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DaaS

In my last post I discussed taking a look at some of the Hosted VDI Solutions available to you in the marketplace. A hosted Virtual Desktop is known as DaaS or Desktop as a Service.

It’s all about the user experience with desktop access anywhere, anytime, and on any device.

The Virtual Desktop is hosted on a data center server virtual machine and delivered across the network using a remote display protocol. ( RDP, ICA, VNC,EOP, ALP and PCoIP.  I’ll save that for another blog).

 

Lets start with ThinkGrid [1]. ThinkGrid was named in a Gartner  report “ Cool Vendors in Infrastructure Services” So I wanted to take a look at their offerings. http://www.thinkgrid.ie/hosted-desktop.aspx

We will start with the desktop specifications. They offer Windows XP, but will soon offer Win 7. Some applications come standard, like Microsoft Office 2010 and Adobe Acrobat Reader 9. You can add and install your own applications using your own licensing. Or, take advantage of using their catalogue of applications for a monthly fee. Let’s say you have some temporary workers and really only need some applications for a few months. This is the ideal situation; you pay the monthly fee instead of the full licensing cost. When you are done you no longer pay the fee. It even supports local printing. You can have multiple images just like you normally would have for your different departments. I think when you take a look at the specifications you will find these are probably more powerful devices than what you are currently using in your environment.

Specifications

Fully Isolated Customer Environment - Full Customizable - Fully Virtualized _{(Not like Terminal Services)}

CPU/Processing Power -  Intel 2.2 Ghz Quad Core

Application Memory 1 GB - 32 GB

Disk Space 5 GB Useable Data + OS

Shared Diskspace (File Server) Optional

Resources Upgradeable and On-Demand Performance Burst

With the Group Management Pack and you get 100 GB Shared Fileserver, Active Directory/GP Management, User Permissions Management.

You can connect 24x7 with Windows, Mac, Linux or the iPad and Multi Monitor support is available.

Migrating your users

Not all your users would be a candidate for a hosted desktop. With this type of service, you choose who in your organization should use the hosted desktop and who stays on their regular desktop. This is where planning and testing comes into play. You can use a phased approach moving small or large sections at a time.

Wondering how much you can save by using DaaS?  You can download their Excel calculator.  http://www.thinkgrid.ie/hosted-desktop-info.aspx

There are also some really good whitepapers so you can compare DaaS to Google Apps or Go to My PC.

Go to their website and take a test drive, it’s free!

One definition of consumerization in the business environment means that I, as an employee, am free to select and purchase whatever consumer class PC, workstation or device meeting my needs.  It also means I am then authorized to utilize that device on the corporate network.
There has been a great deal of debate recently on the topic of employee owned PC’s versus company owned PC’s.   For certain companies, specifically those that do not have sensitive or secure data, consumerization may make sense.  However, for companies with sensitive data and many enterprise applications, employee-owned PC’s may cause more headaches than benefits.