Virtuella skrivbord i kommunal verksamhet

Sammanfattning: Today it’s common that companies and organizations are facing several challenges and problems when it comes to making their IT-environment more efficient. Some of these are the management of user’s computers and file security. Comput-er users are often tied to their personal computer due to personal programs and files. Because of this users lack the mobility and flexibility to be able to work at different places within and outside of the organization.Virtual desktop is one of the offered solutions to these problems and comes with several possibilities. The virtual technique makes it possible to run several virtual machines on a few physical computers in the datacenter. Companies are still quite careful about implementing virtual desktops since it requires a small change for the computer users. They are also unsure how the users will be affected by work-ing with a virtual desktop. Mullsjö commune where the research was performed were interested in virtual desktops, they had a few hunches about what sort of possibilities one might gain by investing in virtual desktop. The IT administration wasn’t sure how it might affect their computer users, and they also lacked the time required to investigate how the computer users experience working with a virtual desktop. Because of these problems the purpose of this thesis was to study how computer users experience working with a virtual desktop and what sort of possi-bilities it can create for the organization. The purpose and research questions were broken down into several assumptions to make it easier to answer the questions that the thesis is built around.Initially a research took place at three chosen computer users and two IT adminis-trators to be able to retrieve information and problems that might exist. A litera-ture review was performed around virtual desktop. With the help of the collected information from the initial research a test environment could be set up, consist-ing of one virtual desktop per computer user. The computer users used their virtual desktop throughout a normal work day and were then asked how they experienced working with a virtual desktop. The experience of the computer users in Mullsjö commune turned out to be positive and didn’t bring any major adjust-ments in their work. Differences between the computer users existed that made them experience the virtual desktop and its possibilities in different ways. With the help of the literature review regarding virtual desktops, several possibilities could be compiled, e.g. the possibility to use older computers longer, increased flexibil-ity, increased security and the ability to reduce the costs.A summary is presented that consists of the results from the research of the expe-rience among the users and the literature review. The assumptions are being used to be able to compare the two results to see if they can strengthen each other. The conclusion of virtual desktop is that it most likely can be implemented without affecting the experience of the computer user and that it also will create several possibilities. It’s however important to involve the user and find out their needs.