Are Hosted Virtual Desktop Providers always Safe to go with?
So, you are looking at DaaS (Desktop as a Service) to reduce costs, less hardware to manage, reduced licensing costs and lesser operational issues.
As with every decision, there are obstacles and issues with Hosted Virtual Desktop (HVD) providers. Since the decision to adopt HVD would be for keeps, here are 5 check boxes which you may tick when you make your decision to adopt as well as when you choose your service provider.
1. Licensing
Not long ago, this was the biggest challenge, which turned off companies willing to have their desktops hosted elsewhere. For example, Microsoft for the longest time did not allow HVD service providers to license Windows desktops in a multitenant hosting environment. So you would have to license Windows desktop operating system separately. At ₹₹₹ per device, where each user wants to access her desktop from a laptop, smartphone, tablet, this could add up to quite a cost which was not built into the DaaS subscription. With Windows 10 Enterprise and now Windows VD, they've lifted that licensing restriction. The Companion Device License allows employees to access virtual desktops from other personally owned devices under one license
2. Trust
Data is the most valued asset for data-centric companies like stock exchanges, banking, research, and other companies. Organizations are still reluctant to host their confidential information in a shared facility somewhere that's not entirely under their control. Companies will develop trust in providers in time and become used to the idea of having this information somewhere else, but not all data-critical and transaction-heavy companies will want to do that for a long time. In India, the government is insisting that all local data should be hosted inside the country which may have issues for some providers like Amazon.
3. Connectivity
Access to the data is critical -- no matter where a user is and where the data is stored. You need to be connected at all times, with good bandwidth. Organisations may work on local copies of certain applications to access the data, but that introduces the challenge of keeping the data synchronized and secure.
4. Security
Cloud-hosted desktops are in a central location, which theoretically makes them easier to secure. However, organisations may be wary that security is in the hands of a third party. This concern ties in with the question of Trust. Data breaches happen all the time all over the world,
or maliciously, so there’s no guarantee that data will be secure, whether data is in your premises or elsewhere. You might rather want to be in control when a mishap occurs, but the service provider might have better disaster recovery processes (DRP) than you because it is critical to their service business. You might keep data on premises while the desktop is hosted in a data center, but that can reduce performance because of latency between where the desktop is and where the data resides.
5. Reliability
Even giant HVDs can go down and be unavailable for hours, the sense of reliability with hosted desktops is still up in the air for many companies -- especially if offline capabilities don't exist.
Conclusion: Is DaaS right for me?
There are many challenges to overcome with a DaaS model. However, it is also true that Organisations have tried the "we-can-do-it-all" approach and failed or are not able to cope up with administering IT. With DAAS you can leave your headache to the Hosted Virtual Desktop provider whose core business is DAAS.
In the end, whether or not cloud desktops are right for you depends entirely on your needs and your comfort level with a third party handling your information. There is no one right answer in the DaaS vs. in-premise Virtual Desktop Infrastructure choice, and the best virtualization strategy for you may be a combination of the two. Take some time to evaluate your company's needs and your trust in the potential Hosted Virtual Desktop service provider, study their licensing policy, connectivity, reliability, security and Disaster Recovery processes, and costs before moving forward.














