Global economic woes have already made a major impact on business strategy, and they’re expected to continue well into the new year. Reduction of capital and operational spending leads the list of tactics being employed to manage through the downturn, but there are others: mergers and acquisitions, whether voluntary or forced; site consolidation; and workforce restructuring through the use of contractors and outsourcing providers.

Inevitably, IT spending has come under scrutiny. Although IT functions remain critical, organisations require them to be carried out with tighter budgets and leaner staffs.  Beyond its traditional role, the IT team has become a linchpin in each company’s ability to navigate through the ups and downs of today’s volatile economic situation. With rapid shifts in business priorities, IT must be able to adapt quickly — scaling up or down, adding or removing users and sites — to keep the organisation aligned with market swings.

A watershed for IT
In fact, the next 12 to 18 months loom large as a watershed for IT. The current global business climate and existing challenges give you and your team a unique chance to shine by proposing and implementing solutions that will have a positive impact on the business — even when the economic slump is over. Right now, you have strong incentives to adopt cost-effective, flexible technologies such as server, application and desktop virtualisation in a holistic way.  Because these investments deliver fast, impressive returns, many executives are now more open to them.

Virtualisation technologies offer you some great moves to make today in preparation for success in the coming year. For example, server virtualisation can deliver impressive return on investment (ROI) in a short timeframe, while expansion of application virtualisation can significantly increase your organisation’s ability to accommodate cost-reduction strategies such as outsourcing, mergers and acquisitions, and telework. Desktop virtualisation, the latest innovation, is a new tool to reduce the costs of desktop management while allowing users to keep all the power and personalisation of their personal computers (PCs).

First, go deeper with application virtualisation
Many of you have already implemented Citrix XenApp™ application virtualisation solutions to reduce computing costs and complexity, and increase business agility. However, by enhancing a core XenApp implementation, you can significantly increase these advantages. One easy way to boost the cost and agility benefits of XenApp is to use it to virtualise and deliver all your applications, not just a few. An enterprise-wide virtualisation strategy lets you get the full benefit of centralised administration and avoid having to manage and support locally running applications. Application isolation capability makes it easy to run conflicting software on the same system.

Another way to expand your use of XenApp is to leverage client-side application virtualisation, or streaming. This feature enables applications to be delivered to client devices and run in a protected, virtual environment. For your IT team, streaming avoids application conflicts on the device and sharply reduces regression testing and administration. For your users, it enables flexible, offline computing with subsequent synchronisation.

If you haven’t yet adopted XenApp, keep in mind that application virtualisation is a critical aspect of the larger virtualisation picture. XenApp will enable you to deliver a single instance of an application in a hosted or streamed environment to users around the globe and manage it from anywhere. Application virtualisation is a cornerstone technology for today’s business agility and cost control challenges.

Other top moves you can make today

• Replace PCs with thin-client devices or new “disposables”
  XenApp delivers virtualised applications to just about any type of device. One way to reduce IT costs is to switch from PCs to more basic devices–after all, users still get the full functionality of their applications. According to Gartner, “Some companies will always want the latest devices with the best new features. But for those that can define work processes and job roles to operate within basic needs, a very low cost and more ‘disposable’ management viewpoint will become a possibility.”¹
• Add server virtualisation and 64-bit technologies for fast ROI
  Citrix® XenServer™, based on the open-source Xen® hypervisor, is a proven way to optimise your existing server resources while supporting critical business initiatives including business continuity. Server virtualisation lets you consolidate your datacentre around existing–or less–hardware, yielding immediate savings in equipment, administration, power and overhead.

  Further, by migrating to 64-bit servers, you can drive additional datacentre consolidation. At Citrix, the company reduced its dependency on the server hardware supporting the XenApp farms by 65 percent. This, in turn, has reduced power, space and cooling requirements.  

  If you already have 64-bit server hardware but are running legacy 32-bit applications in a XenApp environment, server virtualisation can help you get more value out of those powerful servers. Running multiple virtual machines on each server means you can support more users per box, and it’s extremely easy to scale up your environment or fail over to another datacentre.

  Finally, by choosing XenServer, you can save 35 percent right off the top, as the Citrix solution is less expensive to license than other solutions.

• Get PowerSmart
  One fast way to reduce IT costs is to leverage new functionality in XenApp 5. PowerSmart technology uses load balancing to direct users away from low-usage servers at certain times of the day so that they can be taken offline. This tool gives you the flexibility to supply power to just the boxes that are needed at a given point.
• Virtualise your desktops
  Desktop virtualisation is grabbing plenty of attention these days because it gives you the best of both worlds–thrifty centralised management plus high user satisfaction. This initiative will reduce the number of more expensive desktop devices, reduce the frequency of desktop refreshes and reduce the cost to manage and maintain desktop devices.  By assembling each desktop on demand and delivering it to the user’s device, Citrix XenDesktop™ simplifies desktop management, yet allows the user to leverage the personalisation and functionality of their familiar device. Additionally, when you combine XenDesktop with XenApp, you can simplify administration even more by delivering centrally hosted applications as part of the desktop.
• Try Software as a Service (SaaS)
  The SaaS model, in which software is delivered on demand instead of hosted and managed in house, can streamline IT by replacing cumbersome legacy systems. For example, moving to a SaaS-based customer relationship management (CRM) system could immediately save the salaries of the staff responsible for developing and maintaining internal systems.

  A subset of this approach is the use of productivity tools delivered as a Web-based service. Collaboration, remote access and remote support tools can allow your users to conduct meetings, demos and troubleshooting sessions with people anywhere in the world, thus reducing or eliminating travel expenses. Consider online services products such as Citrix GoToMeeting™, GoToWebinar™, GoToMyPC™ and GoToAssist™.

• Introduce a self-service initiative
  Certain IT activities can be provided in a self-service model, as many business users would welcome having more control of the applications they use. By managing some of their own changes, these users gain the freedom to complete them on their own timetable–and of course, that lightens your workload. At Citrix, a Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) program provides a stipend to employees to purchase a new laptop and a service plan. This enables users to choose their own device while reducing IT’s administrative burden, since the IT team no longer has to manage those devices.

As 2009 approaches, there is plenty of anxiety as organisations debate how to pursue their goals in the face of budget constraints and a volatile business environment. Unless IT teams can find ways to cut costs and do more with existing staff, there’s a real danger that it may become impossible to provide the basic services required by the business–let alone build new capabilities for the future. Yet this is an ideal moment to take some bold, proactive steps to simplify your approach to computing, and in the process, enhance the strategic value of IT. By adopting one or more of these “best moves,” you can make IT a stronger partner in business success for 2009 and beyond.  

¹”Radical  IT Cost Cutting for Business Transformation.” Presentation from Gartner Symposium ITXpo 2008, by Jorge Lopez, Oct. 12-16, 2008.

Read the Citrix blog: How can virtualisation help when the economy falters?