Ninety one percent of organizations surveyed have implemented desktop virtualization or plan to do so before the end of 2013 according to global research commissioned by Citrix. Of these organizations, 92 percent are adopting desktop virtualization to improve information security.

Senior IT decision makers at these organizations attribute three principal security benefits, namely more secure access to data from user devices, improved security of data and applications and simplified risk management, to desktop virtualization.

“Desktop virtualization delivers centralized control and management of desktops, applications and data delivered to any endpoint device. It also offers granular, policy-based access control and supports compliance requirements. It embeds an important infrastructure-level of information governance that enhances risk management, across information security and compliance,” said Kurt Roemer, Chief Security Strategist, Citrix.

Around 86 percent of senior IT decision makers believe that desktop virtualization offers a strategic approach to improved information security, regardless of whether or not they intend to use desktop virtualization within their own organization.

Of the senior IT decision makers who will have desktop virtualization in place at the end of 2013, 95 percent believe it is very effective at protecting information while providing workers with fast and effective access to the information they require. Nearly 97 percent said that they expect desktop virtualization to help their organization respond to new and emerging security threats.

At a device level, 74 percent envisage using desktop virtualization to instantly update an entire estate of PC and computing devices. Also cited as key benefits were immediate provisioning and de-provisioning of desktop access (60 percent), instant isolation of a compromised application (54 percent) and the ability to remotely wipe data from a computing device (32 percent).

Nearly 66 percent of senior IT decision makers cite the secure delivery of applications and data as a critical security capability that led them to implement desktop virtualization. Compliance requirements are also a key driver, with 61 percent citing access management and 53 percent citing activity monitoring, logging and reporting as important capabilities delivered by desktop virtualization.

“As desktop virtualization has matured, and been implemented by organizations around the world, there is increasing recognition of the inherent information security benefits that it delivers,” stated Roemer. “Desktop virtualization is now regarded as a strategic investment that forms a fundamental part of an organization’s IT infrastructure.”

Approximately 91 percent of senior IT decision makers implementing desktop virtualization said it is very effective at supporting compliance requirements and 89 percent also said such solutions protect against the exposure of private data and data loss.

Centralized, granular policy control enabled by desktop virtualization allows IT to handle compliance proactively by allowing an organization to develop an appropriate information security strategy for its own industry, business needs and risk profile.