The modern cloud workspace is an essential IT infrastructure for many organizations having a cloud-first strategy. During the pandemic, every organization embraced the cloud workspace solution to deliver centralized operating systems and applications without deploying a dedicated workstation for each end-user or employee. Enterprise-ready cloud workspace solutions offer rich feature sets and multiple parameters to protect user data. One of the essential aspects of implementing cloud workspace solutions for your organization is proper designing and sizing. Underestimating workspace resource requirements leads to lusterless performance and impoverished end-user experience. Henceforth, the IT team incurred unanticipated costs trying to solve these problems.
Successful implementation of the cloud workspace requires proper planning and a distinct strategy to ensure a favorable outcome. Some of the common challenges organizations face when deploying modern workspace are as follows:
- Improper initial assessment
- Overlooking end-user experience
- Hidden costs
- Security and compliance risks
- The bells and whistles
Organizations planning to switch from a traditional or legacy desktop solution to a modern workspace require architects and decision-makers to think things through and outline an effective migration and deployment plan. The above-mentioned common challenges are elaborated in consecutive sections.
Improper initial assessment
This is one of the common oversights that architects/system integrators make in the early phase of the project. The early stage of assessment helps you determine whether a cloud-workspace will benefit your organization. Even if the organization is ready to take the plunge, it is better to understand the technology, resource requirements, etc. Modern workspace assessment may indicate that an organization may have more Capex, but actual benefits start reaping with proper workspace implementation. It includes simpler desktop management, increased mobility, security, and compliance with your organization, fewer resource requirements, and flexibility for its employees.
Understanding employees’ requirements is one of the best ways that organizations can ensure the success of their modern workspace deployment. Without end-user buy-in, modern cloud workspace implementation can fall apart.
Overlooking end-user experience
End-user experience is directly proportional to end-user productivity. The employees of an organization expect the same kind of performance that they are used to. The end-user should not have to reconcile for poor performance and delayed response time. Hence, the end-user experience is one of the essential parts of cloud workspace implementation and should not be overlooked.
Users will have different needs and interact differently with the applications or desktops. Understanding their distinct needs is critical. The optimized environment will stand true to organization employees, ensuring a seamless transition from a legacy or local system to a modern workspace. There is a wide variety of UX monitoring tools available in the market. Choose the right solution that gives details on user experience and advisory benefits to organizations.
Hidden Costs
The most common challenge faced by the organization are cost management in the cloud workspace. The bigger the implementation plan, the more costs on infrastructure spending. During the cloud workspace designing phase, the IT team should look for a solution to accommodate a lower-tier storage device, optimize network bandwidth, and use effective CPU cycle usage to avoid unnecessary expenditures. Cloud workspace has autoscaling or dynamic scaling features that lower resource consumption costs. The organization and system integrators must draw a thin line between fixed and variable costs for cloud workspaces that help keep unnecessary expenses at bay.
Few industry-leading tools help you optimize the cost of resource consumption by leveraging automation. Hence, organizations can use such tools and solutions to regulate their spending.
Security and compliance risks
Security is an essential factor to consider when deploying cloud workspace solutions. The data in rest and data in transit must be considered in the early phase of the project. End-user data is securely accessed and delivered to the end-point with higher levels of encryption. It is easy for employees to maintain security standards in a cloud workspace due to centralized storage. Few solutions organizations can adopt multi-factor authentication, app-protection policies, conditional access, and operating system hardening, enabling defender service to elevate the security standard in the cloud workspace.
Compliance is another face of security, and it plays a significant role in most organizations, including healthcare, banking, insurance, and hi-tech manufacturing. These organizations adopting specific compliance standards must provide detailed records proving they comply with regulatory bodies that protect consumer data privacy and security and control access to internal systems. The organization and system integrators must choose and implement the compliant solution that meets industry standards without sacrificing security.
The bells and whistles
Various cloud workspace solutions are available in the market, but not all solutions have the same or equal features. Most cloud workspace solutions will have a standard set of essential features in virtual apps and desktop management. A few of them are image management, apps and desktop virtualization, connection protocols, security tools, monitoring and reporting tools, ease of deployment, and cloud-based control planes. For the existing environment, whether these feature sets work well or require platform enhancement, it is recommended to do a thorough verification with systems integrators and solution providers.
Legacy systems have worked well with applications and operating systems, but enhancement would require additional efforts. The architect and decision-maker must consider inquiring about the licensing model and unknown costs incurred during the usage.
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