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VDIworks |
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June 1, 2015 Issue |
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The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
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Integrated Virtual and Physical Desktop Management Platform |
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CEO
VDIworks
Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – June 1, 2015
CEOCFO: Mr. Hussain, what is the idea behind VDIWorks? Mr. Hussain: VDI stands for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. When we incorporated the company back in 2008, there was a lot of hype, and there still is, around VDI. The concept is running desktop operating systems in virtual machines and enabling end users to connect to their machines over the network. Concisely, it is moving your desktop to the data center. It has many advantages, end users are not able to tamper with the system, it is centralized and controlled by IT administrators so that they can increase security, provide better support, and it is much easier to manage than traditional desktops. Imagine any organization that has hundreds of desktops and having to go to each desktop when there are hardware issues. If you want to install software, provide user training, or even if the hardware fails, you physically need to go to that specific desktop to provide support or pick up the piece of hardware, bring it over to your lab, and provide a fix. With desktop virtualization or with virtual desktops, you eliminate all of these problems because the entire desktop infrastructure is in one centralized location i.e. your data center, which is being managed more efficiently by the IT administrators. It’s bringing all of the proven benefits of server virtualization to the desktops. When we came up with the name for the company, there was a lot of debate in the industry around whether this was going to be successful, whether VDI works or not. VDI works. We put in our decades of experience and bring together a solution for not just the enterprise but for any organization wanting to save on hardware and management costs and still get the same level of experience that they would get while using a traditional desktop machine.
CEOCFO: How do you compare with the big names in the crowd? Mr. Hussain: It depends on which big names you are talking about. If you are talking about VMware, Citrix and Microsoft – our software integrates with them, but it also provides key management functions that replace their more expensive components. In a virtual desktop solution, there are multiple components. You have the back-end hardware, you have the hypervisor, you need management software, and you need access devices (typically thin or zero clients) that are placed at the user desk. There is also a remote protocol, which is the communication technology between your access devices and the virtualized desktops. VDIworks is a software company – we provide comprehensive management capabilities that work with hardware from any vendor. Our solution integrates with all the leading available hypervisors, so we integrate with VMware and their vSphere platform. We integrate with Microsoft Hyper-V and we integrate with Citrix XenServer. We allow IT administrators to create, manage and deploy a virtual desktop infrastructure. It is a complete end-to-end management. What we also do, which our competitors do not do, is manage the hardware piece of your virtual desktop infrastructure. We are able to manage the back-end servers that are used no matter what brand they are. We are able to manage the thin clients and zero clients from any vendor. In essence, our management platform gives you a single pane of glass to monitor your entire virtual desktop infrastructure. It eliminates the need to switch between multiple applications that you typically need today for managing and monitoring purposes.
CEOCFO: Is it common knowledge that you need a buffer? Are people looking for that one solution or is it more that they are happy to find VDIworks and realize it can all be done in one place. Mr. Hussain: It is a mix out there, and it really depends on how technical and how well trained IT teams are. What we are finding, and this is the premise of our approach, is that our behemoth competitors are offering expensive, bloated solutions, and their solution stacks are extremely complex to implement and manage. We remove the complexity and give customers a very simple way for to manage their infrastructures. Additionally, since we integrate with the hypervisor providers, we are still guaranteeing them the same level of efficiency and the same level of performance that others are, but in a much more simple way. With our competitors, we see that they have extensive training programs or certifications that are required for you or your support staff to manage their solutions effectively. That training needs to be redone every year or two. However, when it comes to VDIworks, since it is so simple and easy to use, you do not require these levels of certifications because you simply don’t have to jump through all of the hoops to deploy and manage your virtual desktop infrastructure. That is the primary reason when people come and talk to us and they find out about our solution they prefer to partner with VDIworks.
CEOCFO: Who is typically turning to you for services? Mr. Hussain: We have seen an increase of interest from organizations in the education sector. We have seen an increase of interest from health care, and the third most important segment for us has been call centers or contact centers. They do not have that bandwidth to deal with complex solutions that require extensive certifications, and it is the same story across these verticals where they cannot have a dedicated, certified person who is available 24/7 trying to ensure that the solution is up and running and moving around from school to school or from one location to the other managing VDI.
CEOCFO: How do companies find you and how do you reach out to find prospective clients? Mr. Hussain: In order for me to answer that, it is important for everyone to realize that until recently, VDIworks has primarily been an OEM technology provider to our partners since 2008 – our business model was selling through OEM channels, primarily to the federal government. Only recently have we begun offering offer our products directly under the VDIworks brand. That being the case, we have a pure channel model and we’re in the process of building out a top tier partner network. We have a core group of amazing partners and we’re looking for more elite reseller partners and services partners. We do market directly to our target segments, and we also work closely with our partners to raise awareness, deploy solutions, and ensure we have the highest levels of customer satisfaction.
Mr. Hussain: This is the time because when we started out in 2008, we were one of the first movers. We have seen over the years that at one point the market was not ready for VDI, and the technology itself was in its early stages. The end user experience was just not there, and the supporting attributes that are required for VDI, the connectivity and infrastructure, were just catching up with what we were trying to do. All of that has now converged, and we’re seeing a virtual desktop experience that’s as good or better than a traditional desktop experience, and the management costs are a fraction of what they are for traditional desktops. People have started to see that, which is why the adoption rates have significantly increased over the last couple of years. Looking at those trends, it makes sense to move out in the open and start to sell our own products through non-OEM channels.
CEOCFO: How has it been going so far? Mr. Hussain: It is going well. It has just been a few months that we have taken this route. We’re in a high growth stage – we’re building our partner network and we are bringing the right people on board for making sure we take full advantage of the opportunity. We have been going out there and attending shows to make people aware about who we are and what we do. The response has been phenomenal and we are getting great traction.
CEOCFO: Is the security environment a factor that people pay more attention to as well or is that a little more ancillary? Mr. Hussain: It depends which industry you are looking at. If you are looking at health care, security is a big concern because of electronic medical records (EMRs). That has been the primary driver as far as VDI is concerned because your data is not residing on local desktops in clinics or in offices. It is residing in one centralized location, which is far easier to secure. This may include limited access and other security systems that you basically use for securing a building. If you have your data in one central location, it is obviously logically easier to secure the data as opposed to having it fragmented in dozens of different sites – you wouldn’t do this with your servers. In addition to that, you are able to control user access to certain data. If a virtual desktop is compromised, it can easily be deleted and the VM can be rolled back to a good version. It is multi-layered when it comes to data security, and for some verticals that is the driver. For some, it is primarily operational efficiency and cutting down on management costs.
CEOCFO: Has the industry been paying attention to VDI? Mr. Hussain: Over the last couple of years, adoption rates have really increased, and all signs indicate they will continue to increase. If you look at analyst reports projecting the next five to ten years, this is where the trend is going and this is what is going to happen. Adoption will continue to increase – organizations are moving towards virtual desktops, be that something which is hosted on site, in the cloud somewhere, or a hybrid solution where you have a mix of both.
CEOCFO: Put it all together for our readers. Why pay attention to VDIworks right now? Mr. Hussain: If you look at all the different vendors that are available out there, everyone has a specific spin on their solution or on the product and about why they are better. As far as VDIworks, being one of the pioneers we have actually been a part of the entire evolution. We have seen what users have been through and what their pay points are. Looking at all of those things, that is how our product has evolved, which is why we are very proud when we say that we are half the price of what our competitors are at currently and less than half the complexity. If you do an apples to apples comparison, it is a no brainer when you look at the VDIworks product offering. When we get prospects to a product evaluation, they will select VDIworks nine out of ten times – that’s pretty strong validation. |
“When we get prospects to a product evaluation, they will select VDIworks nine out of ten times – that’s pretty strong validation.” - Saad Hussain
VDIworks
Contact: Terell Jones 512-652-3380
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