The virtual desktop; East Africa needs it

In our region, technology comes in very handy especially when it saves the little cash our economy holds. Virtual desktops and cloud computing are new related technologies that will help us save initial office automation costs, help us share available resources and enhance corporate security.

For colleges, schools, Cybercafes, BPO's and SME's it is now easier to acquire computing resources for our users. The technology saves space and initial capital at the same time. Traditionally every user required to have a CPU, monitor and other accessories, Today all a user needs is a monitor, mouse and keyboard. The CPU's are shared by up-to 30 users across a local area network. The CPU or server will require more computing power but the cost of this is much less than buying CPU's for each user. The space occupied by CPU's in cybers' will now not be needed and instead of buying computer tables for furniture all a cyber will need is a table for the monitors and keyboards.

You will also make savings on Microsoft and other software licences as CPU handling 30 users will have one licence instead of licencing each user.

However, more bandwidth is required for proper cloud computing especially in large corporate network when the user resources and transfered to a central point.

But either way, East Africans need to learn, use and gain from this new technology.