How Dell’s Desktop Virtualization Solutions for Government Allows Federal Agencies to Become Mobile

It seems Dell is capitalizing on its status as a top-20 federal contractor: with the help of its new acquisitions Wyse Technology, ActivIentity, and AppSense, it’s announced the arrival of a new end-to-end desktop virtualization program, Desktop Virtualization Solutions for Government, aka DVS-Gov. There’s a lot for Dell to gain. Desktop virtualization is a favorite when it comes to IT government business solutions, and there are always government-specific concerns about security, compliance, and dissemination across wide geographic scope — government standards can be notoriously high. DVS-Gov promises to provide desktop virtualization that addresses those concerns while effectively allowing government work to become lithe and mobile. Dell claims that with their help, federal employees will finally be able to telework from any properly-fitted device.

Security Concerns

Because increased mobility often comes at the expense of security, it will be interesting to see how employees receive Dell’s offering. There’s no doubt that even the government needs to keep up with the times; the current work environment favors mobility and flexibility, and the government has been coping with an increased demand for telework opportunities. Many employees must work from non-traditional office settings, and the ability safely utilize technology from those settings would be absolutely invaluable.

But when you have workers who need to access classified information from multiple locations – the so-called “geographic sprawl” of government agencies – the security challenge to IT government business solutions becomes very apparent, especially coupled with slashed IT budgets. The government needs ways to maintain their security without adding unnecessary costs.

Security Solutions

DVS-Gov is designed as an option for government agencies that provides for locational flexibility while maintaining tight control over security. It’s a fully end-to-end validated technology stack. The government has strict regulations for data access, and Dell has taken pains to meet their standards for certification, and to allow individual agencies to easily adjust their use of DVS-Gov to be compliant. Basically, DVS-Gov’s security settings are envisioned to be incredibly adaptable.

Dell has also designed DVS-Gov to be “hardware agnostic,” meaning that it can be adjusted to fit any hardware needs an agency might have. Plus, Dell has integrated control access card dual-authentication capabilities, as well as what they refer to as “context-aware security,” which allows individual administrators the ability to set very specific security rules, which can change depending on what is being accessed and where the access is occurring. And here’s where Dell’s IT government business solutions get inventive: settings for individual, place, and time can all be fine-tuned by managers, depending on, say, whether an employee is a contractor or full-time, or a visitor who needs access only once.

“Simplified” and “Enterprise”

There are two different versions of DVS-Gov: Simplified and Enterprise. In a nutshell, Simplified works for smaller locations, while DVS-Gov Enterprise is tailored to larger agencies that may be spread across a geographic distance. DVS-Gov will allow agencies to choose between a customer-managed and customer-directed approach, allowing them to choose between operating a Dell-designed system and building one themselves, with Dell’s support. Between Simplified and Enterprise, DVS-Gov will be able to serve a wide range of IT government business solutions (such as the ones found here www.terracloudinc.com/services/government-solutions/). Both are, of course, compliant with federal requirements.