Modern technology is evolving at a rapid pace, opening new doors of opportunity for businesses great and small. It doesn’t matter what kind of industry you’re operating in, there are always going to be modern digital tools and technologies that can enhance your efforts, streamline your day-to-day operations, and give your brand a better chance of success. Desktop as a service is a key example of this.
What is Desktop as a Service?
In simple terms, desktop as a service (or Daas) allows users to create virtual instances of desktop computers, hosted via cloud servers. It gives you endlessly scalable access to all the virtual desktops you need, with their own RAM, storage, CPU capacity, and additional tech specs. These desktops can be accessed anywhere, anytime, and from almost any device like smartphones, tablets, and laptops too.
The history of this concept goes back quite a few years, with application developers in the early 2000s looking at ways to virtualize the desktop experience. Leading IT research and advisory firm Gartner once predicted that tens of millions of business desktops would be virtual by 2013. While it’s taken a little longer than expected, virtual desktops are now seeing a major surge in popularity, and it’s easy to see why. Here are some of their best benefits.
Accessibility
Of course, one of the key benefits and primary reasons behind any business opting for desktop as a service is the fact that these virtualized desktops are so easily accessible. It doesn’t matter where users are, or what device they happen to be using; as long as they have an internet connection, users will be able to access these desktops. The level of freedom this provides is second to none.
Compatibility
Following on from the previous point, it’s also important to note the key compatibility advantages of desktop as a service. When you make use of a DaaS system, you allow your users to access a familiar desktop environment from almost any device they like. They can load it up on their phone, their laptop, or even their own home desktop computer.
BYOD Programs
The best DaaS solutions can work on almost any platform, from Android phones and tablets to Apple Macs and more. This wide range of compatibility allows companies to offer ‘BYOD’ or ‘Bring Your Own Device‘ programs, in which workers can bring along their own personal laptops, phones, and tablets to work more comfortably and easily, with simple and seamless access to the same desktop system as all of their colleagues.
Reduced Costs
With desktop as a service, you’re getting as many virtual desktops as you need, and virtual desktops cost far less to create and maintain than physical ones. This means that the costs of running, for example, fifty virtualized desktops is infinitely smaller than investing in fifty physical desktop computers, along with all of the necessary additional hardware and licensing costs.
Remote Work Suitability
In recent times, we’ve seen global circumstances force many businesses into switching to remote work. While this has presented a lot of new challenges, solutions like DaaS have helped countless companies survive. In a world where working remotely is becoming more and more the norm, providing remote workers with easy access to virtual desktops with corporate data and applications is a big advantage.
Strong Cybersecurity
With tens of millions of cyber-attacks happening every single day, it’s clear to see that the need for strong cybersecurity in business has never been greater. The best DaaS platforms give you and your teams the security you all need, as thanks to the virtualized nature of the service, sensitive files, and corporate data won’t actually be stored on individual devices; instead, everything is kept safe and sound on cloud servers.
Endless Scalability
Businesses change, grow, and evolve over time, and it can be hard to keep up with the changing needs of your company as it expands or scales down, especially if you’re working with physical hardware that can be very costly to alter. With DaaS, you get a fully scalable solution, ready to add or remove virtual desktops at a moment’s notice and capable of rapid deployment in a matter of minutes.
Final Word
These are just some of the many benefits of desktop as a service, and it’s clear to see that it can offer so much to all kinds of businesses. For business owners looking for a scalable, secure, accessible option to allow workers to access files easily across any device, DaaS is the answer.
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