Legal

Should I Buy Virtual Desktop as a Service (DaaS)?

By Albatross Editorial Team

Desktop as a Service is hosted desktop or Virtual Desktop (VDI) service that is provided by a cloud vendor. You pay the vendor monthly so that they host and maintain your access to your hosted desktops.

But should you invest in buying such a service for you yourself or your employees?

The answer is it depends. If you are looking for less complexity in deployment, minimized downtime risks, guaranteed support, better security and easier desktop management then you may want to consider buying Desktop as a Service (DaaS). Read further as I explain.

The size of your company

If you are a smaller firm that doesn’t want to buy hardware and invest in setting up VDI it sure can be a good option to look into a provider for DaaS. I say that because DaaS deployments can be very expensive to setup and a pain to maintain. You do not want to deploy a system that is not maintained, patched, updated and supported if there are issues. Running a system without proper maintenance is a recipe for disaster. Many companies learn this the hard way by deploying services and throwing a box underneath an employees desk, until to find out that mission critical data is on there and suddenly is out of reach to all it’s users. 

Do you want to avoiding Complexity and Risk

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployments can be very complex. Complexity means risk of things going wrong and therefore possible downtime. VDI can be complex because of all the various aspects of the solution that need to be planned correctly. For example, you have to plan for the right performance based on the number of users and workload per user, uptime requirements (redundancy and failover of servers in case something goes wrong), the different servers and the communication between them that deliver the solution has to be architected correctly this includes the gateways, session hosts, brokers. You also have to plan for licensing which can be very tricky. If you get it wrong you may be back charged for all the wrong licenses. You also need to do financial planning properly to avoid bad surprises. Going with a trusted Desktop as a Service (DaaS) alleviates all those risks because the cloud vendor would be handling all those aspects of the operation. 

Do you want a guaranteed support SLA?

Support of a system is a very important aspect that many companies overlook. Once a system is up and running, companies fail to plan for proper support of ongoing tech issues that may arise. This means you need somebody available around the clock to support you.  Even if you hire an IT staff to support your VDI, support may not be enough. First the IT staff may not be available at 3 AM, could be on vacation, or may leave the company. There are no guarantees on availability. The nice thing with Desktop as a Service Providers is that they often provide support SLAs. Say response time in 2 hours 24/7/365. This is a fantastic option if your company is running critical applications that you can’t afford to be down.

Security

DaaS can offer many security benefits over traditional desktops. 

Data Leaks

Data leaks is when data that belongs to your company leaks out of the company network. It may wind up on user’s personal laptops and devices which are often not secured properly. When those employees leave the company the data remains with them. These situational examples can lead to problematic data breach incidents that will need to be addressed quickly; Learn what to do when this happens here. DaaS helps prevent this issue by keeping all data on the hosted desktop because the user has not reason to download them locally.

Malware

Malware is a scourge to every business today. A malware such as a ransomware can literally steal all your data and prevent you from access it overnight. Your data could be completely gone. With DaaS hosted desktops the systems are often tightly locked against user pollution. Meaning that users can’t accidentally download and run malware because those systems are extremely secure. Secondly everything is backed up on those systems so even if a malware was to lock you from accessing your data all the data can be restored from a backup.

Easier Desktop Management

One other important consideration to start thinking about Desktop as a Service (DaaS) is how easy it can make your life as a business owner or IT admin as compared to traditional desktops. In the traditional model of desktops, if a new employee comes on board you have to buy them a new laptop or desktop put it on their desks and connect it ot the network. Then you have to enforce any policies on it. If something fails about it you have to change a part or drive, etc. All of that goes away with DaaS. Granting a new user a new desktop is literally just a few clicks away. You don’t have to ever visit the user’s desk to support them or add space or change a drive since it’s all in the data center centralized and virtualized. 

Conclusion

There are many reasons to consider Virtual Desktops through DaaS provider. When making your decision, make sure you study the alternatives which are "Traditional Desktops" and deploying your own Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution. Going with DaaS is definitely a good option with great vendors providing that type of product such as Albatross. If you'd like to gather more information about the benefits of VDI, how it works we've put together this Complete Guide to VDI here to help you learn more.

Hire Us to Manage Your Tech

With Exceptional Tech Support

24 / 7 Help Desk

Let's face it, downtime, hiccups and technical challenges are unavoidable in every business and they can be frustrating and downright costly.

Our Solution

  • Any time 24/7 access to live person that can help
  • Proficient help desk staff means quick resolution
  • We are very friendly
  • Dedicated consultants that understand your environment

Software Challenges

  • Every small business relies on a handful of software to operate smoothly  (Outlook, Office 365, G-Suite, MS Office, Word, Excel, Adobe Acrobat, Cloud Software, QuickBooks)
  • Software needs updates, can be buggy and just simply doesn’t always work
  • Employees may need a hand in getting something done (exporting printing as PDF, shrinking an image, etc.)

Our Solution

  • We manage your software 
  • Your users can open tickets and we can help them live 
  • Software updates are all done by us

The Challenge with Laptops

  • Computers Break
  • Laptops get lost or stolen
  • Need to be replaced periodically and requires budgeting and installations costs

Our Solution

  • Desktops are Automatic and cloud based
  • No desktop or stolen laptop issues
  • Hardware is seamlessly upgraded
  • Performance is guaranteed

Malware is a Real Problem

  • Small Business are infected by viruses and malware at unprecedented levels
  • Malware can cost you money to fix if you are lucky to recover your data
  • Data leaks and breaches can put you out of business

Our Solution

  • Our seucirty packages are standard and include anti-malware
  • Employee controls are in place to prevent installation or download of malicious software
  • We are fast at identifying and responding to incidents to minimize any damage
  • Backups are automatic with every plan so you will never lose your data.

The Challenge with Printers

  • Printers run out of ink
  • Printers suddenly stop printing
  • Printers fall offline

Our Solution

  • Our staff is on standby to support your printers 24/7
  • We identify root causes to printer issues to avoid recurring problems.

Vendor Challenges

  • Too many tech vendors to manage (ISPs, Software vendors, hardware, apps)
  • Creating tickets is time consuming and frustrating process
  • Many issues are left unresolved with vendors because of poor support

Our Solution

  • We provide 24/7 support on your vendors
  • We open tickets for you and follow up till resolution
  • Our existing relationships with vendors allows us to efficiently navigate the vendor support process

Employee Management Challenges

  • Employee on-boarding is time consuming (emails, desktops, software) all need to be setup for new employees
  • Employees may encounter issues with access, logins, password. Their downtime can be costly
  • Departing employees require data to be transferred, laptops returned, accounts locked, etc, passwords changed

Our Solution

  • Our cloud option provide quick user setup for new employees meaning quick employee on boarding
  • We lock down the employees that leave and document the changes made

The Need for Monitoring

  • Monitoring is an essential component of any technology-dependent small business
  • Small businesses don’t usually invest in monitoring although it is a key component in preventing issues from happening (such as disk space, updates, high CPU pegs, and other connectivity issues)

Our Solution

  • Monitoring is built into our service, therefore you don’t have to plan, invest or worry about setting things up
  • Monitoring means smoother business operations, we reach out to you before a problem occurs

The Audit Challenge

  • As a small business owner, it is important to be able to prove accountability for compliance or employee reviews
  • Today’s small business don’t have any insight into who is doing what on the system and lack of visibility can mean higher risk

Our Solution

  • Our system is equipped to log every user’s account access from email access to desktop log-ons
  • We can provide you with reports that you need 

Learn about Legal Workspaces