The Virtual Desktop is an area of cloud services that still requires a lot of awareness building and education. In fact, an Evolve IP survey from earlier this year revealed that 39% of executives surveyed have no awareness of Desktop as a Service (DaaS) technology and 35.5% were not aware of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
VDI is a VMware acronym for virtual desktop infrastructure, and it is most commonly deployed as a premise-based solution. DaaS wraps that virtual desktop infrastructure to be provided via a self-service portal. Basically, instead of building it themselves companies will come to a service provider such as Evolve IP for the service so they don’t have to build all the infrastructure for their own VDI.
Another difference is the control aspect. With VDI software, the IT department has the servers in their own data centers or their own server closet, versus with DaaS where the service provider is hosting everything. Yes, this means that there is more control over the physical infrastructure with VDI.
However, DaaS still provides the IT department with control over the end-user desktops via a self-service portal. Additionally, it makes things much easier for IT because it is easier to manage and more economical. With DaaS, the service provider handles the hosting of the infrastructure versus VDI, where the organization will have to handle a portion or all of it. This frees up the IT associates, enabling them to focus on more strategic activities for the business.