Managing BYOD Challenges with DaaS

A guest blog from Desktone partner NaviSite

It seems like every day there’s a new article, blog, or tweet talking about the move by enterprises toward Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or the push from employees for enterprises to adopt it. On Thursday, June 21, members of my team joined the discussion via a NaviSite and Desktone webinar entitled, “Embracing BYOD with Desktop-as-a-Service.”  During the session we discussed why BYOD had recently gained so much popularity and what the biggest barrier to adoption is by IT staffs -- that pesky ‘s’-word, “security”.

In this incredibly connected and mobile world, with personal and professional lines always blurring, IT, security and compliance personnel in businesses of all sizes are worried about securing their data. The concern with BYOD is that by not owning and controlling these devices, IT won’t be able to fully protect enterprise assets. But thanks to the maturing of desktop virtualization technology, this concern may no longer be that big of a barrier.

Below are the most commonly asked questions regarding how desktop-as-a-service can help organizations with their BYOD initiatives from the end of the webinar:

1. Can my hosted desktops get access to shared IT resources that might be on the corporate network (i.e.: file storage, printers, etc.)? We have patented technology to extend your network into our cloud providing complete secure access to all internal IT assets such as storage/data, active directory, and applications. The same files and data that your traditional, corporate owned laptops and desktops can reach can also be reached via a virtual desktop.
2. How much control does IT have over permissions, movement and storing of data, printing, etc? Through an easy to use management console, coupled with the ability to fully customize the virtual desktop, IT sets user permissions that can control just about all aspects of application installation, data movement, printing, etc. This function also allows you to lock down data so data so only pre-determined employees have access to it. The virtual desktops are in complete control of IT no matter the device being used to access the environment.
3. Is this a full desktop or shared? It is a full, customizable Windows 7 desktop. End users will see no difference in their cloud-hosted desktop from their current Windows 7 desktop. Others who claim to offer desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) are often only delivering terminal services or Citrix XenApp as a service. That technology only enables users to share desktops so performance is unpredictable and end users cannot install applications or customize which is unacceptable for enterprise environments.
4. What devices or end points can I use to access my desktop? The beauty of DaaS is that it can run on any device anywhere including:  PC’s; Laptops; Thin clients; PC’s; Mac’s; iPads; Droid devices; and Chromebooks. Typically customers will repurpose current PC’s and make them access devices to save money. If they need to buy new devices they often for thin clients because they are much cheaper upfront and to manage. In addition they last longer because they are not doing any compute.

If you missed the live webinar, check out the recording of Embracing BYOD With Desktops as a Service.