We recently attended an AEC conference in California. One of the top-of-mind concerns was handling the prevailing trend to work from home, specifically how to overcome the challenge of mentoring junior architects and engineers with senior-level staff. On the one hand, if you force employees to return to the office, you risk losing out on potential talent at the hiring stage or risk people leaving to work somewhere else.
Mentoring is a crucial component of career development, but it can be challenging to establish a meaningful mentor-mentee relationship when working remotely. As remote work continues to become more prevalent, the challenge of mentoring employees in a virtual setting has become increasingly important. However, with the right tools and strategies, it’s possible to overcome these challenges and ensure that employees receive the guidance they need to succeed.
The Right Strategy
In a February 6, 2023 article for Forbes magazine, Dr.Gelb Tsiprusky recommended pairing senior staff with a junior talent for ongoing virtual mentoring sessions lasting between 20 to 30 minutes. Dr. Tsiprusky presents evidence showing the effectiveness of connecting junior teams working remotely with senior staff members. Dr. Tsiprusky recommends that these monthly 20-30 minute meetings have a checklist to address individual and collaborative tasks, obstacles, resources, and professional growth. Mentors should also co-work with mentees for at least an hour each week via videoconference, working on their assignments while being able to ask questions and receive on-the-job training.
During the co-working session, mentors and mentees can share what they plan to work on, turn microphones off but leave speakers on with video optional, and ask questions as needed. This speaker on approach replicates the benefit of a shared cubicle space and helps build bonds and integrate junior staff into the company culture. Use virtual whiteboards and screen sharing to demonstrate tasks graphically or visually. The goal is to facilitate on-the-job learning and contribute to professional growth in a remote work environment.
Two are Better than One
Studies also indicated that having one person from the junior staff’s business unit and another from a different team gave cross-functional connections. This broad perspective gave the junior staff a better understanding of organizational culture and how the company addresses needs in the industry.
The Right Tools
At IronOrbit, we believe technology can play a vital role in helping to bridge the gap between remote workers and their mentors. Our cutting-edge computing solutions, including faster GPUs and more powerful SKUs, provide the computing power needed to support remote mentoring. At the same time, our highly scalable and modular systems make it easy to tailor the technology to your specific needs. In addition to providing top-of-the-line technology, IronOrbit is also committed to the highest standards in security and compliance. Our daily offsite backups to a dedicated Disaster Recovery facility protect your data. At the same time, our collaboration-ready virtual desktops make it easy for mentors and mentees to work together from anywhere.
Our virtual desktops are also tailored specifically to your needs, making it easy to provide the resources and software necessary for successful mentoring. And with our 24/7/365 US-based support, you can rest assured that you always have access to the help and resources you need to ensure your mentoring program succeeds. Regarding remote mentoring, technology can be both a challenge and a solution. With IronOrbit’s advanced computing solutions and commitment to security and compliance, you can ensure that your mentoring program is effective, efficient, and successful, no matter where your employees work.
If you’re struggling with your hybrid work model, please call us. We’re here to help.
IronOrbit Team Members are highly motivated, highly intelligent individuals who are passionate about what they do. It’s only logical to provide the same in benefits.
Digitization and climate change are both hot topics. The two subjects are also getting used together in the same sentence more frequently. For example, did you know digitization is good for reducing carbon emissions? According to the World Economic Forum, Digital technologies have the potential to reduce global emissions by 15%.
Since the pandemic lockdown, people have been working from home. The workforce has been slow in returning to the corporate office setting. An IFS survey conducted last year reports that almost three-quarters of respondents plan to increase spending on digital transformation. The climate control benefits include a reduction of CO2 emissions due to less commuting and travel to in-person meetings. Technologies like Microsoft Teams have made multi-site team meetings easy and readily available.
Cloud migration is the price of admission to competing in the digital world.
Moving your IT environment to the cloud reduces the need for additional hardware, but more importantly, to your bottom line and the environment, cloud migration modernizes your operations. While being on the cloud, and using robust cloud-enabled services like IronOrbit’s INFINITY Workspaces, won’t make your business carbon neutral, it is a significant first step on that journey.
DEMATERIALIZATION
How You Can Reduce the Environmental Impact on Doing Business
Hardware casings, cords, adaptors, and other electrical products are called E-waste. E-waste is a growing problem. Significant environmental damage happens because nature cannot absorb these products. E-Waste is a significant contributor to the haphazard disposal of old electronics: they’re inert. All E-Waste products contain hazardous materials of one kind or another. The toxic materials are predominantly lead and mercury.
By switching to IronOrbit’s cloud, you can reduce the amount of hardware because you no longer need to invest in so many on-site computer stations. There’s no need to pay for its maintenance or replace machinery when it becomes obsolete. Instead, you only pay for the exact services you need. Over time, this saves you money. Cloud computing can help your company become sustainable while making it more profitable and productive.
Reducing Needless Travel Reduces Carbon Emissions
INFINITY Workspaces is our brand of DaaS, robust technology that enables employees to work remotely with ease. There are different INFINITY packages to fit specific use cases. Even designers and engineers can access the most demanding modern applications on their mobile devices. INFINITY Workspaces empowers Geographically dispersed teams to do their best work. The technology inspires productivity while eliminating the need for lengthy commutes. It also eliminates the carbon emissions associated with daily commutes.
Adopting a work-from-home environment or even a hybrid workplace is an excellent way to reduce your business’s carbon footprint. You could also save some money in the process.
Shared Data Centers Reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
On-premises servers and data centers use substantial amounts of energy both for running and cooling. The manufacturing, packaging, and shipping of the hardware and peripheral products also add to GHG emissions. Companies can reduce emissions considerably by moving to a cloud computing environment. Once a company moves to the cloud, they use shared data centers. Like the ones operated by IronOrbit, shared data centers run far more efficiently than individual facilities or on-premises servers. There is no longer a need for personal equipment.
A recent forecast by the International Data Corporation (IDC) reports that cloud computing will prevent the emission of more than one billion metric tons of CO2 between 2021 and 2024. Moving away from legacy software and hardware and towards cloud adoption is a logical next step for companies. Insofar as business continuity and investment in the future, cloud migration is a necessity.
Cloud computing and all the digital benefits of having your IT infrastructure on the cloud are valuable for IT departments. IT departments can work more closely with business leaders to develop new sustainability goals. It is favorable for companies, and of course, it contributes to a healthier environment.
Contact us for a no-obligation proof of concept. We’re here to help.
What Happens When You Need to Scale Your Business?
If you want to scale up your peanut butter factory, you get a bigger building, bigger hoppers, giant dehulling, and processing machines. It takes months, maybe years. But what if you’re not in the peanut butter business?
What if you run an architectural firm, a company in the travel industry, or even an up-and-coming animation or gaming business?Well, you don’t need the peanut processing machines, but you’re going to need serious computing capability. To get that computing capacity, you’ve got two choices.
Choice #1 – You can invest months and significant capital in on-site servers and workstations. Time will drag on while you get an IT professional to design the system, order the servers, install the servers, set up the applications, etc.
Even if you’re willing to put big bucks into on-site infrastructure, you won’t.
Why?
Because 2022 is all about flexibility.
Everything from 2019 to today has demonstrated that the companies that can scale up and down with the most speed and agility win the race.
The big deals aren’t going to wait for you to get your on-site IT systems up to speed, and you’ll miss out.
So, let’s talk about the better option.
Choice #2 – DaaS or Desktop as a Service
What is Desktop as a Service (DaaS)?
DaaS is a cloud-based workflow solution that gives you access to a virtual desktop in the cloud with your applications, operating system, and personal settings all in place. You can access your virtual desktop securely from any internet-connected device, regardless of location. Because all the computing power is in the cloud, virtual desktops can be set up or “deployed” for new employees within minutes compared to days and weeks with traditional, on-site infrastructure. Scaling back is just as efficient and straightforward.
But wait, not all DaaS solutions are the right fit for your company. Some offer more control and flexibility than others. Some virtual desktops demonstrate much better responses when using demanding graphic applications.
These clients need reliable access to intensive graphics resources worldwide, and performance matters. Check out IronOrbit’s DaaS solution called INFINITY Workspaces.
So, let’s get back to the question.
How Does DaaS Help Your Company Scale Up Faster?
1. Employees Can Use Their Favorite Device – BYOD
Because DaaS provides all the computing power within the cloud (including all the applications, databases, etc., that your employee needs to get work done), an employee can use whatever computer they have and like. How does that help you? Well, you don’t have to source, buy, and provide high-end desktops and laptops. Sure, if you want to buy your employees’ laptops, that’s great, but if you’re going to get things up and running quickly, BYOD will work as a temporary stop-gap measure as you scale up and wait for your laptop order to arrive.
2. Expand Within the Cloud
The cloud is the clear winner compared to sourcing, buying, installing, and setting up in-house servers. Because cloud solutions like those offered through IronOrbit are nearly infinitely expandable, you never have to wonder whether your infrastructure has the capacity to handle the next pro-growth project you need to tackle.
3. Scale Without Huge Up-Front Investment
Perhaps the most attractive feature of DaaS solutions is that you only pay for what you need, and you don’t have to spend money to buy infrastructure up-front. Monthly subscription payments make paying for usage only easy. Scaling up is simplified when you don’t have to develop CapEx funds to get it rolling.
4. Scale Up Without Cybersecurity Worries
One of the challenges of scaling up with on-site infrastructure is the security component. It takes time and a team of cybersecurity professionals to deliver 24/7/365 protection. In stark contrast, the IronOrbit private cloud has world-class security. That high level of security is a protective umbrella that keeps your data safe while you ramp up operations quickly.
5. Even if You Have Existing On-Site IT Infrastructure – Hybrid Scaling
Companies that have invested in on-site infrastructure sometimes get tunnel vision for scaling, but it doesn’t have to be an either/or question. You don’t have to choose either the cloud or your on-site setup. If you have existing on-site IT infrastructure and need to scale up a specific business area or need extra capacity, DaaS is your best friend. Employees can use their virtual desktops across the company network and leverage cloud computing power, thus diminishing the load on your on-site infrastructure.
6. Get New and Remote Employees Up and Running Quickly
For the reasons mentioned above – cloud use and BYOD – DaaS is the perfect solution for efficiently computing resources for new employees.
Whether your employees are all in the office or scattered worldwide, you can provide them with access to their virtual desktop and all the company resources they need to do their job. DaaS deployment for new employees is lightning fast compared to traditional, on-site infrastructure and computers.
7. Streamlined, Remote Management, and Configuration
Updates, upgrades, configurations, and compliance adherence protocols can be pushed out to all your employees’ virtual desktops quickly and easily, helping you move the entire company along without the usual hassle and slowdowns associated with IT maintenance.
Wrapping it All Up
Let’s talk about your company for a minute. If scaling means hiring more people and giving them the IT resources necessary to handle more work and bigger deals, then DaaS is worth your serious consideration.
It’s the best way to scale up your IT resources without wasting time, money, and opportunity.
Call us for a free consultation at (888) 753-5060.
Scaling up is the ability to take on increased workloads in a cost-effective manner and meet the demands of your business without suffering the negative consequences of overreaching.
Scaling up sounds like a fantastic idea. After all, who wouldn’t want to be able to handle more work, delivering more goods and services while leveraging economies of scale for greater profitability?
But the promise of scaling is often like an iceberg. What you see above the water (the work to be done) is nothing compared to the work lurking under the water. These are the challenges faced in scaling a business. Some companies get to a point where it is painful to add another client or bring on more talent. Scaling up seems like piling on more overhead for less reward. Revenue never has a chance to turn into profits.
Here are some barriers many companies may face as they ramp up their operations.
Scaling Up Too Soon
A good question to ask a good business consultant is, Is it too soon to grow the business? Any time before you have all the pieces in place and a strategy to scale is too soon. Is the market is ready to embrace and demand your products or services? Timing is everything. First, to go big into the market is sometimes a good idea, but sometimes not. Companies get eaten alive and never recover.
No Plan to Scale Up
Often the small to mid-size business fails in the efforts to scale for lack of planning. They have an objective and a vague notion of how to get there. Growth-minded companies might partner with that vendor or hire new employees. But all too often, a structured plan is missing. Having a strategy that guides the requirements, stages, and timeline for scaling is foundational for success. As a result, the timing is off, and the company is missing pieces of the puzzle. Frustration and failure soon follow.
No Understanding of the Difference Between Growth and Scaling
For most successful companies, growth came before scaling up. Taking time to grow allows SOPs to be established and perfected. Taking the time to grow enables hiring key people and building a solid reputation. These things are critical for financial backing to scale. Growth is a time to experiment and approve or discard strategic partners and vendors. Growth helps them understand the management and IT resources required for successful scaling. Multiplying processes and output without a substantial increase in resources is the foundation of scalability. Business leaders need to know if the company is prepared to scale up.
Unnecessary or Untimely Product/Service Additions
As soon as a company begins to have a little bit of success in their efforts to scale, they often become overzealous with their efforts to take over the marketplace.
They may move away from their core business too quickly and begin advertising products and services they are not prepared to deliver. Even if they can make a dollar on those tangential goods and services, they are taking resources away from what is central to their current revenue stream and their ability to scale.
Selecting the Wrong Partners & Vendors
Companies across the planet have learned the wrong partners or vendors can put companies at risk. Long supply chains and unproven vendors can have detrimental consequences on the delivery of goods and services to your customers, as well as injure brand reputations.
Avoid vendors and strategic partners who over promise and under deliver. There is no room for freeloading. Everyone has to do their part.
Lack of Internal Communication
Employees need to know the company culture and what is expected. Companies need complete buy-in from their workforce to scale up successfully. There also must be a strategy communicated internally. Along with the nuts and bolts of your well-laid strategy is a minefield of employee concerns, expectations, and emotions that you must address. If employees feel left out of the loop – or worse, insecure in their jobs – they will not be best positioned to support scaling efforts. Internal communication requires more than just a company-wide meeting or a series of internal memos sent out to senior staff. Instead, the business leaders must keep their finger on the pulse of how the staff is acclimating to the proposed and in-progress changes.
Verne Harnish’s book Scaling Upshows how to improve scalability. Scalability requires putting the right team together and then educating them on the growth strategies of the company. Articulate a clear vision for meeting future goals regularly.
The last decision Steve Jobs made was to build Apple University.
He knew that it would be the one legacy he’d leave behind so that his organization would thrive long after he was gone.
Cutting Prices
Once you’ve been able to leverage some economies of scale, there is often a temptation to cut prices to undercut the competition and gain more market share. “After all,” you think, “We’re still making the same amount on our goods/services.” While it’s tempting to cut your prices and try to push the competition out of business, the money you will lose is better saved and utilized within your scaling efforts.
Technology That Can’t (or Can’t Easily) Scale-Up
Whether you’re working with legacy systems that keep your productivity limited, or you’re working with on-site workstations and servers that are expensive and cumbersome to scale, your technology is limiting your potential. This roadblock used to be a nearly insurmountable one for businesses trying to scale on a budget. However, with advances in cloud-based IT infrastructure and Desktop as a Service, the financial hurdle considerations are lowered due to the cloud’s ability to scale with your business expansion. Companies across the planet have factored cloud computing ability into their scaling strategy and are successfully leveraging the flexibility, mobility, and cost-effective nature of cloud workflow assets.
As an IBM fellow, Jason McGee puts it, migrating applications to the cloud can deliver significant business benefits for companies of all sizes.
Failing to Create Long-Term Demand
Business leaders that fundamentally misunderstand the role of advertising and marketing often pin their hopes of scaling on the stop-and-go stutter-step of marketing efforts. While marketing strategy should always be a part of your scaling endeavor, it is not sufficient on its own to supply continuous, qualified customers. Instead, part of any scaling strategy should be a plan to grow market demand for your products/services. After all, you want them knocking on your door for what you provide; you don’t want to be chasing work constantly with ad campaigns.
Cash Flow and Credit
There is no way around it, scaling requires sufficient cash flow. Many organizations with a fantastic plan to scale launch that endeavor, only to find that their efforts are stymied by lack of on-hand cash or credit. In a recent episode of “What’s Up AEC?!” the Immediate Past Board Chair of ACEC National, Charles Gozdziewski warns about the cash flow aspect of scaling up too quickly. “I’ve seen small firms suddenly become part of a big project. They go from 10 people to 25 people and then they go bankrupt. They just don’t have the financing or financial knowledge to handle it.”
Each stage of your scaling strategy will require more financial backing, and that backing must be available at that stage or things begin to unravel. Setting yourself up for success requires ensuring that you will have the backing you need well in advance of your step to the next level of operational expansion.
Scaling up starts and ends with individuals. Make sure you have the right people in the right seats.
Quality Employees Instead of Quantity
Scaling starts and ends with individuals. Whether you are in a service industry or manufacture goods, your employees can make or break your scaling prospects. As much as anything else, scaling requires the right beliefs and behavior. Growth-oriented companies need people who are comfortable with change, who can move fast, and take ownership of tasks. In the rush to scale, companies often hire too quickly and find that they experience internal roadblocks to productivity because of the unqualified staff they’ve hired. Unfortunately, companies that are quickly ramping up delivery of goods and services often don’t have time for extensive employee training or the flexibility for employees to learn “on the job.” A resourceful HR team should be among your first hires to help ensure that your business sources and hires employees that can step in and do the work without handholding.
Ignoring Growth Pains and Fixating on Growth Pains
Whether leadership is determined not to let that “one issue” hold things back or fixate on that “one issue” to the detriment of other things that require attention, it still lands the administration in a difficult spot. On the one hand, small issues at one stage of scaling can become mountains of pain in the next stage of expansion. On the other, a fixation with a specific issue can lead to an unhealthy overemphasis on one aspect of the business, throwing everything out of kilter.
To scale, you must be aware of growing pains and be able to handle them appropriately without devoting all your attention and resources to those problems.
Micromanagement
Organizations with micromanagers at the top very often do not do well when it comes to scaling up operations. Delegating responsibility is an essential component of scaling an enterprise. A business leader must know their self well enough to see this tendency in themselves before it becomes an issue that derails the scaling process. Sometimes, it’s necessary to step into a different leadership role and allow someone that has delegation skills to fill that administrative slot. As you scale, so should your management structure. Finding the right role for you to play and bringing in the people you need to bolster your weaknesses is a sign of a good leader.
In Conclusion
Despite significant roadblocks to developing capacities to scale up quickly, there are multiple benefits for an organization to prepare itself for the likelihood of scaling up.
The challenges of scaling up are complex because scalability isn’t just about growth. It also has to do with its ability to be flexible, agile, and versatile. The same things that position the business for expansion are the same things that prepare them for unknown shifts in the market and unforeseen events like a worldwide pandemic. Preparedness is all about becoming proactive and being strategic with digital technology.
In a Forbes article from March 1, 2021, Paolo Gallo and Giuseppe Stigliano write, “Because of the dizzying speed of change today, fueled by this umpteenth acceleration, companies can’t count on their strengths alone to innovate. The CEO of a mobility services company reminded us how crucial it is at this stage to build eco-systems, resisting the temptation to reduce them to ego-systems. We have to collaborate with third parties to build systems in which the individual parts function as a single entity, in a more or less continual way to provide high-value-added services to final customers. Companies have to see themselves as fluid platforms, capable together of providing a value proposition that is exponentially bigger than what they could offer alone.”
In one of our previous blogs, we stressed the importance of componentization as a key ingredient to offering new digital value propositions. Taking the time to componentize offerings and build a solid digital foundation for your company will also position it for agility, flexibility, and growth.
The in-depth Deloitte Insights article, Putting Digital at the Heart of Strategy, goes beyond pointing out that digital transformation enables new growth opportunities. It indicates that those companies that don’t digitize in the next five years will be doomed.
Digitizing operations, a key benefit of cloud computing, improves an organization’s ability to meet sudden increases (or decreases) in demand.
Back when most of the IT experts of today began in the industry, the only infrastructure that was readily available and dependable was on-site servers and networks that were bulky, expensive, and time-consuming to manage and maintain. The last ten years have witnessed tremendous advancements in information technology. Now, IT engineers can design, develop, and implement a company’s entire IT infrastructure within a cloud environment in a fraction of the time it used to take. This good news isn’t just for the IT experts, but for the everyday business owners as well!
Because cloud infrastructure is readily available, you can take advantage of high-powered cloud computing through Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS). Although DaaS may sound complicated, it’s not. You can use any internet-connected device to access your operating system, applications, business data, and even your desktop settings.
What does that mean for your business? It means anywhere, anytime secure access to your company’s workflow. But that’s just the beginning of the high-impact benefits for forward-leaning companies that choose to leverage the power of Desktop as a Service.
1
Eliminates Grunt Work
Using a DaaS saves your IT department from having to do mundane grunt work such as application licensing, patching, and troubleshooting.
Outside of the fact that DaaS lowers your IT management cost by shifting that responsibility to the cloud provider is the fact that your organization has to spend less effort on maintaining your IT assets. Even companies that have outsourced their IT maintenance to a 3rd party still have a measure of IT housekeeping that they must do internally. DaaS makes IT maintenance and management hands-free for your staff – allowing them to be more effective and efficient in the tasks they were hired to do.
If you’re tired of employees complaining about their computers – or about the IT support – if you’re sick of doing endless updates, upgrades, patches – all to avoid the blue screen of death – DaaS is where you want to be. Most cloud providers offering DaaS have proven their ability to maintain their promise of 99.99% reliable uptime. That’s good news for your workflow and for your ability to focus on your work – not IT issues.
2
Data Redundancy
DaaS puts your company’s workflow in your hands instead of at the mercy of IT roadblocks, ransomware, or a natural disaster like hurricanes, fires, and tornados.
You don’t have to worry about a local network crashing – because there is none. It’s all in the cloud. You don’t have to think about losing data if your laptop dies – because your actual “computer” is virtual and all your data is stored in the cloud. Instead of having an operational IT system and a Business Continuity strategy backup system, you’re using your Business Continuity system every day in the cloud.
Since your data is stored at a secure facility offsite; or, in the case of IronOrbit, stored at multiple data centers, it is protected against onsite server failure or natural disasters. Having redundant backups provides a safety net. If a natural disaster impacts data center one, data center two kicks in automatically.
3
Increased Security
IT support teams in businesses take reasonable precautions to guard against cybercrime. These security measures cannot compete with the security technologies employed by cloud providers delivering DaaS options for businesses.
Critically DaaS shifts the security burden away from the individual device and places it within a data center infrastructure designed for the highest levels of protection. To put it simply, it would be cost-prohibitive for a small to mid-size business to hire even one IT security professional to protect their in-house systems to the level of a Tiered private cloud hosting partner.
Data is no longer vulnerable on a local device but held – and regularly backed up – in a secure hosted environment; it is also encrypted and can be made accessible only through multi-factor authentication protocols. The addition of a designated managed service provider also has its advantages. Systems are monitored 24/7. For example, a managed service provider can prevent someone from stealing data using a USB. That’s why enterprise-class organizations, the military, and the government are overwhelmingly looking to cloud providers to host their workflow. The security is there.
Muhammad Ali’s combination of his heavyweight body, speed, and reflexes was revolutionary and made his boxing style artistic. Ali said he needs to, “Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” In order to be resilient, companies need to do the same thing.
4
Enhanced Flexibility, Agility, & Mobility
We’ve already noted that cloud infrastructure along with new virtual desktops for your staff can be deployed in record time in comparison to traditional on-site IT setups. But that’s just a baseline. Consider the fluctuations of the marketplace over the past few years. The companies that survived and thrived were the ones most able to, in the words of Mohammad Ali, “Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” Companies need a high level of agility combined with decisive leadership that can act quickly. DaaS allows you to scale up or down easily, add or reduce capacity, and change directions on the fly if needed.
Once you’ve moved your IT system to a DaaS, mobility becomes much easier. Modern companies are flexible enough to have their employees work from anywhere and on any device of their choosing. To thrive in the new cloud ecosystem, companies will need every tool available to be resilient. Teams will have to expand and contract at a moment’s notice, and they will need to respond quickly to opportunities the moment they appear. DaaS is a building block that makes all of that possible.
Being agile and flexible enables organizations to pivot if need be to remain resilient. Mauro F. Guillen writes, in a recent HBR article, that “successful companies often pivot to a business model that’s conducive to short-term survival, and long-term resilience and growth. Pivoting is a lateral move that creates enough value for the customer and the firm to share.”
The focus is now on productivity, elasticity, and value to the customer. These are the main characteristics that will drive the proliferation of DaaS in business.
5
Reduces Upfront Costs
DaaS reduces enormous upfront costs. Imagine all the hardware you’d have to invest in just to get started. In-house IT infrastructure and computers have to be purchased and implemented with the next 3-5 years of business operations in mind. Recent events have shown that it is impossible to predict the next year much less project 3 to 5 years out.
Even during times of stability, it is often a challenge to budget for hardware replacement. CFOs have to also account for the depreciation of capital expenditures. From the moment you open the box on a new computer, the value depreciates. With many companies still in recovery mode, many are having to delay refreshes altogether, even at the risk of struggling with outdated technology.
DaaS provides the luxury of keeping IT aligned with workflows no matter how dynamic and volatile they may become.
Since DaaS is subscription-based, you’re renting equipment. This subscription-based model moves expenditures from a capital expenditure (CapEX) to an operational expenditure (OpEx). You’re only going to pay for what you use; therefore, if you use a lot, you’re going to pay more. Correspondingly, if you don’t use very much, you pay a minimum amount. This is a CFO’s dream come true because it streamlines operations in ways that lower overall operational costs.
CFOs love DaaS and other cloud-based solutions because of the budget predictability provided by packaged solutions but the fact that they can move CAPEX expenses into the OPEX column. This provides a range of financial and tax efficiencies. #1 in those efficiencies is that your company doesn’t have to pay a large amount of money for in-house servers and networks to be installed. And when your business grows, you don’t have to factor bigger, better servers (with bigger and better prices) into your budgets. Moving IT expenditures from CAPEX to OPEX gives you the flexibility to utilize your cash reserves for other, pro-growth initiatives. Having a fixed and predictable monthly fee certainly makes budgetary planning and forecasting much easier than the break and fix nature of on-premise servers or even in-house VPNs.
6
Energy Conservation Helps the Environment
You’re only one company, but you want to do your part for the environment – and you want your consumers to SEE you doing your part for the environment. Because DaaS allows you to use your devices for longer and to partner with eco-conscious cloud platforms, you can do your part for the planet without it costing you more to do so.
A study conducted by the Carbon Disclosure Project found companies that utilized cloud computing saved a total of $1.3 billion annually and reduced carbon emissions by an equivalent of 200 barrels of oil.
Just imagine the hardware and electrical power needs of even a small-size company. An organization saves tremendous amounts of energy by moving its IT system to a DaaS environment because no onsite servers are gobbling up massive amounts of electrical power. More employees working from home means fewer carbon emissions from vehicles traveling to and from work every day. When you start to consider the number of companies and the number of employees involved, the amount of carbon emissions is significant.
As our lives, work, and thinking turn increasingly towards protecting the climate, conserving energy by leveraging shared data centers will become more attractive and competitive. As this move to remote data centers matures, operators will begin to assess “greener” options for on-site power generation. Data centers are an excellent opportunity to integrate on-site energy generation facilities such as hydrogen applications, solar panels, or a combination of heat and power solutions (CHPs).
Marc Garner, VP of Schneider Electric’s Secure Power Division.
Marc Garner, VP of Schneider Electric’s Secure Power Division.The Vice President of Schneider Electric’s Secure Power Division, Marc Garner wrote in Data Center Dynamics, “Technology has become a key enabler for both businesses and consumers alike, and throughout 2020, dependency on digital infrastructure has increased dramatically. In fact by 2035, Schneider Electric estimates that all IT will consume 8.5 percent of global electricity – compared to 5 percent in 2021 – and data centers are expected to take up a large share of this demand. Many of today’s data center operators, from hyperscalers to cloud and colocation service providers, have already led the market by example, and publicly declared ambitious commitments towards Net Zero, adopting more sustainable approaches to digital business.
Microsoft, for example, has started transitioning to using renewable wind energy – a trend that will likely only continue to increase as awareness and demands for renewables from end-users and governments surge.”
Conclusion
Your business is moving into the future, whether your IT systems are ready for it or not. Using virtual desktops in a DaaS environment ensures you’re always working on the latest version of your operating system and applications. That in and of itself is a compelling reason to move to DaaS,
but that’s only the beginning. Consider that DaaS also gives you a built-in business continuity system. Because your data and workflow are securely housed in the cloud, you never have to worry about how much time, money, and lost opportunities you’d sacrifice if your company’s on-site server goes down.
As Gartner describes in a recent report, technologies utilized by organizations are increasingly conceptualized and implemented outside of the traditional outsourced IT department. Gartner found that the total business-led IT spend averaged around 36% of the total formal IT budget. Business leaders rightfully see digital transformation as an organization-wide discussion, and no longer the sole purview of the IT department.
This article categorized 6 key benefits for companies moving to DaaS. Depending on what priorities are driving your organization at the moment, you may be drawn to one specific DaaS advantage or another. Think about both short and long-term goals in your choice. You might consider DaaS to make hardware refresh more affordable in the short term but also reap the cost and business benefits delivered by DaaS as it has a deeper impact on the continued growth and success of your business long term.
VPN and hosted desktops Desktop-as-a-Solution (DaaS) are the two most popular remote workflow access solutions currently in use. One has been around for a while, and the other is comparatively new but quickly building momentum.
According to Future Market Insights, the DaaS market will grow at a CAGR of 18% from 2019 to 2029, while the global VPN market will reach over $107.5 billion by 2027. As more organizations look to these solutions, you must understand the differences between VPN and Desktop-as-a-Service —which is precisely what this post will help you do. You’ll learn the difference between VPN and DaaS, plus tips on how to where each might fit.
What are VPNs?
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) enable you to connect to networks across the internet securely. VPNs leverage advanced encryption, tunneling, and masking systems to create a secure internet connection between users and a network. As a result, make it extremely difficult for cybercriminals and prying eyes to access your data as it is transmitted across the internet, making them a popular choice for cybersecurity and privacy-focused businesses.
There are many benefits to using a VPN, including:
Obscurity – VPNs use encryption to conceal the destination of your data packets and prevent tracking.
Flexibility – VPNs are compatible across multiple platforms, and a single provider can offer the service to numerous devices and platforms, all from the same user account.
Getting past restrictions – VPNs are an excellent tool for accessing location-specific content or bypassing internet censorship.
While VPNs are cost-effective and with several attractive benefits, they aren’t without their drawbacks. Common VPN flaws include:
Performance – VPNs can slow down internet speeds due to encryption requiring significant amounts of bandwidth. This latency can impact the performance of databases and business software applications.
Risk – VPNs aren’t an all-in-one security solution and often provide a window of vulnerability.
Scope – Printing and scanning via VPN can be problematic depending on the type, size, and volume of your printing and scanning. VPNs also limit business assessing and monitoring capabilities.
What is Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)?
Desktops-as-a-Service or DaaS is a cloud-based service that securely delivers virtual apps and desktops to business devices or locations. DaaS delivers virtualization of desktops on high-performance servers packaged in a predictable and straightforward pay-as-a-go subscription model, making it easy to scale up or down on-demand.
Why DaaS?
In today’s business standards, teams expect to access and do their work from anywhere on any device. Business leaders look for affordable, simple solutions to deliver apps and desktops to their workforce securely. DaaS provides a practical managed solution for organizations like security and centralization on a pay-as-you-go pricing model. It simplifies operations by delivering desktops and apps securely to your workforce.
The top benefits of DaaS are:
Flexibility – Teams can securely access applications, remote desktops, and data from anywhere on cost-effective devices, enhancing productivity.
Scalability – DaaS further advocates for quick scalability for business applications and desktops when needed.
Business continuity– DaaS ensures safety and security for all business needs by offering a disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity plan. You get rapid recovery in the event of cyber-attacks
Cost savings – Only pay for what you use through monthly or yearly subscription allowing for predictable operational costs.
Security – DaaS provides a secure access point for users in the cloud. It ensures that data is securely stored and protected against data loss or theft.
Integration – DaaS provides seamless integration with modern-day mobile and desktop apps such as Office 365 and more.
Collaboration – Some DaaS offer the benefit of collaboration where users can manage their cloud services or choose a provider to manage it on their behalf, promoting productivity.
VPN Vs. Desktop-as-a-Service
VPNs and DaaS are both excellent remote support tools. Comparing them head-on doesn’t do any of them justice, as each operates differently with a few similarities. There are several reasons to choose DaaS over VPNs. VPNs are ideal for security and privacy. DaaS goes a step further to provide better remote support, more security, reducing costs, scalability, flexibility, and more benefits.
Next Step?
Discover more about IronOrbit DaaS Infinity Workspace solutions. From core to cloud to edge, we deliver hosted desktops services that enable nearly 20,000 global customers, including the Fortune 500 companies, to thrive in their ongoing quest to work remotely.
If you found this review helpful and want to adopt DaaS designed to support your agile organization, get in touch and book a demo today.
“The IronOrbit INFINITY Workspaces is ideal for professional graphics workstations used by engineers, architects, and designers across industries, from AEC to M&E to manufacturing. With Quadro performance from the cloud, on any connected device, professionals working from home can stay productive.”
Matt McGrigg, Global Director of Cloud Business Development, NVIDIA.
Future-Proof Technology Solutions
Fully customized, dynamic, modular, scalable, and secure Turn-Key solutions with GPU performance rivaling a physical workstation.
Digital Transformation →Workspace Virtualization
Business Optimization →Industry Optimized Solutions
Data Integration →Centralization and Management of Data
Hyperautomation → Adoption of AI and ML Technologies
Multiexperience →Implementation of AR and VR
Who We’ve Helped
Dant Clayton
Spending an average of $3,000+ on workstations, only having to replace them every 3-5 years just doesn’t work anymore. The cloud offers unlimited upgrading and no more hardware refreshes.
Giroux Glass, best known for its work on the Grand Canyon Skywalk, has established itself as one of the nation’s most respected glazing contractors since 1946.
“When COVID-19 started, we were able to provide latency-free workspaces to users with substandard home internet connections using IronOrbit. What started out as a move to optimize our business operations really ended up becoming a lifesaver for our organization.”
Mike Albitz
MSA Professional Services
“Even through using a hotspot on my phone, I can access everything I need. I was able to pull up a CAD drawing at a client meeting and we were able to look at it and get an answer right then and there!”
Jennifer Howe
SMMA & ACEC Massachusetts
“We deal with life and death issues. It’s critical for our IT environment to remain online and reliable. Especially now. We are grateful for all the hard work the IronOrbit team has done. They have really built us an incredibly stable network & virtual desktop system.”
IronOrbit Voted One of Orange County’s Top Work Places 2022!
A Few Reasons to Join the Team
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INFINITY
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The Benefits of Being Part of the Team
IronOrbit Team Members are highly motivated, highly intelligent individuals who are passionate about what they do. It’s only logical to provide the same in benefits.
Remote Work Positions
401(k)
Health & Dental Benefits
Paid Training & Education
Paid Time Off
Take Their Word for IT
We’ll let the team members speak for themselves.
Joining the IronOrbit Team is a great move both personally & professionally.
Jonathan Cruz
IT Support Specialist
“I enjoy the opportunity to help our customers have a pleasant experience with technology and ease their frustration when needed.”
Bobby Apodaca
Business Analysis & Planning
“I love working at IronOrbit because each day is unique & challenging. The technology’s fascinating and our team’s fantastic. It’s refreshing to be part of an evolving organization that enables and invests in its clients, employees, products, and services.”
Kristina Bond
Project Manager
“Working at IronOrbit is like family, working as a team to complete a specific goal.”
We deliver on our promises – and in the occasional times that we fall short, we admit it, take responsibility, make it right, and take all the necessary steps to prevent it from happening again.
Synergetic Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts
Our differences, rather than hold us back, make us stronger and more versatile as a whole. We collaborate effectively across groups and departments, working as one to demolish our goals and deliver consistent and ever-improving value to our clients.
Proactive Seek-And-Act, Not Wait-And-See
We always try to anticipate and resolve potential problems before they can affect our clients. We practice this in every area of our business – from development and operations to support and billing.
Innovative Always Improving & Evolving
We’re always looking for ways to serve our clients better, whether it’s becoming more efficient or developing new products or features altogether.
Reliable Results You Can Depend On
If you’re in need of service, we are never more than a phone call or email away. We’re here to help 24/7/365.
Empowering Helping Others Reach Their Full Potential
We believe in helping others to reach their full potential, whether they’re colleagues or clients. We do this through advice, training, technologies, services, or through delegation of authority – no cookie-cutter solutions here.
IronOrbit Was Created to Empower Companies Like Yours
Who We Are
IronOrbit is a privately owned and fully integrated Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Powerhouse. We are a Specialized Cloud Services Leader focused on planning, deploying and fueling Digital Transformations for major industries and verticals. IronOrbit innovates, develops, and produces comprehensive technology solutions, specializing in GPU-Accelerated cloud workspaces, for some of the biggest IT-related challenges facing modern businesses.
IronOrbit, is located in beautiful Anaheim Hills, California and was founded in 1997 as an MSP. IronOrbit evolved into a cloud solutions provider offering comprehensive technology solutions for more than two decades.
Our Commitment
to You
We’re committed to being your technology advocate.
We will listen to your needs and provide you with recommendations to help keep your company growing and your employees happy. Together we’ll succeed in reaching your goals.
The Values We Live By…We ASPIRE!
ACCOUNTABLE We Deliver, or We Adapt
We deliver on our promises – and in the occasional times that we fall short, we admit it, take responsibility, make it right, and take all the necessary steps to prevent it from happening again.
SYNERGETIC Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts
Our differences, rather than hold us back, make us stronger and more versatile as a whole. We collaborate effectively across groups and departments, working as one to demolish our goals and deliver consistent and ever-improving value to our clients.
PROACTIVE Seek-And-Act, Not Wait-And-See
We always try to anticipate and resolve potential problems before they can affect our clients. We practice this in every area of our business – from development and operations to support and billing.
INNOVATIVE Always Improving & Evolving
We’re always looking for ways to serve our clients better, whether it’s becoming more efficient or developing new products or features altogether.
RELIABLE Results You Can Depend On
If you’re in need of service, we are never more than a phone call or email away. We’re here to help 24/7/365.
EMPOWERING Helping Others Reach Their Full Potential
We believe in helping others to reach their full potential, whether they’re colleagues or clients. We do this through advice, training, technologies, services, or through delegation of authority – no cookie-cutter solutions here.
Just a Few of the Industries We’ve Assisted
AEC Industry
The IT Director at SMMA knew the entire AEC industry was on the edge of a digital transformation.
The UCLA Library service encompasses thirteen libraries spread across campus. IronOrbit was able to provide IT resources to a constantly-changing user base.
Brown & Weinstein Tax and Financial Group is a financial services firm with several Southern California locations. IronOrbit centralized and streamlined their entire IT infrastructure.
Complete, Long-Term Data Loss Prevention. Lightning-Fast Restoration. Full system snapshots, enabling rapid restoration. Best-of-breed RPO & RTO of as little as 15 minutes and 2 hours.
Enterprise-level security comes standard. Ensure compliance just by moving to the IronOrbit cloud. IronOrbit complies by default with PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX, and many other data control regulations.
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The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Hardware casings, cords, adaptors, and other electrical products are called E-waste. E-waste is a growing problem. Significant environmental damage happens because nature cannot absorb these products. E-Waste is a significant contributor to the haphazard disposal of old electronics: they’re inert. All E-Waste products contain hazardous materials of one kind or another. The toxic materials are predominantly lead and mercury.
On-premises servers and data centers use substantial amounts of energy both for running and cooling. The manufacturing, packaging, and shipping of the hardware and peripheral products also add to GHG emissions. Companies can reduce emissions considerably by moving to a cloud computing environment. Once a company moves to the cloud, they use shared data centers. Like the ones operated by IronOrbit, shared data centers run far more efficiently than individual facilities or on-premises servers. There is no longer a need for personal equipment.
