Manage Learn to apply best practices and optimize your operations.

How does focusing on UX help CIOs demonstrate VDI ROI?

How does emphasizing user experience help CIOs demonstrate the ROI of virtual desktop infrastructure? Brad Maltz responds in this Ask the Expert.

How does a focus on the end-user experience allow CIOs to demonstrate the ROI of VDI for the business?

Back in the day, for a CIO to be able to deliver virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to the business, except for the really cool technological aspects of it, there was no business benefit of delivering VDI. As we now move into the end-user-experience discussion, what a lot of CIOs are realizing is that they have to try to keep up with the likes of Apple and Google and all of the other companies that are driving the consumer-based IT market. Everybody has a mobile device now and can download an application instantly and access their mail or their files or their music wherever they may be. Well, that whole concept of the end-user experience is now being translated into the business.

Brad MaltzBrad Maltz

The discussion of ROI and VDI has turned more into delivering an end-user experience that's equivalent to what people are getting at home. So, very quickly, the ROI discussion falls off the table and we start talking more about the total cost of ownership (TCO). What's going to be the total cost of the environment to make sure that we're delivering the correct experience? Now, mind you, the ROI discussion is still a piece of this, but the awesome thing with ROI is that, based on technology, and obviously how long VDI and other pieces have been around, we are now able to actually develop an ROI around the end-user experience.

About the author:
Brad Maltz is in the CTO office at Lumenate, a technical consulting firm focused on data center, security, end-user experience and cloud technologies. He holds certifications from VMware and EMC for many technologies, including being VMware certified design expert #36 and a vExpert.

Next Steps

Richard Trigg, CX software expert, shares his secrets 

Dig Deeper on Enterprise systems management

Have a question for an expert?

Please add a title for your question

Get answers from a TechTarget expert on whatever's puzzling you.

You will be able to add details on the next page.

Join the conversation

1 comment

Send me notifications when other members comment.

Please create a username to comment.

Your turn: How does a focus on UX help CIOs demonstrate VDI ROI?