How does VDI Work?

Bringing together various products, a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution delivers a virtualised desktop to your end user. This means that the company standard desktop will reside either on your servers/datacentre (Server Based Computing - SBC), or as a self contained virtual machine on the user’s workstation/laptop (Client Based Computing - CBC).

These virtual desktops can be based on the company standard and enable you to deploy them to users in a fraction of the time it takes to deploy a traditional desktop. The management console allows the administrator to deploy, manage and maintain these desktops centrally.

Depending on the chosen vendor, the key products and components for a typical VDI solution are:

1. A Virtual Infrastructure to host the desktop
2. A broker to manage the connections between the users and the Virtual Desktops on your infrastructure
3. Dumb terminals in your office to enable users to log on to the Virtual Desktop via a web browser


With VDI implemented, users just need dumb terminals to log on to their virtual workstation and they can continue working as they would do with a physical workstation.

If users, such as salespeople, are required to work offline then a CBC solution would be recommended. This means that when the user does connect to the internet or the corporate network, the virtual desktop on their laptop gets synchronised with the Virtual Infrastructure keeping them up to date.

VDI uses the server infrastructure to provide a faster, simplified and a more controlled method of managing and supporting your desktops and thereby providing more control over your company’s information.