With the explosive growth of remote work environments pushed along quickly by coronavirus shutdowns, Desktop-as-a-Service or DaaS is something that businesses should be aware of.
It’s currently among the best small business remote office solutions.
In general, DaaS can help with budgeting and security and promote scalability. Both business owners and employees benefit.
The following are some of the most important things to know about Desktop as a Service and its potential benefits.
1. What it Is
Desktop as a service is a cloud computing option with virtual desktops delivered to end-users, licensed on a per-user basis. It can allow smaller organizations and businesses to create a virtual desktop infrastructure with an eye toward budgetary and resource limitations.
DaaS will usually include back-up, updates, data storage, and maintenance.
Some cloud service providers will also provide security and manage applications, but users can also manage these individually.
2. How It Works
With DaaS, virtualized desktop computers are created over servers. The servers are in data centers of a Cloud Service Provider.
The end-user can access their assigned desktop online, from any device, usually. Processes and workloads are managed by the infrastructure of the DaaS provider.
3. Accessibility
One of the biggest benefits of DaaS, although there are many, is the accessibility. The environments can easily and securely be accessed from anywhere at any time.
The accessibility process tends to be simple, and employees don’t have to install software or configure their routers at home in any particular way to go past the corporate firewalls.
4. Differences in VDI and DaaS
VDI is another way virtual desktops can be delivered, but the primary differentiator here is the way service is delivered.
In VDI, virtual desktops are created and then served on-premise data centers. In VDI, there is hardware that is used for the delivery and is obtained by the organization deploying it.
That means VDI tends to be more expensive and requires more resources than DaaS.
5. Improved Productivity
While there was always a lot of conversation about moving to more remote work, it wasn’t something that was a reality in a lot of businesses until the COVID-19 pandemic. That forced businesses to move employees to remote work, but in that time, many are saying they aren’t going back to the old way of doing things.
While there are benefits, like reduced overhead, there are also challenges, of course, such as how to keep employees productive and connected.
DaaS is a technology that can solve these problems and promote productivity in remote work situations.
When a business uses DaaS, they often find they’re able to reach their operational goals faster because employees can access anything they need from anywhere, as long as they have an internet connection.
DaaS can help with productivity not just in a situation where a workforce is dispersed across locations but also in a bring-your-own-device environment.
Using DaaS solutions promotes business continuity, which is a top priority for most organizations right now.
There is 24/7, secure access to resources through the cloud from any environment. If there were to be a disaster or a situation that kept employees from accessing the office, they could continue to work. Among the many business lessons stemming from COVID-19 was the importance of a plan for continuity in case of the unexpected.
6. Predictable Costs
DaaS adds consistency to planning for an IT budget. It’s a recurring expense, and it’s scalable as an organization needs to go up or down. You don’t have to put a lot of money into an upfront hardware investment.
7. Security
It’s difficult to keep up with the range of cybersecurity threats your business faces every day. With DaaS, there are ways you can have full control over every element of cybersecurity, despite the remote access availability it provides.
8. Other Benefits
Some of the other potential benefits of DaaS as a remote office solution for small business include:
- The setup is fast. IT teams can have a cloud desktop solution up and running almost instantly.
- DaaS can integrate with local devices without any special integrations.
- When employees are moving from an on-premises workstation to one that they’re remotely accessing in the cloud, they want their experience to be the same. This is an important part of them staying productive. Employees are reluctant to use new applications or login tools, and a DaaS solution provides this continuity.
Finally, another benefit of DaaS is the ability for employees to securely share their desktops to collaborate with coworkers.
