The Benefits of Desktop as a Service
Much of the simplification and cost benefit results from the fact that cloud desktops eliminate the need for corporate data to be stored and corporate software to be installed on end user machines. From this changed configuration, organizations derive benefits that can be grouped into six categories.
Ease of Management and Maintenance
Ease of management may be the number one benefit that IT organizations realize from desktop as a service. Dealing with software issues like operating system patches, driver updates, application installs, etc. can be very time consuming, often requiring IT staff to visit hundreds of devices. With DaaS, all users are running one of a few standard VM images stored in the cloud. So, only those few images need to be patched, have drivers updated, etc. And the maintenance work can be handled in the cloud infrastructure. There is no longer any need to visit individual desktops for many administrative tasks.
Cost Savings
Vying with ease of management for the top benefit is cost savings. First, an organization using DaaS can get by with much less expensive desktops and laptops than traditionally required. In a DaaS environment, the user’s machine only needs to run a browser or thin client to access the virtual machine over the internet. This doesn’t require large amounts of disk, RAM, or a powerful CPU. For many use cases, thin clients costing a couple hundred dollars are sufficient. These thinner endpoints use less electricity, so that save money as well. Software licensing can also be less expensive, or at least less of an upfront cost. Operating systems like Windows 10 are purchased on a subscription basis for cloud delivery, which can end of being less expensive than the traditional perpetual licenses required for each user’s personal machine.
cost savings
Improved Security
With DaaS, individual devices are no longer a security risk because all desktop to server communication happens in the cloud provider’s data center on a secure network. In addition, all desktop data resides in the virtual machine which is also physically located in the data center. Since cloud data centers are much more secure than the typical desktop, moving to DaaS significantly improves security.
Simplified Backup and Disaster Recovery
With desktops running in the cloud, end users are not storing any important data on their local devices. Therefore, there is no need to backup any data that is stored on the user’s hardware. That saves your IT organization the considerable effort of needing to install and configure backup software on end user desktops and laptops. Each user’s desktop environment can still be backed up, but since it is running in a virtual machine, hosted in the cloud, backup is much simpler. It can be accomplished simply by periodically saving a snapshot of the VM.
To prepare for disaster, the VM backups can be periodically saved (synchronized) to an offsite location. Should disaster strike, the desktops can be recovered simply by provisioning new virtual machines from the offsite backups into the backup cloud datacenter.
Better Resilience
Typically, desktops and laptops are the least resilient part of any corporate computing infrastructure. So, moving to virtual desktops improves resilience dramatically. Without DaaS, if an employee’s hard disk crashes, they may be out of commission for hours while a new machine is commissioned and configured from backup. With DaaS, the employee can simply grab any available machine and log back in to their virtual desktop - continuing to work while their old machine is repaired or replaced. Likewise, if a user’s machine is hit by a virus or ransomware, it can simply be wiped clean and rebuilt, since there is no important data stored locally. Once the machine is rebuilt, the user can access their cloud desktop again and pick up where they left off.