In an effort to provide customers with hybrid options, Desktop as a Service (DaaS) provider Desktone has expanded its cloud-based hosted desktop platform to include on-premise, cloud-managed virtual desktop functionality.
The expanded platform, which resides at the customer site but is managed remotely by a cloud provider, is designed to give enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) the flexibility to choose the cloud model that best suits their needs, whether it be public, private or hybrid, according to Peter McKay, CEO of Desktone.
While cloud-hosted virtual desktops offer many benefits, not everyone is ready or willing to go 100-percent hosted, McKay explained.
“Some businesses want to leverage the capacity of their own private infrastructure as a service (IaaS) environment or retain more control by keeping hardware on-premises. Others want a hybrid model, where certain offices are fully cloud-hosted and others are cloud-managed,” he said in a statement. “These companies, and service providers, have been asking Desktone for a solution. We’re excited to be the first vendor addressing broad-spectrum needs with our new on-premises, cloud-managed offering.”
The new DaaS platform offers different desktop options, including Microsoft RDS, VDI, and remote apps across public, private and hybrid cloud environments, eliminating the barriers associated with traditional VDI deployments.
As more public cloud-hosted virtual desktop solutions come on the market, it can be difficult for businesses to choose whether to adopt virtual desktops as a service or on-premises, according to Brett Waldman, research manager at IDC Client Virtualization Software.
“Depending on the use case, one model may be more appropriate than the other. However, a hybrid approach like Desktone’s allows companies to deploy desktops in a way that makes most sense for a particular set of users, while leaving time-consuming infrastructure management to their service provider,” Waldman said.
Desktone’s on-premises, cloud-managed virtual desktop solution allows service providers to deploy virtual desktops in the customer’s data center and remotely manage provisioning and ongoing management. Cloud providers including Dell, Fujitsu, Time Warner Cable, Marubeni, Kumo and Dimension Data have selected Desktone’s Platform to offer hosted desktops and apps as a cloud service.
Company officials touted the following benefits of its on-premise solution, which include both enterprise and SMB/branch office configurations:
- Enterprise customers can leverage existing private cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) environments or use the Desktone blueprint, which includes a choice of server hardware, storage, and desktop virtualization software.
- SMBs and branch office deployments can deploy a pre-configured, all-in-one virtual desktop appliance, which includes GreenByte’s vIO virtual storage, as well as compute and desktop virtualization software.
Edited by
Rory J. Thompson
