These days, it seems everything is “as a service”—SaaS,
IaaS, PaaS, XaaS. It’s a constant reminder of just how much technology’s
shaping our business world. One service that sometimes gets overlooked is DaaS,
or desktop-as-a-service. Often confused with virtual desktop infrastructure
(VDI), this simple service is invaluable to companies. Let’s take a look at
everything you need to know about DaaS.What Is DaaS?
It is a type of virtual computing that gives individual
employees access to the data and applications necessary to do their jobs from
any device at any time. Simply put, it gives employees a fully operational
desktop in the cloud.
DaaS
vs. VDI
Tech-savvy readers will instantly connect this to the more
commonly discussed VDI, but there’s one key difference: VDI is an on-premises
infrastructure, where the virtual desktops are linked to internal servers.
DaaS, on the other hand, is hosted outside the company—in the cloud, on
external, off-premises servers, usually by a service provider.
So why not just use VDI? Well, managing a VDI solution can
be rather costly. It requires in-house equipment and teams to support and
service that equipment. Implementing such a solution can cost upwards of
$200,000 in upfront capex, in addition to a lot of time and manpower that many
small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB's) just don’t have access to.
Why
Choose DaaS?
When looking at a virtual desktop solution, the biggest
upside to DaaS is its lower cost. Since the price is based on a subscription
model, customers save money on upfront, hardware, licensing, and management
costs.It also moves expenses from capex to opex, something that
benefits many companies. In fact, it can reduce capex by up to 56% annually and
even slightly reduce annual opex costs. A virtual desktop lasts longer, does
not use as much power, and lacks a physical hard disk, making it cost about
half as much as a traditional PC over the course of its life.
Other
Benefits
DaaS comes with many other benefits besides cost savings.
Here’s a rundown of the most notable ones:
- Flexibility:
A DaaS environment enables you to easily switch environments, allowing you
to offer Windows to some employees and Linux to others, or let them switch
back and forth. In addition, updates can be done in minutes, not days.
- Accessibility:
DaaS allows your employees to work from anywhere, on any device,
increasing productivity and efficiency. With the rising popularity of
remote work, this is becoming even more important.
- Security:
Everything—such as what gets downloaded or when security patches are
issued—can be controlled from one central point. Viruses also have a
harder time entering a user’s system through the central server vs.
individual machines. Finally, without information on physical hard drives,
if an employee device is stolen, your company data isn’t compromised.
- Disaster
Recovery: While it does not replace a full disaster recovery solution,
virtual desktops do enable your company to get employees up and running
faster after a disaster.
DaaS
Disadvantages-
That all sounds great, but we all know that every
technical solution has its drawbacks. So what are the downsides of DaaS?
First, if you’re not careful, you may not see the cost
savings typically associated with DaaS. While a DaaS solution will definitely
be an operational expense, that expense could get out of control if you don’t
pay attention to your provider’s terms of service or appropriately plan for
usage rates.
Other
disadvantages include:
Connectivity: Since DaaS requires a lot of data transfer
via the Internet, you must ensure your employees have access to a solid
Internet service—not doing so can result in network latency, especially with
graphic-intensive applications.
Single Point of
Failure: While the benefits are worth it, and good providers take steps
to ensure a disaster recovery plan for their clients, DaaS does give you a
single point of failure for all of your employees’ workstations. If your
provider goes down, you’ll be at a standstill.
DaaS
and MSPs : So we’ve established that DaaS is an important
consideration for SMBs looking to reduce costs and increase efficiency via a
virtual desktop solution, but what about managed service providers (MSPs)? Why
is it important for an MSP to provide this service, from their perspective?
Target
Market
The most obvious reason for an MSP to offer DaaS is that
their target customer naturally wants this service. DaaS is typically used by
SMBs, the same companies that normally enlist the help of an MSP. According to
a Citrix survey of over 700 of its service providers, 70% of MSP customers have
fewer than 100 employees.
Continuous
Revenue
DaaS can provide a profitable and continuous revenue
stream for MSPs, all while allowing you to keep your rates fair. This service
is also easily manageable and won’t take a lot of manpower or specialty setup.
Other
DaaS Benefits
If that’s not enough, you’ll also get more security,
control, and ease of management out of implementing a DaaS service—more so than
if you were to try to manage each employee’s individual machine. It also makes
it easier for your customer’s employees to bring their own devices, something
that’s in increasingly high demand.
How
Nerdio Can Help-
Obviously, DaaS is something to consider for both SMB's and
MSP's, but there are tons of solutions to choose from—so what’s the best one?
Nerdio from Azure is a great choice for your DaaS needs, it’s:
Flexible: Allows you to do
everything from managing a few servers to providing a full-blown
IT-as-a-service solution. Simply adjust Azure’s compute and storage usage to
match your needs.
Simple: You can provision
an IT environment in just two hours, without any help from an engineer. Everything
is done in three clicks or less.
Easy to Manage: Everything—all of
your clients’ environments—is controlled from a single dashboard. Backups are
done automatically, and only as you need them.
Insightful: Nerdio’s
performance monitoring allows you to measure real end-user experiences and gain
valuable insights so you can make smart changes.
With researchers predicting a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of around 29% for the DaaS market, this trend certainly isn’t going to
go away anytime soon. Contact
LATVIK TECHNOLOGIES today to see how we can help
you make the most of your IT service offering.
Need More Information Contact Us
Need More Information Contact Us
Best Regards ,
Latvik Blog Team
LATVIK TECHNOLOGIES ™
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