VDI vs. DaaS: Know the Difference

Prospective customers often ask us if Dizzion provides VDI or DaaS, prompting a high-level explanation of the very real differences. The two terms are frequently used interchangeably or incorrectly, and it’s critical for professionals to understand the outcomes that each offers.

Here’s what we tell people:

Let’s assume that you understand the basic concept of the virtual desktop: the users have access to their desktop, on any device, from any location that provides a connection to the internet. Both VDI and DaaS share this goal.

The difference then is not so much with function as with infrastructure. With VDI, your customer (the enterprise) is responsible for managing the environment. It’s a complex task, and a poorly architected solution or a mistake by the IT staff can have an immediate, adverse effect on every user. We have seen plenty of VDI projects shelved due to insurmountable challenges and poor user experiences.

With Desktop as a Service (DaaS), the responsibility of the VDI infrastructure management transfers to either Dizzion, our partner service providers, or in some cases, both. There the DaaS infrastructure is already built, tested, and tuned, and it is rented to the user as a service.

The up-front investment in processing capacity means that DaaS providers like Dizzion can achieve economies of scale for purchasing, deploying and managing the desktop environments. Our investment benefits the enterprise buyer because they get VDI without the expense of acquiring hardware, skills or knowledge. With Dizzion Cloud Delivered Desktops, the solution becomes much more scalable than a self-built VDI platform.

The Dizzion team is very knowledgeable in the area of DaaS solutions and the various customer use cases. Along with our partner solution providers, we have solved many of the inherent problems of DaaS and can guide customers through the implementation with a higher degree of success. Dizzion Cloud Delivered Desktops provide highly efficient desktops as a service, eliminating the complexity of standing up an internal VDI environment.

If you haven’t seen Dizzion in action, check out the quick, two-minute demo we recorded to help prospective customers to visualize what DaaS is and can do.