Our customers are getting excited about cloud-hosted desktops or Desktops-as-a-Service (DaaS), but there seems to be a little bit of confusion with the idea of moving desktops to the Cloud.
There are quite a few myths out there and Rolta AdvizeX recently hosted a webinar with VMware that took on some of these myths to separate fact from fiction and reveal why IT departments and end users are praising DaaS.
1. You can’t do DaaS under Microsoft licensing.
Microsoft disagrees; there are in fact a number of licensing models depending on the DaaS model being used. Starting on December 1, 2014 Microsoft will offer user subscription licensing for VDA (Virtual Desktop Access), in which customers buy a VDA license for every user (employee) that needs to connect to the cloud-hosted virtual desktop.
2. Only shared session desktops can be used for DaaS.
VDI desktop (skin server OS or genuine client OS), shared or session based desktop, or published applications are all available for DaaS. Using VMware’s Horizon Air technology, you can mix and match desktop models and find the best use case for your organization which allows you to provide as much or as little as your end users need to get their jobs done.
3. DaaS is too expensive.
DaaS costs are actually more predictable with a fixed subscription price, no upfront costs, and less maintenance and hardware costs than traditional on premise VDI. VMware offers a standard model desktop at $35 per desktop per month.
4. DaaS delivers poor user experience.
The user experience is superior allowing you to access your desktop from any of your devices and start working exactly where you left off even from a different device.
5. DaaS security is lacking.
Using VMware’s Horizon Air, the base layers of security are handled by VMware, including datacenter security and built-in platform security. The top layers, virtual desktop security and end-user security, are client managed and Rolta AdvizeX will help you make sure yours are sufficiently secure.
6. DaaS won’t work with your onsite IT assets.
In reality, when your existing network is extended to include the virtual desktops, all IT investments will apply to your virtual desktops exactly as they apply to your physical desktops.
7. DaaS does not support the consumerization of IT.
DaaS actually enables the consumerization of IT. DaaS is delivered to any device, anytime, anywhere. DaaS allows users to work at the “speed of life.”
8. Migrating users to DaaS is hard.
The point of cloud is that it makes the hard easy and extracts the customer from the complex. Desktop management and support is provided by your own IT department and it only takes about three clicks to create a new virtual desktop.
9. DaaS requires lots of bandwidth.
Bandwidth use is comprised of the end user connecting to the cloud hosted virtual desktop (the fronthaul) and the VDIs accessing shared corporate resources (the backhaul). Bandwidth usage varies from customer to customer. VMware delivers pre-optimized protocols to improve performance.
10. The offline use case is a deal breaker.
This one is true. DaaS is not the right fit for users who work primarily offline.
How can you find out if DaaS is right for you? Talk to Rolta AdvizeX to set up a POC (proof of concept) cloud-based virtual desktop in your own existing environment where you can connect to your end users and applications. Rolta AdvizeX will help determine the proper use cases to test DaaS, integrate it into your environment, and roll it out to your end users. ▪