Data Center

5 Recommendations for Healthcare VDI Deployments

Reduce deployment stress and blunders by following a few simple best practices.

Tommy Peterson is a freelance journalist who specializes in business and technology and is a frequent contributor to the CDW family of technology magazines.

Considering whether a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployment may extend advantages to your healthcare organization? IT professionals say to keep these recommendations in mind:

1. Take a Long View of the VDI Deployment

Look at your investment holistically, LifeBridge Health Senior Vice President and CIO Tressa Springmann says. “In the short term, you’re simply moving staff and expense from user hardware to back-end systems.”

2. Find a Strong Vendor Partner

Make sure your vendor will help design the VDI solution; provide advice, support and service; and stick with you through the deployment and beyond, Covenant Health Enterprise Infrastructure Architect Adam Sherwood says.

3. Check That Your Infrastructure Can Handle the Change

Make sure your back-end capacity matches the size of your VDI deployment, says LifeBridge Health Systems Engineer Jon Roenick.

4. Determine Your Deployment ROI

Measure the value of your VDI deployment in increased user productivity and how well the technology supports the business mission, not in reduced hardware or administrative costs, says IDC Research Director Robert Young.

5. Make Sure Your IT Is Ready for a Disaster

Ensure a disaster recovery plan is in place, CHRISTUS Health CTO Lynn Gibson says. Even a brief outage can be disruptive to VDI and leave users without computing resources.

Interested in how VDI deployments are bolstering access and security for healthcare organizations? Learn more here!