24 APR
Blog
The Benefits of Hosted Desktop (DaaS)
For most businesses, the costs of maintaining an up-to-date IT infrastructure are high. There’s the cost of providing a desktop computer to each employee – and replacing it every three to five years. Then there’s providing desktop support, which can cost upwards of $250 per user every month. And that’s only the beginning. When you add in software licensing fees, data backup, network security, and countless other operational costs – you end up with a bill that would ruin any business owner’s day.
But those costs are high because they represent a way of doing things rooted in 20th-century thinking. Back then, business networks were like walled gardens. They required every bit of technology the business needed to be on-site and managed locally. But these days, the rapid advance of cloud technology has turned that model on its head.
Now, cloud providers can achieve an economy of scale that no single business could ever hope to match. And that makes it possible for them to offer businesses a far more efficient technology option – desktop as a service (DaaS). Put simply, DaaS refers to business desktops hosted in centralized data centers, which users access remotely from any internet-connected device. Here’s a look at some of the advantages they offer and why businesses should consider them when they reach their next upgrade cycle.
Always Up-To-Date
Using on-premises hardware, businesses have to deal with the cost involved with replacing their computers when they’re either outmoded or too costly to repair. With a hosted desktop solution, those costs disappear. Instead, the service provider assumes all responsibility for hardware upgrades and repairs. That means the business gets access to hardware that’s in perfect condition and always remains up-to-date.
Centralized Desktop Support
Another advantage of using cloud-based desktops is that all of your desktop support needs are included in the price. Users can contact the provider for tech support, to get answers to questions, or to report any trouble they’re having at any hour of the day or night. It’s a level of support that most on-site service providers don’t even offer, or charge an unsustainable premium for if they do.
Access to the Latest Business Software
Software licensing costs make up a significant part of the average business’s IT spending. And not only that, they’re hard to manage and often require businesses to buy costly feature bundles they may not need. But a cloud desktop provider can take advantage of its scale to drive down the costs of common business software and offer it to users at a reduced rate. Plus, software may be provisioned on a per-user basis, so you’ll only pay for exactly what you need.
Accessible from Anywhere
As the events of 2020 proved, businesses need to have the flexibility to allow their employees to work from anywhere. With conventional business desktops, that’s not easy to achieve. As many businesses just found out, it’s a logistics and security nightmare to try and set up ad-hoc remote desktop access to a typical business PC. But a cloud desktop solution doesn’t have that problem. Users can connect to them from almost any device, anywhere there’s internet access. And because they’re built for the task, they’re a far more secure option.
Options for Power Users
One of the ways that most businesses try to contain hardware costs is to buy similar desktops for as many employees as possible. It makes it easier to manage upgrades, find part replacements, and arrange for temporary hardware when something breaks. But it also means that the business has to choose a base desktop model powerful enough for its most demanding users. But that’s not the case with a cloud desktop provider.
Not only do they give users plenty of configuration options to suit users of all kinds, but they also offer multiple delivery technologies to suit any use case. For example, clerical employees might use standard RDP access to a basic cloud desktop. But a more advanced user might need a Citrix hosted desktop provider instead if their work called for better multimedia performance. Or, they might require a dedicated Citrix hosted desktop in a VDI configuration if they wanted an experience on-par with today’s most powerful conventional desktop hardware.
The point is, businesses can mix and match to provide what each employee needs – and enjoy the cost savings created by not over-provisioning hardware where it’s not necessary.
The Bottom Line
It’s clear that businesses have a lot to gain by moving to a DaaS provider for their desktop computing needs. There’s a hosted desktop solution available for every use case, and they all come with all of the benefits covered here. That makes them an ideal choice for any company looking to reduce its IT solutions overhead while gaining flexibility in the process. And in today’s competitive business environment, those are advantages that no business owner can afford to pass up.
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