IT services provider Plan-Net has announced that Notting Hill Housing Group (NHHG) has implemented a new virtual desktop platform to reduce costs and space requirements and meet its carbon footprint targets.
NHHG is one of the largest providers of affordable housing in the UK, with a portfolio of 19,000 properties serving around 50,000 people across London and the surrounding areas. It employs about 750 staff.
The Group implemented a system based on VMWare VDI to provide a complete, unmodified virtual desktop that behaves just like a normal PC. Desktop Connection Broker Leostream and WYSE thin client terminals were brought in to facilitate direct access to the hosted desktops.
Set-up time for new and upgraded users was as low as five minutes, meaning worker disruption was kept to a minimum. Plan-Net supported the implementation of VMWare virtual desktops for 100 of Notting Hill Housing’s 550 seats and enabled NHHG to roll out the remainder.
NHHG also expects to see significant cost savings with the new system. “Although the initial cost for setting up each user was around £50 more than a traditional PC, we are estimating the savings over the next five years at £500 per head. And with the advanced power management solutions, we will also hit our eco-friendly targets,” said Andy Paynton, head of ICT at NHHG.
It is not just the financial savings that have impressed Paynton: “Of course these benefits are important to NHHG, but perhaps even more important are the improvements for users. For example, a log-on time of around 25 seconds, compared to more than five minutes previously, has already led to a dramatic improvement in productivity. Add to this the ease with which support staff can provide upgrades, fix issues and improve usability and the operational benefits are clear.”
The new platform was implemented without any changes to applications or the desktop environment. Users are able to install applications, customise their desktop environment and use local printers and USB devices. IT support can now be provided remotely, so technicians do not need to visit a user’s PC to fix problems.
Plan-Net’s Will Rodbard said: “With much of NHHG’s desktop equipment coming to the end of its life and less space available for IT, storage and maintenance, a virtualisation approach was the ideal solution. And the results speak for themselves. As well as improved IT services and cost savings, virtualisation is helping NHHG to meet its carbon footprint targets because the new thin client terminals use significantly less power than a traditional PC.”
