4 Things to Consider When Choosing a DaaS Provider, Part 1: Infrastructure

This post kicks off a four-part series focused on key considerations when choosing a Desktop as a Service (DaaS) partner. And where better to start than with the underlying infrastructure required to support a virtual desktop deployment! There are plenty of IT service providers that deliver cloud services in a proficient and high performing manner.  So a virtual desktop should be just like any other Software as a Service (SaaS) application, right?  The answer is yes…and no. To end users, a virtual desktop should be just as simple and intuitive as logging into Office 365, but what goes on behind the scenes and on the back end is incredibly more complex.

Dizzion’s platform was built from the ground up for end user computing using a hardware stack that optimizes user experience.  There are three key areas where we believe purpose-built infrastructure is critical:

Network architecture

Network architecture plays a large part in how well a virtual desktop environment will perform. Dizzion’s network is separated into three parts: user (internet), backend communication, and fail-over. With this setup, users cannot affect desktop performance and backend communications cannot impact user experience.  Companies can also be certain that a large, dedicated failover pipe means any downtime will be minimized.

Storage performance

Storage performance can directly impact user experience. Using spinning disks to run a virtual desktop infrastructure is like using a sedan to pull your fifth-wheel camper. Dizzion’s proprietary solid state storage platform and orchestration provide roughly 500,000 IOPS per POD deployment, amounting to an industry leading 250-500 per desktop.

Resource management

Resource management refers to the assignment and utilization of resources for each virtual desktop. Some service providers will offer a shared desktop model to reduce resources (and cost) required to run each virtual desktop. Unfortunately, users are never guaranteed the amount of RAM, IOPS or CPUs they can utilize. As a result, user experience is often unreliable and single user issues (i.e. viruses) can compromise the entire environment. Dizzion solves this issue by providing each user with dedicated resources.

Meeting the specialized infrastructure requirements to support virtual desktops is key to providing an optimal user experience, which will in turn, impact adoption, scalability, and ongoing management. In our next post, we’ll look at cost considerations when selecting a DaaS provider.

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