James Brummett, Technical Director, and Greg Lubben, Desktop Engineer, were in the process of implementing a VDI project with VMware Horizon View 5.2. The primary objective of their VDI project was to provide a consistent and reliable desktop experience where users can access everything they need, anywhere they are, and from any device. “First and foremost it was about significantly rethinking and improving the care provider experience,” said James. “Centralizing our desktop delivery also allowed us to securely manage company data from within the data center and ensure adherence to standards.” Delivering secure and managed desktops in the hospital environment has unique challenges: staff use machines interchangeably, travel throughout and between campuses, and multiple logins were required within a single clinical workflow. In the midst of their VDI implementation, James and Greg found that Windows logon times were excessively long, which would create frustration and reduce the productivity of their clinical staff. “We knew that long logon times are unacceptable in a hospital setting,” said James, “In our VDI sandbox we found that initial Windows logons were taking as a long as one minute and thirty seconds - which would have derailed the success of our VDI project.” With clinicians traveling in and out of the hospital on a daily basis, it was critical to manage application variables based on location. Controlling printing is a particular challenge in the healthcare environment. As nurses travel throughout floors, for example, their printer settings must adjust with them, ensuring documents are printed at the nearest printer rather than the last printer used. When mistakes were made, confidential patient information could print somewhere else in the organization.
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