Desktone allows enterprises to choose the Desktops as a Service™ (DaaS™) operational model that best suits their business.

With the Desktone Virtual-D Platform™, enterprises can consume DaaS in either hosted / cloud (where the physical infrastructure resides in the service provider data center) or managed CPE (where it is located on a customer‘s network) scenarios. In both cases, the service provider owns and maintains the physical resources, and the enterprise manages their virtual desktops. User identity, applications and data remain inside the enterprise. However, because all virtual desktops are centrally hosted, users can access their environments from any device, anytime.

Companies that have more distributed, global infrastructures or that are highly regulated, such as healthcare and financial services organizations, may prefer Desktone’s managed CPE DaaS model, where the physical infrastructure that powers the virtual desktops is located on the customer’s network. Businesses that are more centralized or that have less data center capacity may opt for Desktone’s hosted DaaS model.

Paving the Way for Viable Hosted Desktop Computing

The concept of centrally hosted desktop computing is not new, as evidenced by the ASP models of the 1990s. However, in the past this type of model was challenging because it required outsourcing application management and licensing, which wasn’t feasible, and it necessitated outsourcing data storage to the ASP, which was a significant security concern.

Machine virtualization has helped to eliminate these concerns by allowing the client operating system and its application stack to be managed and licensed by enterprise IT, while the platform powering the individual virtual desktops is hosted by a service provider. It also allows data storage to be maintained in an enterprise’s existing data center, which alleviates data security concerns. In addition, advances in connectivity allow virtual desktops to be hosted in the service provider data center while the back-end of applications and related data are stored and managed securely in the enterprise data center. In essence, the service provider data center can be thought of as a highly available and secure branch office. In addition, enterprises can use their existing management technology and processes to maintain their client images and applications.