Guidelines for VDI Planning

Before you start planning a VDI rollout, there are a few guidelines worth keeping in mind:

• Get end-users involved early. If you’re in IT, it can be a mistake to assume anything about the day-to-day workflow of those in finance departments, marketing, sales, et al. or how VDI will or won’t affect them.
• Prepare to become a service provider. If you’re in a field like healthcare, the level of service you deliver has a direct impact on the doctors and nurses delivering patient care. While the impact of good—or bad—service may be less dramatic in other industries, VDI has a direct effect on end-users’ ability to perform their jobs. It’s up to you to make sure that experience is positive.
• Take a phased approach. The good news is that many companies have gone before you. The necessary steps to succeed with VDI are well understood, as I describe in the next section. If you use a phased approach with clearly defined success criteria for each phase, your rollout will go smoothly and surprises will be kept to a minimum.