No business is exempt from a disaster. Surveys show more than half of organizations report at least one downtime event lasting more than eight hours in the past five years.
Whether downtime is caused by a simple power outage, a malware attack or a natural disaster, organizations worldwide are at risk of an event that can impact their business. For large enterprises, downtime costs can be counted in millions of dollars, and for small businesses it can mean shutting their doors for good.
Yet, according to Zetta’s 2016 State of Disaster Recovery Report, 40% of organizations do not have a documented disaster recovery plan. And of the organizations that do have a disaster recovery (DR) strategy, many only cover infrastructure and applications and fail to address the workforce that needs to get back online and productive. Clearly, businesses need a comprehensive DR plan that includes their end users and devices, as well as their data center infrastructure.
However, there are not many good options today. Physical desktop DR solutions are expensive and complex, putting these solutions out of reach of many organizations. Consequently, the overwhelming majority of organizations do not have a DR plan for their workforce—their most strategic asset.
Organizations today need an easy solution that enables them to protect their business and ensure workforce continuity. With the VMware Horizon Cloud service, organizations can take advantage of cloud-hosted desktops and applications for desktop DR. With the cloud, IT can move towards an OpEx model that eliminates capital outlay and enables organizations to have a comprehensive desktop DR plan at a fraction of the cost of physical desktop DR.
Here are four reasons why you should look to include cloud-hosted virtual desktops and applications as part of your overall DR strategy.
1. Easy to Get Started
Let’s face it, the primary reason many organizations don’t have a comprehensive DR strategy is because it’s often complex and requires significant time and budget to implement (resources that are often at a premium).
Horizon Cloud provides an easy way to get started with desktop DR without hiring and training new specialists or having to invest in additional on-premises infrastructure or physical devices. With Horizon Cloud, you can quickly scale up capacity in the event of a disaster, or simply move all of your users to virtual desktops and applications for secure, anytime access to corporate data and applications.
[Find out more: IT Leaders on the Simplicity, Flexibility & Speed of VMware Horizon Cloud]
2. More Affordable Than Physical Desktop DR
Physical desktop DR and on-premises virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) DR solutions often require you to make significant investments in additional infrastructure and endpoints that you may never end up using. This often forces you to make tradeoffs between what you can afford to protect versus what you need to protect.
With cloud-hosted desktops and applications, you can easily maintain a minimum number of virtual desktops and only purchase additional cloud infrastructure should the need arise, greatly reducing the overall costs to your desktop DR plan. The subscription model of the Horizon Cloud service makes it convenient for you to only pay for the virtual desktops and applications you need, when you need them.
[Get an inside look: New eBook! Your Comprehensive Guide to VMware Horizon Cloud]
3. Improved Reliability
A majority of organizations test their DR plan once a year or less, so who knows how well it will perform when a downtime event occurs? That’s why organizations are overwhelmingly more confident in cloud-based DR solutions.
90% of IT pros are confident in cloud-based DR solutions, according to a Zetta survey.
By offloading infrastructure management and maintenance to public cloud providers, you get peace of mind that it will work whenever you need it to. Horizon Cloud even provides a 99.9% guaranteed service level agreement, ensuring that desktops and applications are available to your workforce even when your office or corporate data center are not.
[See for yourself: Try the New VMware Horizon Cloud Hands-on Lab]
4. Location Diversity
For many organizations, downtime can impact desktop DR plans, as well. Whether a disaster has also limited your employees’ ability to access corporate devices or office locations, or a widespread disaster has also impacted your secondary DR site, you may not be out of the woods with an on-premises solution.
With the newly launched Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure, you have over 40 global locations to choose from, ensuring that your workforce enjoys a good end-user experience while your IT can minimize the risk of downtime during a disaster.
[Read the news: VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure—Now Available]
If you’re looking to update your DR strategy in the next 12 months, don’t worry. You’re not alone. As you evaluate your current plan, consider cloud-hosted virtual desktops and applications as part of your strategy. You can learn more about the Horizon Cloud service on vmware.com/go/horizoncloud.
