Finding the Right Enterprise DaaS for You!

In a world of smartphones, tablets, and laptops, employees continue to access corporate data from their personal devices. While they may be doing it to get their work done faster, it can still expose your company to big risks. Desktop as a Service (DaaS) can help you support the on-the-move workforce without putting your organization’s security in jeopardy. You need to remember that DaaS can only be helpful to you under specific scenarios.

Selecting the Right DaaS Solution

To put it simply, DaaS desktops are like custom computers that are built according to the exact system specifications of the applications that you want to install on them. The biggest benefit of DaaS comes when it’s time to upgrade the system because with the entire hardware layer virtualized, it’s not as important as before, or as expensive.

Building and maintaining in-house VDI is complex, and requires a lot of time, effort, resources, expertise and budget. Employing a Desktop-as-a-Service model shifts that burden off in-house teams and onto a provider, allowing internal resources to focus on more strategic projects.

When trying to decide which DaaS provider to choose, there are four major areas that need consideration:

1. Support
2. Cost
3. Features
4. Infrastructure

Support

Evaluating support during the vetting and decision making process is important because some providers do not include any level of support in their offering unless you are willing to pay an additional fee.

Pre-Sales: Don’t underestimate the value of good support when implementing and maintaining DaaS. Finding a true business partner means building a relationship with the company you will be working with, and it starts with how they take care of you in the sales process. Ask questions like does the DaaS provider take time to understand your business and future goals? Do they illustrate technical and business expertise in configuring a custom solution for you?

During Project: Successful implementation can make or break a VDI deployment and your ability to manage it moving forward. Ask what level of support is provided during the project implementation as well as roles and responsibilities. This should encompass not only technical support requirements, but also how any obstacles that come up during the setup process that will be handled.

After-Sales: What level of ongoing support will your DaaS partner provide after deployment? Your organization’s time is important and if your desktop environment goes dark, business comes to a stop. Will your DaaS provider bring expert resources to bear 24x7x365 or will you have to rely on self-serve help documentation?

Cost

One of the key benefits of “as-a-service” consumption models is to shift capital expenses (CapEx) to operating expenses (OpEx) in order to decrease and plan for overall cost. DaaS is no different. The challenge, however, can come when comparing providers and the price vs. service they offer. A low price on the website certainly seems attractive, but it could be missing some essential components at the base price or leave you responsible for some key elements (such as antimalware, tuning and patching). Similarly, you may be able to “get” all the features you want at a lower price, but the quality of the service and end user experience could be worse than if you went with a different provider. Pay close attention to what you’re charged for and how you’re charged to ensure you fully understand the potential cost of your new DaaS solution.

Features

• Compliance
• Availability of Persistent and Non-persistent Desktops
• Single sign-on Capabilities
• Softphone Integration
• Multi-factor Authentication
• Application Virtualization
• Controls at the User and Group Policies Objects levels
• Endpoint Management
• Included Antivirus and Antimalware 

Infrastructure

One of the most important aspects of implementing a successful DaaS initiative is vetting the underlying infrastructure required to support a virtual desktop deployment. When evaluating potential DaaS providers, it’s vital that teams pay close attention to the solution’s underlying infrastructure to ensure it is able to meet expectations.

Storage Performance: Storage performance can directly impact user experience. To be sure that storage performance doesn’t negatively impact user experience; opt for a DaaS provider that employs robust solid state storage.

Resource Management: If you’re deploying DaaS as a replacement for hardware provisioning or to enable secure work at home and BYOD programs, ensuring a consistent, reliable desktop experience is key. For this you’ll need each virtual desktop to have dedicated (rather than shared) resources that meet your minimum computing needs.

Network Architecture: Look for an underlying network architecture that is structured to support an effective experience and protect performance at all levels.

Given the complexities of implementing desktop-as-a-service, businesses should take their time vetting potential vendors and involve IT in asking questions to understand how the solution will be implemented. The right solution can upgrade your desktop devices overnight, but the wrong one can handicap your efforts to build a more efficient, scalable enterprise!

Why USAM?
USAM is the ultimate resource for IT Support and Services in Chennai. USAM along with HP DaaS services helps your business to achieve the desired business goals by improving your network architecture, resource management, after-sales and pre-sales services.
To learn more, get in touch with us at marketing@usam.in.