PASI embraces virtual desktops for cost-effective IT

Oman’s Public Authority for Social Insurance (PASI) provides pensions and insurance against work-related risks for Omani citizens. The authority employs around 500 staff in eight offices throughout the country.

Because Oman is a large, sparsely populated country, supporting PC hardware and software in different office locations can be expensive. If an engineer is required to travel to an office to fix a problem onsite, the result is often lost productivity for staff and significant expense for the IT department.

The department also wanted a more effective way to administer and support its software, ensuring that licenses were correct and that staff could easily access their applications and information wherever they were.

PASI partnered with Citrix Solution Advisor Elite IT to develop a virtual desktop solution using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and NComputing thin-client terminals.

Systems Administrator Mussab Al Lawati explains, “We found Citrix more powerful than other solutions. It provides more options and features. Profiles and policies are very easy to manage, too.”

More efficient IT support and admin

“Support calls for hardware issues have reduced dramatically,” Mussab says. Thin-client terminals require relatively little maintenance. If a unit fails, it can be easily replaced, or the person affected can move to another desk.

Because information is now stored in the data center rather than on PCs, PASI’s information is always safe and secure, even in the event of a power failure or any other disruption. As Infrastructure Head Habib Al Lawati explains, “With the Citrix virtual desktop solution, we control data leakage and improve information security.”

The IT team manages the desktop and applications centrally from the data center so they are always patched, up to date, and correctly licensed.

Better productivity for staff

Faster support and reduced downtime helps PASI’s staff to stay productive even in the most remote office or if working from a different desk. Wherever they are, people can securely log on to their personal, virtual desktop and continue where they left off.

Citrix solutions optimize for areas of low bandwidth so that users always enjoy great performance. PASI’s IT team can also ensure that any resource-heavy applications are allocated with the necessary computing power within the data center.

Looking ahead

PASI is currently rolling out the virtual desktops across the organization, and people are enjoying the gains that come from a more reliable IT platform.