Desktop as a Service (DaaS): Ready to Choose the Right Solution to Enhance Business Value?

The lens used for evaluating a workplace has changed significantly due to technological advancements and rising expectations from businesses. The operating environment has gotten complex, as enterprises are strongly adopting the remote work culture. As a result, enterprises have started reimagining the future of work by application of radical new processes and practices backed by technologies such as cloud, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), automation, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), and Internet of Things (IoT).

As cloud services are on the rise, Desktop as a Service (DaaS) platforms are also becoming more popular. This virtualization technology and cloud services make it easy for new businesses to build and manage virtual desktops while saving costs. 

What is DaaS?

Desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) is a viable alternative to VDI. Also referred to as a hosted desktop service, and often delivered as a cloud service by a third-party cloud service provider. DaaS offers many advantages to IT, security, developers, the business, and the workforce while simplifying IT operations and meeting business demands. DaaS is delivered on a pay-as-you-grow consumption and billing model, enabling businesses to pay for the time desktops and applications essentially only used by employees. The desktops, applications, and data reside at the cloud service provider on an architecture that is secure and redundant by design.

Why Choose DaaS?

• DaaS platforms offer extensive agility and flexibility for the employees in your organization. Agility and flexibility are now two important factors because of the evolving hybrid workflows, and asynchronous work environments. 
• DaaS platforms can be deployed rapidly, thus allowing your employees to access desktops and virtual applications right from their internet browsers on any device. Overall, it saves precious time that usually goes into setting up conventional systems, particularly when teams are spread across the globe. 
• By using a DaaS platform, organizations can establish a mainframe from which they can seamlessly control, deploy, configure, and maintain corporate resources. 
• DaaS platforms fall under OpEx and help businesses to minimize the capital costs associated with scaling in an IT function. 

 
Tips to Choose the Right Desktop as a Service (DaaS) Platform

Ease of Use

The most crucial thing to keep in mind while selecting a DaaS platform is how easy it is to use. This is a relatively new technology for many businesses and can have a complex learning curve for employees. 

The golden rule is to select a platform already compatible with your existing IT infrastructure. First, it should look very familiar to employees so they can work easily and with minimal disruption to their daily flows. Secondly, IT administrators must find it easy to set up and easy to keep the virtual desktops up and running. 

We must understand that several teams are going to use the DaaS platform daily; even a slight inconvenience will disturb the entire workflow. It is just better to select one that is easy to use from the get-go.

Security 

In the last year alone, about 66% of organizations have faced a cyberattack, and when data breaches are increasing by the day, data security becomes a top priority.

However, a DaaS platform should follow proper security measures to protect data. Two-factor authentication and biometric authentication are some of the security measures you can ask for while selecting a DaaS provider. 

Apart from that, also confirm what data backup and recovery they offer for your organization. Usually, DaaS providers provide automatic data backup, but it is always good to confirm in advance if this is indeed the case.

 Integration

Investing in a DaaS service only to find out that it does not support or integrate with your current IT infrastructure can cost your business a lot.

Any business uses several tools for data analytics and CRM. These tools are crucial for the functioning of any business. Ensure that the DaaS platform you are selecting can seamlessly integrate with your CRM software and data analytics tools. 

Support

DaaS services work over the cloud and use an internet connection. Naturally, they need periodic maintenance, including security updates, patch upgrades, troubleshooting, and change management. 

Your service provider must promise you end-to-end support. These platforms are always vulnerable to occasional bugs, so having someone to reach out to for an issue is vital. Select a well-known platform for its customer support and one that can provide you with 24/7 support. This way, even if you face issues, your business will not face downtime. 

Cost

Once you have analyzed all the above factors, the cost must be considered as well. Here, the key is to find the perfect balance. There are some features where you can compromise, but some features can’t be compromised upon. Security, integrations, and support are essential features. The more features you will opt for, the costlier the DaaS platform will be. Features like multi-server storage, advanced cybersecurity measures, and so on may be essential for some businesses, but optional for others. Cost in the context of DaaS is an optimization problem- we must be very sure of what features we need, and which ones we can deploy later, and negotiate a fee accordingly.

Closing Phrase

There can be many scenarios where DaaS is not an appropriate solution, especially considering the network bandwidth available for remote and office users. However, in the new normal, often, DaaS makes a compelling case for adoption. There will be some power users, who would need high-end physical devices, but for the vast majority, DaaS will suffice.

Finally, the organization’s current technology stack along with its appetite for diversifying, will play a major role in deciding on the DaaS provider. With Microland’s smartAssess services, powered by its smartWorkspace platform – an IP Co-Sell ready solution available on Microsoft Azure Marketplace, we follow an outside-in comprehensive quantitative and qualitative assessment approach, to come up with a blueprint for a fit-for-purpose DaaS solution, and a detailed roadmap for implementing the same. Our solutions help organizations evaluate various key factors in choosing the right DaaS solution based on the virtualization objective of the organization. Our expertise includes designing, building, and managing virtual desktops for organizations of all sizes and scales. While DaaS reduces the Opex Costs and increases flexibility, it is equally important to manage the virtualization environment and align the processes to achieve the said benefits. We bring our value in managing the environment by validating the pre-requisites, assessing the dependencies and completing the readiness assessments which are the key to a successful DaaS implementation. 

We helped our customers scale up, monitor performance and employee experience, and automate the deployments as part of our run services. In addition, we customize the vendor images, ongoing image management, and integration of existing enterprise applications in line with the DaaS service.