Virtualization & sustainability: How VDI helps our planet

Virtualization is the key that will make our world of 1 and 0 much more sustainable. Let’s look for a straightforward example that will help us illustrate this statement. What is the difference between using a plastic credit card and the one we can have in virtual format on our mobile? Which of the two is more environmentally friendly? How much plastic would we eliminate if all the cards were virtual?

Now, let’s scale up the example and translate the concept of virtualization into the world of desktops (VDI) and servers. What happens when our company decides to virtualize the infrastructure? What if we also choose to provide our users with a virtual desktop? Well, it happens, among other things, that the planet applauds and breathes with relief because, with our decision, we have reduced the carbon footprint of our company and the impact of our activity on the territory.

Allow me to leave aside other enormous benefits that virtualization entails for the business fabric, such as improvements in cybersecurity, ease of scaling infrastructure, optimization of response time to an incident, increased productivity, and the reduction of operating costs… And all this focusing solely on virtualization’s positive impact on the care for our planet.

Let’s start with the most important and obvious: when we virtualize, something physical disappears. Let’s think about the previous example of the credit card or our data room, which is a martyrdom for companies because it always has to be cold, neat, with an uninterruptible power supply, safe… Virtualizing our infrastructure implies reducing, if not eliminating, our server room with all that this entails.

What if we virtualize users’ desktops? Will we have any benefit? Of course, because, among other things, we will be extending our devices’ life since expanding virtual desktops’ capabilities is very simple. Still, in addition, we will be facilitating the implementation of BYOD policies that are increasingly demanded by users, especially since remote working arrived. Desktop Virtualization allows us to dodge planned obsolescence and better use our resources.

In case there were any doubts about the power hidden in the virtualization and sustainability binomial, let’s see how this technology is fully aligned, to different degrees, with the famous Sustainable Development Goals. We can identify the fit of virtualization in seven of the seventeen headings of the SDGs. Specifically in: 4. Quality education, 7. Affordable and clean energy, 8. Decent work and economic growth, 9. Industry, innovation, and infrastructure, 10. Reduction of inequalities, 11. Sustainable cities and communities, 12 Responsible production and consumption, 13. Climate action.

So the next time we have to make a decision that affects the renewal of our devices, let’s put into the equation everything that virtualization, and more specifically VDI solutions, can do for the planet and remember that caring for our common home is everyone’s responsibility. So let’s virtualize to be more sustainable.

Author: Jorge Alonso, CIO at Velorcios Group, Virtual Cable Gold Partner & UDS DaaS Partner.