Linking Enterprise and Service Providers to Enable Desktops as a Service
The Desktone Access Fabric links the two separate worlds of the enterprise and the service provider. The Access Fabric is a set of distributed services that provides the association between authorized users and their virtual desktop infrastructure. It allows service providers to use Desktone Virtual-D Elements as building blocks in highly scalable, geographically dispersed virtual desktop utility grid to deliver desktops as a service (DaaS). It knows how to route users to the correct Virtual-D Element where their virtual desktop resides.
The Access Fabric provides for user authorization, integrating with Active Directory and single sign on technologies, and delivers best-fit desktops according to user entitlements, policies, access location and available resources.
How Access Fabric Works
The Access Fabric establishes a user's entitlements and then provides the network path to the user's virtual desktop. Designed for scalability and speed, it transforms the notion of a centralized connection broker into a distributed network service. Similar in concept to the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) where users can locate websites without knowing their physical addresses, the Access Fabric's global connectivity capabilities allow users to log on to their virtual desktop from any location without needing to specify the Virtual-D Element on which that virtual desktop resides. And with the Access Fabric's high availability, if one login access point is out of service, another one will pick up the request, ensuring users get reliable service. The Access Fabric optimizes connectivity based on client device and network characteristics. For instance, accessing a virtual desktop from a thin client on a LAN would result in different connectivity parameters than a rich client accessing a virtual desktop through a browser over the Internet.
The Access Fabric determines the virtual desktop that users will access by leveraging Desktone's Best-Fit Desktop technology.
Desktone Best-Fit Desktop
Users have a wide variety of computing needs. Because of this, no single desktop configuration that can accommodate them all. For instance, task or functional users require different resources than knowledge workers, who require different resources than power or mobile users. Desktone's patent-pending Best-Fit Desktop technology provisions the most appropriate and resource-efficient desktops to users according to pre-determined entitlements and policies.
- Policy-based desktops: Determines the class or level of desktop based on user resource requirements: shared virtual desktop (pooled resource assigned only for duration of session) or dedicated virtual desktop (private virtual machine for 1:1 mapping).
- Policy-based Service Level Agreement (SLA): Enables SLA-based customization for standard and dedicated virtual desktops. This lets IT assign, for instance, more CPU, memory and network capacity to meet SLAs for users who require additional computing resources.