In the days before personal computers revolutionized the office environment, “taking work home with you” meant stuffing files into a briefcase and leaving the office.
As computer technology was introduced and the machines became portable, the laptop revolutionized the practice, making it possible to take the work, and what it was done on, home.
In the 21st century, it’s possible to go far beyond taking work home. With what’s called “Virtual Desktop Infrastructure,” the computer on the desk at the office has been replaced by mobile access to a system that can be accessed anywhere, anytime, on a tablet computer or hand-held device.
“It’s the way to do things more efficiently and protect the data you need for your business,” said Pat Geer, president of Geer Services Inc. in AT&T Tower 301.
Geer became involved with Virtual Desktop Infrastructure when a client who did a lot of online training was ready to expand his business.
That involved setting up a corporate headquarters with a minimal staff and a much larger group working in the field that required convenient access to the company’s computing power.
“They needed a way to serve their mobile workforce. That included scheduling software, group email, accounting, word processing and calendar applications,” said Geer.
The biggest challenge in setting up the system, he said, was to make sure it worked with several versions of the same software. Employees then were assigned individually what Geer called a “container” that allowed them to access and use the system through a tablet computer or even a hand-held device.
“Each person has their virtual desktop and the applications they’re authorized to use,” Geer said.
“The server is the brain of the system. It takes a traditional computer network and makes it wireless and global. The server is 10 times as fast as a desktop computer,” he said.
“It’s a way to connect any keyboard and monitor to a computer that’s much faster than anything you could afford to put on a desktop,” he said.
He said Virtual Desktop Infrastructure offers flexibility because a company can purchase as much or as little computing power as it needs and can change that investment as the company grows. The technology also addresses the issue of security,
“All the transactions from the users to the server and back are encrypted, so you can’t give away the store,” said Geer.
“And all the data and work is always backed up, which makes recovering data very easy. It can be the difference between being back in business in minutes or hours rather than days – or for those who don’t back up their data, never,” he said.
Having been in the information technology business since the late 1970s, Geer has seen the data culture grow from its infancy.
“When I got started, business computing was a Teletype machine talking to a mainframe computer in Denver. In the ‘80s, people recognized they needed to have a computer in their office, which led to terminals talking to a server in the office,” he said.
“These days, it boils down to hardware, software and connectivity and everywhere is connected. The bigger your office, the bigger the network you need, but with this technology, there’s no limit on the number of users or the amount of data,” he said.
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