Thomson Reuters in major virtual desktop rollout

Thomson Reuters is rolling out virtual desktop access, based on VMware technology, to 10,000 employees.

The news and data giant said it was making the move in the interests of simplifying its IT structure, allowing centralised management, and cutting the total cost of ownership. A significant number of the users involved are call centre staff.

The company is using View 5 and Vsphere 5 from VMware, for virtual desktop management.

Andrew Haschka, enterprise architect at Thomson Reuters, told delegates at today’s IDC Desktop Virtualisation Conference in London.

“It just makes the desktop setup much more simple. It will also allow us, in our new site in Bangalore, to be completely virtual,” he said.

He said that the “reduced hardware and software costs, and reduced power and cooling”, combined with “easier centralised management and better automation”, were major points justifying the project.

Desktop virtualisation also provided a “consistent interface for all regions globally”, he said, as well as centralising security.

The company has rolled out the systems to four production sites, and has two key disaster recovery sites.

But Haschka advised other firms considering desktop virtualisation to remember the challenges involved. “You have to think about the potential consequences on infrastructure management, as well as the different costs you are likely to have and how the company prioritises capital and operational budgets,” he said.

“And be aware of perceptions – it is not a like-for-like replica of having a PC,” he added.

In other Thomson Reuters news, in December chief executive Tom Glocer announced his resignation a month after he expressed serious regret for the fast pace of the company’s troubled billion dollar market desktop switchover.

And last week, arch rival Bloomberg revealed a major step to make public its market data API, allowing free access for software firms and traders that want to build their own data provision systems.