DaaS: Where Tech Meets Business Strategy

One of the biggest road blocks to implementing VDI is often difficulty taking the conversation past the tech specs and transitioning it into a compelling argument regarding business strategy. Without understanding the business case behind the move, business-focused executives can be hesitant to green light the change. Desktop as a service, an outsourced version of VDI, can help bridge that gap by being an innovative tech solution that drives business goals forward without adding large amounts of in-house infrastructure and support personnel.

Positioned correctly, it’s easy to see how DaaS doesn’t just help IT teams, but enables organizations as a whole to focus more on business strategy and smart decisions rather than on low-value tasks. In the end, IT and executives care about the same thing, they just often think about it in different ways. Here are a few key concerns, considerations and compelling factors that DaaS helps organizations across the board address. By considering both these views, both IT teams and business-focused executives will be better positioned to understand the true benefits of desktop as a service and why it’s a good business decision.

Time Better Spent  

For IT

One of the most time consuming, low-value tasks IT handles daily is provisioning, troubleshooting and supporting desktops. While this task is critical to productivity, it is not a strategic business project and takes time away from that goal. 

Virtual desktops allow IT teams to provision new users, install critical patches and adjust the security controls for entire teams with just a few clicks rather than touching every individual device. This frees up time to focus on more important innovations.

For Biz

“Time is money.” The more time IT staff has to focus on innovations, the more value they’ll add to the business. Outsourced virtual desktops simplifies many of the most redundant IT task, giving your valuable teams more time to work toward IT transformation goals.

IT Cost

For IT

Opting for desktop as a service allows organizations to implement virtual desktops without installing (and maintaining) the complex, expensive infrastructure required to run a user-friendly, high performance environment. Desktop virtualization can also lengthen hardware refresh cycles as legacy computers can be used for longer or the organization can confidently transition to BYOD with fewer compatibility and security concerns.

For Biz

If one of the main IT transformation goals for many companies is IT cost reducing, the idea of having someone else maintain and update critical infrastructure can be alluring. DaaS also enables organizations to move from CAPEX IT costs to a more predictable and forecastable OPEX model. While it may not see cheaper upfront or on a per desktop basis, DaaS offers some longer term cost benefits in terms of offloading major infrastructure refreshes.

Employee Enablement

For IT

When a new employee joins a company, IT manually provisions their desktop with the appropriate applications and security controls. If the employee is remote, this work takes place in the office and the device is then shipped to the employee. When operating systems or desktop applications need to be patched or updated, this process essentially happens all over again – for each individual desktop.

Managing virtual desktops from a single, centralized location allows IT to reduce the amount of work and more quickly enable employees without sacrificing security or access.

For Biz 

Since IT can get employees working faster (and give any user near instant access to a new application they may need), time to productivity is much quicker with virtual desktops. This extends to opening new offices, hiring remote employees and spinning up new contractors. The easier it is for IT to get desktops up and running, the faster employees can get to work.

Virtual desktops also help with business continuity. If an employee needs to unexpectedly work at home or an entire office is inaccessible (following a natural disaster for instance), employees can securely access their work desktop from any other endpoint device, such as a personal computer. Without this capability, that productivity is lost entirely.

Security

For IT

Following WannaCry and other recent security breaches that took advantage of known vulnerabilities, we all know how important it is to update and patch software in a timely manner. With a large or remote workforce, IT can only updated desktops so quickly when it’s a one-to-one manual process. The longer the vulnerability is left exposed (even on a small number of devices) the longer your draw out your risk of a cyberattack. Virtual desktops make desktop management easier because changes are made to a golden image that then pushes those updates to all end users accessing desktops off that image – even users on personal (BYOD) devices and contractors.

Virtual desktops also isolate corporate data, turning the native device into a shell when the virtual desktop is engaged. This means any employee or contractor using a personal device won’t compromise your network, no matter how poorly maintained their personal environment is.

For Biz

With virtual desktops, all data is stored in a secure data center – never on the endpoint device. That means that if a device is lost or stolen, the data is secure and is less likely to result in a data breach.

Anything a company can adopt that will increase data security – be it isolating data off the endpoint or ensuring fast vulnerability patching – is something every executive and board member should care about.

DaaS Over In-House VDI

While desktop virtualization in any form will provide some of these benefits, it’s important to note that only outsourced desktop as a service alleviates some of the biggest issues. When built in-house, organizations are faced with the cost and resources required to build, maintain and update the complex infrastructure required to run high performance virtual desktops. IT teams also won’t have the provisioning, Golden Image creation and helpdesk support they’d receive as part of a fully managed service.

By selecting the right DaaS provider, organizations can find a partner that will give them the time and tools to focus on business driving goals, making both IT and executives happy.

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• Everything You Need to Know About Virtual Desktops
• Top 5 Reasons to Evolve Your Desktops
• Are You The Reason Employees Aren’t Productive?