Virtual Desktop DIY 

At its core, VDI revolves around creating virtual machines that function as individual desktops or for publishing apps. These desktops or apps are then hosted on central servers and delivered to users via a remote access protocol. While the concept might seem straightforward, the DIY approach to VDI implementation introduces many complexities and challenges.

• Technical Complexity: VDI requires expertise in virtual machines, cloud platforms, and a plethora of supporting services like access control, logging, and security solutions. Building and configuring these intricate components from scratch demands a highly skilled IT team. Before even implementing a solution you need to create a detailed plan of exactly what infrastructure you will need- how many servers, which public cloud fits your specific use cases etc. Often organizations do not have this expertise in-house and need to hire consultants for this design phase. Once you are ready to implement, you then need specialized admins that are skilled in managing your chosen VDI solution, but these people are not necessarily experts in everything you need to set up and maintain your solution. For example if you would like to deploy in the cloud, then you will need to bring in additional cloud infrastructure expertise, and potentially DevOps and software engineers to help set up a cloud-based VDI solution. You may also need to implement additional point solutions to enhance security like Zero Trust or data-loss prevention (DLP). In addition, different parts of the organization may have different use cases that add to the technical complexity. You may have certain teams that require access to GPU apps, you may have contractors that need to be onboarded very quickly and have additional security requirements. All these aspects create a technically complex system that requires teams of highly skilled staff (and potentially consultants or MSPs) to both setup and maintain. 
• Hidden Costs: While the initial licensing cost of VDI solutions might seem manageable, these costs are now increasing significantly. Following recent acquisitions of VMware and Citrix, legacy VDI vendors have been extending significant price increases to their existing customers, forcing them to look for alternatives. (see image below) Even without the additional license costs, there are often additional hidden costs that organizations must deal with. On-prem solutions necessitate investing in hardware (and maintaining it) and dealing with license cost increases, while cloud-based DIY options require managing and paying for cloud resources. Cloud-based solutions are notorious for escalating and unpredictable costs. It is often impossible to predict how much cloud-resources you will use in advance, resulting in unexpected costs that the business hasn’t planned for. In addition, the team of specialists you need to run the VDI solution are expensive resources that spend a lot of time managing tasks that are necessary, but not adding much value to the business.

• Maintenance Constraints: Ongoing maintenance, patching, and software updates add to the overall cost picture. The team of experts you put together to install the VDI solution needs to be continuously on-hand to do the updates and maintenance to the systems. Updates need to be done, but often not all at the same time - if you bought an initial set of servers, but added more a year later, they are now set to refresh at different times. As you are often integrating different pieces of software together, they also end up with different update schedules. This means you could end up with some software versions not being compatible with other software versions. Due to this complexity, organizations often live with outdated software just to avoid breaking anything. This can have a significant impact on the digital employee experience with users forced to live with outdated software that slows down performance. 
• IT Resource Strain: Managing a DIY VDI solution is a demanding task. Your IT team will be stretched thin, saddled with initial setup, configuration, and the ever-present need for troubleshooting and maintenance. This diverts valuable resources from focusing on strategic business initiatives. 
• Scalability Issues: On-prem VDI deployments are constrained by physical hardware, making it difficult to scale up or down quickly to accommodate fluctuating workloads or user demands. As organizations embrace work from anywhere initiatives, or expand their global footprint, IT teams need to either invest in additional data centers, adopt hybrid on-prem / cloud solutions or live with frustrated end-users that are experiencing lag. Cloud-based DIY solutions offer some scalability, but it requires meticulous planning and configuration to prevent overspending on underutilized resources. As mentioned above, the ability to scale easily comes with a scaling price-tag that is often unpredictable. In fact, a recent poll by Citrix showed that 94% of organizations had moved some of their workloads back from the cloud to on-prem facilities, citing security issues, high project expectations and failure to meet or set expectations as key issues. 
• Managing Multi-Cloud: While VDI solutions are able to work in multiple public clouds, each public cloud comes with its own set of unique features and restrictions. Some cloud providers are more cost-effective than others for running higher workloads, and some services that you need may only be available with certain cloud providers. Finding staff that are knowledgeable across public clouds can be difficult, often requiring specialized talent to be brought on for each cloud you want to use. IT teams need to thoroughly understand their use cases to determine which cloud will work best for their organization and then ensure they have the resources to manage it.
• Legacy Solution Constraints: Many VDI solutions have been around for a long time, and while they may offer cloud-based solutions, they are often ‘lift-and-shifts’ of their on-premise solutions. Because they are not cloud-native SaaS solutions, they lack the benefits more modern solutions provide, such as continuous feature updates, leveraging a fully maintained solution and easy scaling. 

The Turnkey Cloud-Native Solution

In contrast, a turnkey cloud-native VDI solution from a provider like Sonet.io offers a refreshing escape from DIY. Here's how cloud-native solutions address the challenges  with DIY solutions. 

• Effortless Management: Cloud-native solutions like Sonet.io are designed for ease of use. They handle the complexities of provisioning, configuration, and maintenance, freeing up your IT team to focus on core business objectives. There’s no need to rack and stack and there’s no device deployments. Initial setup can be done in as little as one hour, and new users can be onboarded in seconds. Instead of doing maintenance for hundreds or even thousands of virtual machines, with Sonet.io there is no need to maintain infrastructure at all, including patches. Updates and patches for apps can be centrally in Sonet.io and delivered to all users, there is no need to update every single user device. There’s no need to have a team of highly skilled people setting up and managing VDI - less skilled IT members can take care of the limited ongoing maintenance and your highly skilled employees can focus on proactively improving how the business uses technology. 
• Cost Optimization: Turnkey solutions like Sonet.io boast predictable, per-user pricing models. This eliminates the uncertainty of DIY costs associated with infrastructure, ongoing maintenance, and potential resource overspending. You can elastically scale to any number of users, but at a per-user price that is known up front. 
• Scalability on Demand: Cloud-native solutions excel in scalability and elasticity. You can easily add or remove users as needed, ensuring you only pay for the resources you utilize. This allows your VDI environment to seamlessly adapt to your business's evolving needs. With Sonet.io new users can be added in seconds, and they are able to access the apps and virtual desktops they need from any browser. This means you can easily scale up and down to meet certain business requirements (eg. if you’re a seasonal business that needs to hire additional workers at certain times of the year). There are no device deployments and no need to ship devices and users have the freedom to use any device (including BYOD), while enhanced security and visibility features are still applied. 
• High-Performance Cloud Infrastructure: With a cloud-native solution you can leverage a multi-cloud architecture. Sonet.io runs the workload in the cloud that will be most efficient and secure for your use case, without your organization needing to deal with the costs or requirements for specialized staff to set up and manage it. Users get an excellent experience with low latency as the best cloud resources are used, nearest to their physical location. Leveraging world-wide cloud infrastructure means that organizations can easily add users in any location and enable users traveling to any location to have fast, seamless and secure access to apps and virtual desktops. 
• Use-Case Adaptability: Leveraging a cloud-native solution like Sonet.io allows you to adapt to different use cases within your organization. If certain groups require additional resources for certain apps, or if contractors have specific access and security requirements, these can easily be added.
• Built-In Security: Turnkey solutions like Sonet.io prioritize security with built-in features like Zero Trust security and data-loss prevention policies that can be applied to groups of users. This reduces the risk of security breaches compared to traditional DIY VDI environments, allowing your IT team to focus on strategic initiatives with peace of mind.
• Rapid Deployment: Cloud-native solutions boast rapid deployment times, minimizing disruption to your business. Sonet.io customers have been up and running within the same call as the initial setup, which can be done in under an hour, and new users added in seconds. POC instances instantly become production instances, providing a seamless and fast transition. 

Conclusion: Charting the Course to a Streamlined VDI Experience

Building your own VDI solution can be a complex, resource-intensive and expensive undertaking. By opting for a turnkey cloud-native solution like Sonet.io, you can streamline your VDI journey with predictable costs and comprehensive security and visibility built-in. 

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