Liberate Your Team With CSC Anywhere Desktop

The latest buzz that desktop virtualization is the future of computing is proving to be true for CSC and our clients.

CSC's global business process outsourcing (BPO) operations, which manage nearly $9 billion in business for insurers and lenders, began the move to virtual desktops in 2008. With the initial rollout at three locations, the payoff was immediate for our clients - centralized management of their data and a higher level of protection against loss and theft. Desktop virtualization is also proving to eliminate a significant amount of waste - and it's more than just saving public landfills from an onslaught of junk PCs.

Thin is in

CSC Anywhere Desktop, one component of CSC Virtual Desktop Services, combines efficiency and security with all the benefits of thin client computing. CSC's rollout of more than 2,500 CSC Anywhere Desktop devices, powered by Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Sun Ray thin clients at 17 worldwide locations, is easing the burden on IT support, lowering energy consumption and improving staff productivity. Employees can now support BPO clients from anywhere.

Our BPO operations give financial services companies a way to reap the benefits from a virtual desktop environment, in addition to outsourcing back-office processes. We offer the CSC Anywhere Desktop as a managed service, or for companies choosing to keep support in house, we provide consulting services for planning and execution.

The concept behind the CSC Anywhere Desktop is simple. Users insert a smart card and enter a secure password to gain access to a fully functional computing environment not much different than their own PC. Since the thin client is managed centrally from a data center, all application processing and storage remain secure on the central infrastructure.

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Working anywhere, anytime

For Verlin Frye, who manages CSC's insurance BPO operation in Nashville, Tenn., one of the biggest benefits of deploying the CSC Anywhere Desktop is cost savings. "In a PC environment, our typical unit refresh is three to five years at an expense of $600 to $900 per unit," Frye says. "The thin clients are running about $250 per box and the shelf life is about 10 to 12 years."

With the data residing on a central infrastructure and fewer headaches related to keeping PCs running, the CSC Anywhere Desktop is also lowering costs for administrative overhead and desktop support.

Another key benefit is increasing staffing options. "CSC's use of the Sun Ray thin client as one of CSC's Virtual Desktop Services gives us the option of allowing more employees to work from home," Frye says.

The CSC Anywhere Desktop is an optimal home sourcing solution security-wise, because no confidential data resides on an office laptop or home PC. It also delivers numerous business continuity and disaster recovery benefits. For example, during a natural disaster, employees could move their thin clients to their homes or temporary office locations. Also, if power is disrupted, thin clients come back online much faster than PCs.

Going Green

In these eco-responsible times, the CSC Anywhere Desktop provides an alternative to power-hungry PCs. Frye says his team's old PCs were drawing around 150 watts of power apiece, and the thin client devices use only about 4 watts each. This decrease in energy usage is not only lowering operating costs, but also helping to save nonrenewable resources.

Going virtual is part of an overall trend among global corporations to find ways to do more with less. Desktop PCs inherently waste computing power and storage. The typical employee uses only about 20 percent of his or her computing capacity, but in a virtual desktop environment, there is no waste because all computing capacity is centralized and apportioned as needed.

Taking the industry virtual

In addition to deploying thin clients, we're using consolidated virtual server, storage and network systems in the data center, and deploying secure desktop software to enable global reach of common applications and information.

During the deployment in Nashville, Frye's IT team simply copied the users' hard drives to the central infrastructure and issued smart cards. The next time the employees logged on, they saw the same desktop they had been working on before.

Building on a relationship that spans more than 20 years, we have teamed with Sun to offer the CSC Anywhere Desktop to clients in financial services - and other industries.

"It's really the latest chapter in a well-established trend toward consolidation and virtualization of computing capacity," explains Brian Wallace, chief technology officer for CSC's Financial Services Sector. "Companies have achieved huge savings by consolidating data centers and their server and storage infrastructure, and the desktop is just the next frontier. More importantly, appropriate deployment of virtualization enables concentration of critical information into data centers, improving compliance and control."

Fortunately, the CSC Anywhere Desktop is reaching the market at a time when organizations are focused on cost control and efficiency. "Virtualization appeals to companies with global operations concerned about creating a more secure but flexible operating environment," Wallace adds. "It's ideal for supporting shared workspaces, such as call centers, but it also gives employees the freedom to seamlessly move work from the office to remote locations and back again."