Software giant names internet-based travel reservation website as early adopters in its desktop virtualisation push

Software giant names internet-based travel reservation website as early adopters in its desktop virtualisation push

Microsoft has just announced new investments around desktop virtualisation technologies and solutions, including virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), to help increase flexibility, employee productivity and IT cost savings.

Alongside new technologies, it unveiled simplified licensing models and an alliance with Citrix Systems, designed to further its virtualisation strategy from the desktop to the data centre.

“Employees crave options in where and how they work. And yet, IT still needs to enforce security and compliance of devices. The business is being pulled in two directions,” said Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of the management and services division at Microsoft.

Maintaining control while enhancing flexibility

“Microsoft’s desktop virtualisation strategy is unique in addressing this balance. It builds on existing investments and comprehensive management to mitigate risks and control costs, while still equipping end users to be more productive from anywhere.”

One company who chose Microsoft for desktop virtualisation is US-based international travel website, Expedia.

“We have a strong philosophy that IT is an enabler for the business and we are always looking for the best IT solutions to meet the needs of our employees and customers,” said Chaz Spahn, senior systems engineer for Expedia.

“We’re working with Microsoft on our desktop virtualisation projects. We’re using App-V in production and looking to virtualise about 90% of our applications. In addition, we have two use cases where we are exploring hosted desktops and foresee about 30 percent of our users could move to this platform. Microsoft was our choice since they have the right solutions to increase our speed of application and desktop provisioning, improve security and compliance, and provide integrated management across our physical and virtual environments.”