We are technology innovators at Access IT Automation, but there is something associated with this label that has never sat well with me – the expectation to always be an advocate for the latest tech and digital approach.
“Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade – we have to!”
“Artificial Intelligence? Let’s do it!”
“VDI and the cloud? Yep, go for it!”
Really, though?
In this blog, I’m going to focus on a specific area – the best IT infrastructure approach for enterprise organisations. Should you continue following the cloud infrastructure evangelists, or is it time to revert to a physical-first strategy?
The points in this blog also speak to a wider issue. Here’s the summary: at Access IT Automation, we’re not just technology innovators. We are technology AND business process innovators.
If the latest and shiniest new tech makes business sense, we’re all-in and we’ll automate the heck out of it to maximise your return on investment. If the best approach is staying with what you have or something not quite at the “cutting edge”, then we’re all-in on that too. And you know what, we can still automate the heck out of it, maximising your return on investment. And we’ll use our expertise to help you make the right decision for your business.
So, let’s get going. VDI or physical devices: which is the right approach as we head into Q3 2025?
It’s a Question of Costs
That heading might fall into the devil’s advocate category, so let’s start with the positives. And there are a lot, as both stateless and stateful VDI offer significant benefits to enterprise organisations. The ability to connect to desktops from anywhere is high on the list.
Another often-cited benefit of VDI, however, is currently on much shakier ground – cost. At the time of writing, we are in an era of change and uncertainty when it comes to the cost of VDI, with many of the biggest and respected vendors increasing their prices.
As a result, and after reviewing their position, many large firms made the decision to move users to Microsoft Cloud PCs (Windows 365). Others opted for Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) either in Azure or locally.
A variety of reasons prompted companies to make these changes, but reducing costs was often one of the main motivators.
What many enterprises are now grappling with is the fact that Microsoft’s solutions can also become costly depending on the specifications of the machine builds and the volume required. With the ongoing expansion of AI solutions, machine builds can include specific GPU and NPU chip set requirements in addition to Windows 11 with TPM 2.0 security technology.
Crunch the numbers, and the cost savings of VDI can evaporate when you add everything up.
And if a high-spec NPU chip is in the machine build specification, physical devices might be the only option.
Is VDI Really the Way Forward?
So, is staying on physical desktops and laptops the solution?
It’s a critical question, especially if your organisation already has the resources and infrastructure in place to manage physical assets. Many large organisations do, either as physical devices or VDI jump boxes.
Looking forward, you need your devices to meet the specification requirements of Windows 11 and, potentially, the specifications needed for AI applications. That means replacing many physical devices.
Do you:
Refresh your physical devices for higher spec machines to be used as jump boxes to VDI?
Or…
Revert back (or stay with) a physical device infrastructure, cutting the subscription costs of VDI in the process?
The Predictability Issue
Predictability is one of the considerations when thinking about the above question. In the past, one of the selling points of VDI was cost certainty, i.e., with a fixed monthly cost, the spend was predictable, so you could plan.
Recent subscription increases and the potential of further increases in the future have wiped out that certainty.
On the flip side, depreciation calculations for physical devices are well-established.
In summary:
- Physical devices are low-cost to purchase
- Depreciation is both predictable and acceptable
- Physical devices are easy to manage, as the infrastructure is already in place
Path Forward: Focus on Personas
We are seeing organisations that previously moved to a cloud-first strategy switching back to a physical-first strategy. This could be another wave in the ever-changing cycle of physical versus virtual.
Our advice is not about physical or virtual. Instead, we focus on personas, concentrating on getting the balance right and mitigating risks.
Focusing on personas involves considering application usage and the requirements of users to understand what will work better (physical or virtual) and the costs involved. Decisions can then be taken on a persona-by-persona basis.
It’s not physical or virtual. Instead, personas, performance balance, and risk mitigation are the way forward for enterprise user device management and cost optimisation.
