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.