 "India moving to second phase of desktop virtualisation: Atul Ahuja")
Citrix, the Florida-headquartered mobile workstyles enabler, is seeing growth in adoption of desktop virtualisation by Indian companies across sectors. Virtualisation enables a desktop computer to run as a virtual machine on a central server, which allows users to work on any device and from any location. Citrix has been among the front-runners in India in this space. Atul Ahuja, director- desktop & apps, Microsoft Alliance for the India subcontinent at Citrix, says the country is moving towards the next phase of usage. Edited excerpts of an interview with Itika Sharma Punit:
How mature is desktop virtualisation in India?
In India today, it is not just large organisations that are deriving advantages from desktop virtualisation. Mid-sized companies are also shifting to it. They are surprised by the amount of savings and positive influence it has on their functioning.
What are you going to see in the second phase of adoption of this technology?
Two things are happening. One, there is depth, which means companies that began with 500 desktops are moving to 1,500 or 2,000 of these. That is purely because the first phase gave good results for the technology adoption. The second is the breadth; I am going deeper into the market and getting more customers. The kind of logos and brands that we have acquired in the past two-three years, is a testimony to this. We now have over 300 unique customers across verticals, and their success stories is giving more confidence to users to opt for it.
What is driving this market?
Manageability is one of the main drivers for adoption of this technology. As organisations grow larger and penetrate into Tier-II or tier-III cities, the quality of support starts to degrade. But a virtual desktop solves such issues, as there is nothing that has to be done at the end-point and everything can be taken care of from data centres.
Additionally, work from anywhere is a clear need of the hour; this technology ensures employees who are travelling or working from multiple locations are not restricted. This technology also ensures data protection, a very sensitive issue, especially for banks and insurance firms. Also, demand for the technology is also getting driven currently because with Windows XP coming to the end of life in April next year, organisations sitting on old systems have to change anyway . They’re opting for desktop virtualisation.
Are Indian companies culturally ready for 'work from anywhere' concept?
I think in India, work and personal time are getting overlapped. So the lines defining what can be done only from office and what can be done only at home have diluted. Companies have to give flexibility to employees. The need is getting arisen from the top as a lot of senior executives are demanding for it.
Also, employees are demanding things like choosing the devices they use. In this situation, many companies are allowing the concept of 'work from anywhere' in order to ensure that employees are fully productive. Although the shift has started happening, but are we there as a mass? Obviously not as yet. But we are well on that path.
What do you think is the next step in desktop virtualisation that India may see?
Today we consume this technology within a premise, like at data centers. Can I not put it on the cloud as a service? That maturity will come in India in the next cycle as more and more adoption happen. The decision makers in customer organisations will start to shift their workloads to the cloud.
We have tasted some success in this and there are some early adopters. We have partners who are building such capabilities. The product is ready and the solutions are also maturing.
How mature is desktop virtualisation in India?
In India today, it is not just large organisations that are deriving advantages from desktop virtualisation. Mid-sized companies are also shifting to it. They are surprised by the amount of savings and positive influence it has on their functioning.
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India has moved from the initial stages. Our clients who had initially tried the technology for 100 or 200 computers are now opting for 100 per cent desktop virtualisation. Scales have moved up and apprehensions of business and technology teams have gone away because they have seen it working. We are now getting repeat sales, or reference sales, as the benefits of desktop virtualisation are well understood today. I think India is moving into the second phase of the desktop virtualisation market.
What are you going to see in the second phase of adoption of this technology?
Two things are happening. One, there is depth, which means companies that began with 500 desktops are moving to 1,500 or 2,000 of these. That is purely because the first phase gave good results for the technology adoption. The second is the breadth; I am going deeper into the market and getting more customers. The kind of logos and brands that we have acquired in the past two-three years, is a testimony to this. We now have over 300 unique customers across verticals, and their success stories is giving more confidence to users to opt for it.
What is driving this market?
Manageability is one of the main drivers for adoption of this technology. As organisations grow larger and penetrate into Tier-II or tier-III cities, the quality of support starts to degrade. But a virtual desktop solves such issues, as there is nothing that has to be done at the end-point and everything can be taken care of from data centres.
Additionally, work from anywhere is a clear need of the hour; this technology ensures employees who are travelling or working from multiple locations are not restricted. This technology also ensures data protection, a very sensitive issue, especially for banks and insurance firms. Also, demand for the technology is also getting driven currently because with Windows XP coming to the end of life in April next year, organisations sitting on old systems have to change anyway . They’re opting for desktop virtualisation.
Are Indian companies culturally ready for 'work from anywhere' concept?
I think in India, work and personal time are getting overlapped. So the lines defining what can be done only from office and what can be done only at home have diluted. Companies have to give flexibility to employees. The need is getting arisen from the top as a lot of senior executives are demanding for it.
Also, employees are demanding things like choosing the devices they use. In this situation, many companies are allowing the concept of 'work from anywhere' in order to ensure that employees are fully productive. Although the shift has started happening, but are we there as a mass? Obviously not as yet. But we are well on that path.
What do you think is the next step in desktop virtualisation that India may see?
Today we consume this technology within a premise, like at data centers. Can I not put it on the cloud as a service? That maturity will come in India in the next cycle as more and more adoption happen. The decision makers in customer organisations will start to shift their workloads to the cloud.
We have tasted some success in this and there are some early adopters. We have partners who are building such capabilities. The product is ready and the solutions are also maturing.