Today it is becoming more and more common for businesses to facilitate remote working through Hosted Desktop Solutions. This means that employees are able to work from home or another location outside of the office, helping both parties to reduce costs and reap benefits in the form of greater freedom and higher levels of productivity.
One way in which businesses are facilitating remote working is by utilising BYOD and hosted desktop solutions. Here we will explain what BYOD is, how it works with a hosted desktop solution and how together, the two entities can benefit your business.
It’s important to enforce a strict BYOD policy to ensure your company data remains safe.
What is BYOD?
BYOD stands for Bring Your Own Device. A company that adopts a BYOD policy allows their employees to use their own devices like laptops, mobiles and digital tablets to complete their work. Being able to use their own devices means that employees can technically work from anywhere in the world. However for this to work properly, businesses also need to implement hosted desktop solutions.
BYOD and hosted desktops
A hosted desktop looks just like a traditional desktop, however instead of being located on a user’s computer it is hosted on a third party company’s servers and delivered via the internet.
Utilising BYOD through the use of a hosted desktop means that employees can gain access to their business emails, data and applications from their own mobile devices from any location, providing they have their username, password and a connection to the internet.
Whilst some businesses are reluctant to allow BYOD as they worry about the security of their data, implementing a hosted desktop solution makes it a whole lot safer. Instead of storing information on their devices, the data will be stored on the provider’s secure data centres and delivered via an encrypted connection.
Although hosted desktops a safer and more viable business solution, we still recommend that all devices are equipped with the latest antivirus and firewall software to prevent any issues from occurring.
The benefits of utilising BYOD using hosted desktop solutions.
Below we have outlined some of the ways businesses can benefit from utilising BYOD through hosted desktop solutions.
Allowing employees to choose where they work and on what devices will increase morale and in turn, your productivity levels.
Improved productivity
Allowing employees to choose what device they use and where they work is a great way of empowering them and increasing their morale. The happier your employees are, the more likely they are to get their work done quicker, leading to higher levels of productivity.
Before if the weather was really bad (e.g. snow) or employees’ children were sick and off school, they would not be able to get into the office or do their work. However thanks to BYOD and hosted desktop solutions, employees can continue to work from home, so your productivity levels will not have to take a hit.
Reduced costs
Together BYOD and hosted desktop solutions can save businesses a significant amount of money. For example, they will no longer have to spend as much money on IT equipment, as staff will be using their own devices and they will not need to run in-house servers as their IT infrastructure will be hosted externally.
If the majority of their workforce is working from home, businesses may even find they can downsize their office space and pay less rent each month. Not running servers in house or having to heat a big building for their staff will also significantly reduce the cost of their overheads.
Adopting BYOD and hosted desktop solutions will also allow businesses to reduce the cost of software and applications. Instead of having to buy separate licenses, their software and apps will be delivered to their employees’ devices via the internet. The cost will be covered in the monthly fee they pay to their hosted desktop provider.
Easy adoption
Whilst businesses often worry about the expense (time and money) of adopting new technology, this will not be the case with BYOD and hosted desktop solutions. Everything will look and function the same for end users; it’s just the way that they will access it that will be slightly different. Businesses can adopt hosted desktop solutions seamlessly without having to worry about the cost of training.
Conclusion
As you can now see, implementing both BYOD and hosted desktop solutions in the workplace can benefit your business in many ways. It really is the way of the future for businesses looking to benefit from increased flexibility, reduced costs and greater mobility.
For more information about BYOD management and hosted desktop solutions, please get in touch with the Green Cloud Hosting team.
Tel 0800 019 3878
Image credits: FotoBIB and ebayink
