoft has captured the largest share of users globally in the desktop as a service (DaaS) market. That makes these tools more than just a product consideration, but the benchmark for modern business and digital workspace management.
Their utility can guide four critical considerations in today’s virtual workspace design, set up and management:
1. Flexibility and predictability
A primary challenge in the quest to modernise is balancing predictable cost control with the need for flexibility. That’s where complementary tools like AVD and Windows 365 become useful, depending on different operational workloads.
AVD is a powerful engine that can deliver tailored flexibility. Previously, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) required significant on-premises compute, storage and hypervisor resources, which have become prohibitively expensive capex items. AVD changes this by allowing customers to use existing Windows Enterprise licence benefits and Azure infrastructure as a service (IaaS) commitments to enable multiple users to share a single Windows 11 virtual machine simultaneously without compromising performance or privacy.
Windows 365, on the other hand, offers predictability and reliability through a dedicated and constant Cloud PC for a predictable, fixed monthly fee per user. It integrates with the familiar Microsoft endpoint management tools, making a Cloud PC look, act and feel exactly like a physical laptop to an internal support team. It makes the move to virtualise much more simple, familiar and financially predictable.
2. Don’t go it alone if you want optimal results
Deploying class-leading virtual workspace platforms like these is only the first step.
For a truly streamlined operation, specialised orchestration and observability tools must be layered on top of the native infrastructure. Platforms like Nerdio provide essential cost and management optimisation options that reduce the need for advanced Azure skills, replace manual operational tasks and help to automate advanced autoscale features.
These features can also be sensibly and dynamically managed around existing budget, and the value can quickly become evident. Resources can respond to data on optimal operation times and dynamically expand, for instance, during the morning spike of log-ins and then reduce overnight to a minimal footprint if required. Through Nerdio’s core management layer, businesses only pay for the resources they use and consume through true cloud cost-optimisation.
While resources are optimised invisibly in this way, it’s possible to add even more value through integration solutions like those of industry expert ControlUp. ControlUp, exclusive partner with iqbusiness, has purpose-built solutions to enhance Microsoft virtual workspace products and enable a superior user experience.
By integrating into Microsoft Windows 365 Cloud PCs and AVD stacks, its agentic intelligence gets ahead of performance issues before they impact users and before tickets start to clog the system. MSPs have instant access to live analytics and end-to-end visibility across both virtual desktops and the physical endpoints connecting to them. They can immediately pinpoint issues like latency and identify whether it’s the cloud infrastructure, a corporate network or a remote worker's home WiFi that’s the cause.
3. Benefits of a virtual-led strategy
Modernising EUC through a virtual-led and optimised approach like this also changes the financial reality of modern corporate IT.
Firstly, hardware life cycles can be extended. Now, instead of procuring premium laptops every three years to keep up with resource-heavy enterprise applications, businesses can switch to more cost-effective and lightweight solutions including lower spec devices. But the options are becoming endless. Consideration can now also be given to introducing bring your own (secure) device policies.
And, because the actual computing power lives in the cloud, an older machine running a lightweight browser can deliver the exact same performance as a new workstation at minimal cost and maximum flexibility.
Secondly, the associated time and resource costs that would ordinarily support a traditional workspace and its assets can be streamlined. Think about the usual onboarding or offboarding process for an employee: procure a laptop, ship it, configure profiles, train the user, troubleshoot step by step on arrival; and on departure, physically retrieve the laptop, physically wipe the drive, store or ship or reconfigure the unit for another user – and start the process again.
But now, with a virtualised stack and proper automation tools, set-up takes minutes. A new employee simply logs in via a secure portal, and their entire workspace applies instantly. When someone leaves, access is revoked at the identity layer, ensuring that no data remains on the physical endpoint. The cost savings here move directly to the bottom line, and get out of productivity’s way.
Your next steps into the modern managed services world
Modernising your EUC managed services should matter to more than just the largest and most sophisticated of global businesses. It matters for every business that wants to better understand and leverage their tech spend and product stack. More than a technical upgrade, done properly it can revolutionise your business’s operations and elevate IT’s strategic importance in spend, security and redefining the employee and agent experience.
We know that the future of work isn't tied to a specific piece of hardware on a desk. Now is the time to deliver on a reality where our workspaces live securely in the cloud, ready to scale on demand as a streamlined and cost-optimised enabler for growth.
Norman Annette is Cloud and EUC Business Lead, and Lisa Fielder is Strategic Managed Services Lead at iqx, a division of technology and management consultancy iqbusiness.
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iqbusiness
iqbusiness is a digital integrator that transforms businesses, public sector entities and other organisations as your go-to™ for consulting and technology. With more than 27 years of experience, and led by some of the continent’s best thinkers and doers, our purpose is simple: to grow people, business and Africa as one.
Our scale and unique capabilities unlock exponential value and global growth for our clients – from intent to impact. We deliver end-to-end solutions through five value streams:
- Digital Experience and Strategy
- Strategic Consulting and Innovation
- Business Performance and Delivery
- Intelligent Applications and Platforms, and
- Technology Managed Services
iqbusiness, including technology division iqx, forms a key part of the ICT segment of JSE-listed industrial group Reunert Ltd. iqbusiness is a proud Level 1 B-BBEE contributor driven by a determination to deliver outcomes of excellence and meaning through our tenacious GESHIDO® energy*. We are consistently recognised as a top employer and leading consulting firm.
Established in South Africa in 1998, iqbusiness integrated into Reunert ICT in 2023 and merged with +OneX in 2024.
For more information, visit www.iqbusiness.net.
*GESHIDO® = we get $#!% done
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