Desktops as a Service® (DaaS®): Realizing the Benefits of VDI while Dramatically Reducing the Costs

Managing traditional desktop environments is incredibly challenging and costly for enterprise IT departments. Handling installations, moves, adds and changes (IMAC), and implementing desktop security measures – particularly in geographically dispersed organizations – require time-consuming procedures and many desk-side visits. In addition, dedicated desktops are typically underutilized, resulting in low ROI for desktop assets. And IT staff often can't provide the responsive service that local and remote end-users demand because of helpdesk backlogs and the inherent challenges of servicing mobile users.

The Desktone Virtual-D Platform™, which integrates all desktop virtualization layers within a single, automated, self-service environment, helps enterprises eliminate these challenges. It turns desktops into a subscription service delivered by service providers – dramatically simplifying and driving the costs out of desktop computing. The benefits to enterprises are substantial:

• Dramatically reduced desktop TCO: Enterprises reduce capital expenditures and shift computing costs from fixed to variable, since they no longer own or maintain the physical assets needed to support DaaS. With Desktone-enabled DaaS, desktop costs are reduced by 25-35% per desktop per year due to reduced IMAC and helpdesk labor, and low-cost client devices that have longer lifecycles and require less power. Data center costs are also minimized because there is no need for hardware, rack space, floor space, power or cooling to support a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
• Improved manageability and flexibility: Because enterprises do not build the virtual desktop infrastructures themselves, they can quickly deploy and scale virtual desktop environments, even to remote locations. IT can deliver best-fit desktops, providing the most efficient desktops tailored to specific user needs. Desktone's DaaS solution also makes it easy for enterprises to handle many critical projects that, until now, have consumed tremendous time and resources: creating hotelling environments for end-users, transitioning end-users to employee-owned PC models, rapidly deploying desktops in new offices, and initiating effective desktop disaster recovery plans.
• Enhanced security and compliance: DaaS secures access to physical desktop assets and data by virtualizing those resources and centralizing them in the data center. In addition, increased visibility into license usage helps enterprise IT easily and accurately renew enterprise license agreements.
• Improved end-user productivity: IT improves service-level agreements with end-users, providing employees with reliable, always-instant-on desktops that they can access from anywhere, anytime – without burdening the helpdesk.
• Reduced environmental impact: Enterprises minimize the impact their IT infrastructures have on the environment. Traditional PCs can be repurposed and used for longer periods of time or replaced with thin clients that require almost no support and which consume much less power. In addition, because the physical resources needed to support DaaS reside at the service provider, enterprises don't have heavy requirements for DaaS-related cooling and power in their data centers.