can procure a word processing suite
will be to subscribe to a SAAS solution.
CLOUD SERVERS AND
WORKSPACE
Your Equipment/Their
Responsibility
This model is to put your firm’s hard-
ware in the hands of an offsite data
center and hand them the respon-
sibility of delivery of your selected
software solutions to your firm via an
internet connection.
INTERNET CONNECTION
REQUIRED
Like SAAS solutions, employing a
cloud server/workspace model re-
quires high speed internet service.
If you lose the internet, you lose ac-
cess to the server. The question is….
should you be concerned? On a daily
basis, probably not. But in those rare
instances where, for example, an act
of mother nature causes your internet
to go down for a period of hours or
days. What will you do? On the flip
side, most systems today nee d some
level of internet access.
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
When you employ your own cloud
servers and workspaces, you get the
benefit of anytime/any-
where access to your data,
but in some cases, you
must purchase the server
up front for a significant
price;
SHIFT YOUR CHANCES
OF SUCCESS
There are multiple "plat-
forms" upon which you
and your data center/ser-
vice provider can deliver
your data and software to
your desktops. The most
popular virtual desktops
today include Citrix®
XenApp and VM-Ware.
The former maintains
your traditional software
We understand the demands you face in today’s court of law.
in the cloud and allows
We are uniquely qualified to support you in the analysis and
you to log into one or
evaluation of your most complex financial disputes.
more applications from
any desktop connected to
the internet. It is virtually
invisible to the user that
Microsoft Word and Tabs3
skodaminotti.com/vlas | (404) 920-3099
are hosted in another
Akron/Atlanta/Cleveland/Tampa
city. VM-Ware delivers a
separate virtual desktop
to your traditional com-
puter such that you log in
to your local machine and then again
to the VM-machine for a complete
hosted desktop experience.
WITH SKODA MINOTTI’S
VALUATION AND LITIGATION
ADVISORY TEAM
16
November 2017
Challenges of Going
Virtual
1. Peripheral Devices: One of the cur-
rent challenges is the ability to use
local peripherals when your desktop is
virtual. Connections to local printers,
scanners, USB jump drives, etc., can
be challenging, but not insurmount-
able. This challenge is becoming less
and less difficult as time marches on
as virtual machine operating system
designers are continuing to work on
improving this functionality;
2. Cost: There are certainly companies
and firms that have saved money by
adopting desktop virtualization, but
the majority will not see any return
on their investment for at least a few
years. Like we hope with most invest-
ments, today’s investment is likely to
be tomorrow’s payoff.
3. Storage: As your firm grows, you
may face the added pressures of add-
ing storage (i.e. space to house data)
to the virtual environment at a cost
that we cannot, today, anticipate. Typi-
cally, the amount of space you have
on your servers today is compressed
in a hosted infrastructure, so it may
not be apples to apples;
4. Latency: The recurring theme in
this document is virtualization re-
quires a high-speed and reliable in-
ternet connection. And that connec-
tion must not only be robust (and the
more people you have in your office,
the more bandwidth you will need so
that your firm can maintain a produc-
tive environment), but it also must be
reliable. Waiting for a response from
the virtual desktop due to a slow or
unresponsive internet connection is
not only unproductive, but will eat
away at your efficiencies and profits;
5. Staff Reluctance: Get staff buy in
and feedback. Even when the technol-