Computers are now as much a part of modern business as the electricity required to run them, yet they are treated, more often than not, in completely different ways. Computing as a ‘Utility’ is not a new concept and has been slow to establish itself, however, many organisations are increasingly recognising the benefits of commoditised IT.

There is a steadily growing trend for organisations to ‘buy in’ common services in much the same way as they would utilise any essential resource, such as energy or mains water. Software is already commonly supplied as a service, with applications, servers and maintenance all managed under contract by the provider.

ukngroup has taken this approach a step further and provides desktop computing as a utility. Desktop devices are supplied to the user, allowing them access to the range of corporate applications such as email, the web, accounting, databases or any other systems.

The transition over to utility computing allows in-house IT departments to free up resource from the time-consuming installation, maintenance and support of their desktop service - improving focus on business-critical systems and projects.

We have a dedicated team of technical specialists, project co-ordinators and service delivery managers who work to ensure continuous high levels of availability and performance. All of our installations follow PRINCE2 processes and the latest ITIL Version 3 framework of best practise.

Based around our unique Ultra Thin-Client desktop architecture, we can establish a fixed monthly per-user cost to include hardware, installation, support and maintenance. As the service provider we take responsibility for making sure each user has a working desktop device and is given access to the applications and data they require.

The benefits of switching to IT provided as a utility include cost-savings, increased convenience, security, flexibility and reliability. A solution will be engineered specifically to clients’ needs and becomes the simple, efficient means of providing employees with IT - the essential resource for powering productivity.