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SaaS vs. DaaS: Know The Differences Between Them

By 6 Mins Read
SaaS vs. DaaS: Know The Differences Between Them

Key Takeaways

  • DaaS provides a whole desktop experience to the users, allowing them to run services and applications, while SaaS delivers software applications through the Internet that can be utilized for various business applications.
  • Both DaaS and SaaS follow the subscription model and ensure significant cost savings to the business.
  • With both DaaS and SaaS, the DaaS or SaaS provider manages important tasks and upgrades.

Let’s face it: ‘cloud’ is the future of computing. Cloud services have seen tremendous growth over the recent past, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further driven the trend in terms of adoption, spending, infrastructure, and development.

Among the various cloud-based services, Desktop as a Service (DaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) are playing a huge role in revolutionizing the workplace in the digital era. Both these cloud services let businesses of all sizes and forms leverage most of their existing resources that only larger enterprises could earlier use – warding off the need for an on-prem desktop or IT and infrastructure expenses. Let’s explore DaaS and SaaS in detail, as well as the differences between these two.

DaaS

DaaS is a subscription service that offers businesses remote desktop sessions. The sessions themselves are hosted in Virtual Machines, or VMs, that run in the cloud. Using a Web browser or local application, authorized users can connect to these cloud-based desktop sessions to  access their files and applications from anywhere, and at any time. Virtually ny application you already use or are looking to use can be integrated into a DaaS model.

Also, you can decide if you want to transfer some or all of the applications you utilize to the cloud. DaaS offers you any degree of flexibility your business – no matter the size – requires while still letting you manage your desktop and data.

Best of all, DaaS lets you maintain all of the same functionality provided by the software without compromising control over any of your data. You no longer have to host the applications or maintain the complex IT infrastructure.

SaaS

SaaS is a cloud-driven version of a discrete element of software (or a software package) that is provided to end-users through the Internet. The end-user doesn’t own the application, and it is not stored in the end user’s computing device. Rather, the end-user accesses the application based on a subscription model and pays for licenses as per the number of users that have to utilize the application.

SaaS is easy to handle and use as long as you have smooth internet connectivity and a device with sufficient RAM to run the program. Moreover, you don’t need to worry about upgrading or updating your programs to the latest versions as the cloud hosting service provider takes care of the updates.

DaaS vs. SaaS: The Key Differences

Working
Managed DaaS provides users with virtual desktops that let them manage a bundle of applications and services, and the associated data produced by the applications. In this cloud model, the DaaS provider copies the user’s data to and from a virtual desktop to log in and log out.

SaaS provides software to anybody having a connected computing device, smooth internet access, and a web browser. The software is a web-based application whose backend operations and database are all done in the cloud.

Control
DaaS provides an entire desktop experience to the user over the internet. The cloud model offers users the option of storing all user information, application data, and others, within their own data center, providing them complete control. In general, a data center capable of sharing/isolating data is set up to let the users have certain control over the data.

On the other hand, SaaS only provides access to a single (or, in some cases, a few applications), which are shared across several clients following the “one-to-many” model. In addition, SaaS doesn’t deliver a complete desktop environment; it only provides applications.

Interoperability
With DaaS, the user’s entire desktop is virtualized and put together, enabling applications to integrate smoothly. SaaS applications can be integrated and leveraged along with each other, too; however, it’s often hard to do this because of their hosting location and how they are delivered to end-users.

Mobility
Although it’s usually possible to access DaaS sessions from a mobile device, DaaS is typically designed to be used in conjunction with a PC and a full-size screen.

In contrast, many SaaS applications are designed to work equally well regardless of whether users connect to them from a PC or from a mobile device, like a smartphone or tablet. 

Ideal Use Cases: SaaS vs. DaaS
DaaS is ideal for businesses that are resource-limited, but still want to leverage cloud computing solutions.

SaaS is ideal for businesses with individual applications that users need to access from any device. This service level makes it pretty easy to access the web sans the need for any hardware updates or upgrades.

DaaS SaaS
Delivers a complete desktop as a service Delivers individual software applications as a service
Delivers virtual desktops and applications. Operates web-based applications.
The DaaS provider manages critical management tasks and upgrades. Critical backups and computations are all handled in the cloud.
Ideal for those who need virtual desktops with high computational abilities in remote areas. Ideal for those who don’t want to spend on the hardware for specific software.
You can install your desktop apps on the virtual desktops of the service provider. The SaaS software is owned by the service provider.
Applications can be integrated easily into a DaaS model. Integrating applications in a SaaS model can sometimes become difficult.

Final Words

Cloud data centers will process 94% of all workloads in 2021. It is apparent that cloud computing is rapidly becoming the new norm; indeed, some businesses are now totally phasing out their on-prem software and replacing them with cloud-based alternatives.

So, what’s your next move for your business – DaaS or SaaS? Well, it all boils down to your business’s core requirements, size, and complexity. Both the cloud services discussed above deliver the leading-edge features, flexibility, and choice to users that on-prem hosting models cannot.

Figuring out the right service for a required scope of work is essential, irrespective of your choice of tools. The better you decide between DaaS and SaaS, the better you choose and implement.

A final note: Keep in mind that DaaS and SaaS are not mutually exclusive. You could take advantages of DaaS to lower your desktop operating costs and simplify your desktop infrastructure, while also using SaaS applications. Indeed, SaaS apps could be accessed from within DaaS desktop sessions.

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In DaaS

What is the Difference Between VDI and DaaS?

By 6 Mins Read
What is the Difference Between VDI and DaaS?

DaaS – All You Need to Know About Desktop as a Service

What is DaaS?

In simple terms, DaaS, just like SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS, is a cloud service that allows users to connect to a virtual desktop from anywhere in the world, provided they are connected to the internet. DaaS is among the best solutions for small and medium businesses for remote working.

Benefits of DaaS

  1. A highly reliable and secure solution: DaaS allows users to access their virtual desktops using any device (laptop, smartphone, or tablet, etc.), regardless of where they are physically located. This allows businesses to quickly add new users when they need and adopt the concept of distributed workforce to become future ready. Hosted on the inherently secure cloud, and often complemented with two factor authentication, DaaS allows users to securely access their desktops from anywhere.
  2. Disaster recovery: Another key advantage of DaaS is that it mitigates challenges that businesses face in ensuring business continuity in the event of a disaster. Since DaaS provides cloud-hosted desktops, you can be certain that sensitive data and business applications are secure at all times. Additionally, you have the choice to opt for instant infrastructure duplication at any time.
  3. Cost-effective:  With DaaS, you only have to pay what you actually use, with monthly or annual subscription models. This helps lower your capital expenses, given that you would have otherwise had to allocate capital to purchase servers, desktop hardware, and licenses. Additionally, when you adopt DaaS, you have more predictable operational expenses.
  4. Flexible:  One of the key reasons why enterprises invest in DaaS is because it allows their employees to become more agile and work remotely. With DaaS, employees can access their desktops, applications, and data, via a PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, from anywhere in the world. Thus, DaaS helps you create a more modern workplace.  
  5. Agility and scalability: DaaS helps you scale up to meet increases in demand (such as the need to deliver desktop sessions to more employees). Likewise, you can quickly scale down the number of resources you consume if business requirements decrease. Simply put, you can have more hosted desktops available to you during peak seasons, and then return to your original usage pattern once the peak season has ended when you use DaaS.
  6. Ensures compliance: Regulatory laws usually dictate how digital data should be stored and managed, and may prevent you from storing data in a certain geographic location. DaaS helps businesses adhere to compliance laws by offering flexibility in terms of data storage. 

VDI vs DaaS – The 5 Key Differences

Now that you know what DaaS is, you are likely wondering what the difference between VDI and DaaS is. The two types of deployments have certain distinct differences. Here’s how they compare:

  1. Single-tenant vs multi-tenant
    VDI deployments essentially work on a single-tenant model, where resources are dedicated to a single organization or user. This provides more flexibility to the user and also removes the chance that the resource demands of other users will affect your company’s deployments. In comparison, most cloud desktop services work on multi-tenant models. Here, your company’s service is hosted on a single physical server that is shared with multiple other organizations.
  2. Desktop session type
    When it comes to VDI, desktop environments function as virtual sessions on one host operating system. In comparison, in DaaS, different virtual sessions function as separate virtual machines. This means, when you deploy DaaS, you get more isolation between different desktop environments.
  3. Historical popularity
    Although both DaaS and VDI technologies have been present for many years now, VDI has witnessed a higher usage rate among businesses. That said, DaaS is now rising in popularity as well and may overtake VDI in terms of usage rates, in the near future.
  4. Cost
    VDI deployments typically require substantial upfront expenses. However, VDI does result in long-term savings. In comparison, the DaaS deployments don’t require you to invest too much capital upfront, but you may incur some ongoing subscription fees. With this, you can be assured that you are only spending on resources that you are actually using. For businesses with fluctuating requirements, desktop as a service may be a cheaper option.
  5. Agility
     VDI usually takes quite some time to set up and can be challenging to modify once it is established. However, DaaS deployments typically happen a lot faster, thanks to the fact that the platform and infrastructure are already configured. All you need to do is define the users and desktop settings, to get started. 

Use Cases of DaaS

DaaS systems offer benefits to businesses across sectors like Banking, Finance, Healthcare, and more. From offering increased security to reducing overall costs and simplifying regulatory compliance matters, DaaS helps businesses operate more profitably. Here are a few uses cases of the DaaS technology:

– Security and compliance, which are easier to manage using remote desktop sessions.
– Bring your own device (BYOD) policies, which can be reconciled with security requirements by allowing employees to connect to secure, centrally managed DaaS desktop sessions from their own devices. 
– Contractors and temporary workers.
– Remote office workers.
– Field workers .

By providing on-demand access to desktop environments for your workforce, DaaS helps increase the productivity of employees, while also ensuring that all data and applications are stored securely as per the compliance laws in your country.

DaaS – Future Trends

Desktop as a Service has seen increased adoption in key sectors like Banking, Healthcare, Finance, and more. A report from Absolute Markets Insights indicates that the DaaS market is poised to witness a CAGR growth of 20.82% from 2019 to 2027. Gartner forecasts that the total number of DaaS users will grow by more than 150% between 2020 and 2023. This doesn’t come as a surprise given that an increasing number of companies are opting for DaaS to grow their IT operations.

Should You Invest in DaaS or VDI Right Now?

Since you now know the differences between VDI and DaaS, you can decide which of the two technologies to deploy in your organization. Regardless of which technology you intend to use, we can leverage our decade’s worth of experience with virtualization technologies to provide you with a seamless transition to either VDI or DaaS. Reach out to us today to learn more about our offerings!

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In Cloud

How Cloud Desktops Can Help You Save Costs

By 5 Mins Read
How Cloud Desktops Help You Save Costs | Anunta Tech

Key Takeaways

  • The cost benefit analysis of soft cost expenses is more difficult to ascertain than hard cost but the impact can affect the bottom line.
  • Cloud desktops enable businesses to eliminate server hardware and related licensing costs.
  • Fees for cloud desktops are generally based on the number of users and resources consumed each month.

CFO Viewpoint: How Do Cloud Desktops Help Save Costs?

Many businesses face dilemmas determining which services are best maintained in-house versus those that should be subcontracted. Some decisions, such as a yard maintenance service, are straightforward, whereas decisions related to technology require careful business and technical consideration.

Looking at IT-related decisions from the standpoint of the CFO, financial viability and service advantages are key considerations that should be addressed alongside technical feasibility. As such, we shall review the costs associated with in-house IT systems and compare those with cloud desktops.

In-House: Hard Costs and Soft Costs

Hard costs are the primary consideration for CFOs; these include items such as employee/management costs, consulting, server hardware, asset financing, and licensing. Soft costs secondarily impact financial decisions, including employee productivity, competitive advantage, and flexibility.

DaaS providers maintains all computing systems, all costs associated with procuring server hardware and related network equipment, including licensing, are eliminated.

Paying for the right people, systems, and equipment affects the bottom line. Where an in-house computing solution is deployed, paying the salaries of high-level IT staff, including security experts, may be financially prohibitive. Further, recruiting fees, employee benefits, and staff training must be factored into total costs. In addition, the costs associated with the computing systems, including server hardware, network equipment, service agreements, and data center space, power, and services, as well as operating system and application licensing, have a profound impact on the IT budget. Hard costs are straightforward and easy to calculate.

Although soft costs are more difficult to quantify, these items do indeed impact every business. Will an IT-related expenditure enable the business to compete more effectively or gain an advantage in the market? Will employee productivity increase due to a new application or a new computing process? Will system flexibility enable more employees to work from home, saving real estate space? The cost/benefit analysis of these items is more difficult to ascertain than hard cost expenditures, but the impact can indeed affect the bottom line.

Small businesses in particular struggle with maintaining end-user computing services. For example, hiring a security expert is cost prohibitive for a small business, but yet, leaving the IT systems vulnerable and falling prey to hackers could destroy the enterprise.

Cloud Desktops

Adopting cloud desktops is particularly appealing for small businesses; however, many medium-sized enterprises also find this technology advantageous. In addition to minimizing hard costs, engaging a Desktop as a Service (DaaS) provider delivers additional functionality that would likely be otherwise out of reach for in-house systems.

Cloud desktops enable businesses to eliminate server hardware and related licensing costs entirely. Because the DaaS provider maintains all computing systems, all costs associated with procuring server hardware and related network equipment, including licensing, are eliminated. For example, if an in-house system is dependent upon large servers that support hypervisor functionality, these costs, as well as related network equipment, would no longer be necessary. In addition, the in-house staff needed to support cloud desktop administration is minimal. The savings related to hard costs alone is typically enough to justify cloud computing. And there are many additional benefits.

DaaS providers take responsibility for support desk associates, system maintenance, and security. This includes not only the IT staff, but also change control systems, help desk ticket applications, after-hours anti-virus updates, backup/restore processes, system reliability commitments, and more. The service level that DaaS providers offer is often far superior to that which a small- or medium-sized enterprise can provide in-house.

Fees for cloud desktops are generally based on the number of users and resources consumed each month. DaaS providers are able to offer services based on a mass scale, and the cost is thus more reasonable for each enterprise. For example, DaaS providers are able to employ security experts that oversee the resources of a large number of clients, thus the salaries, benefits, and training costs for this expert group are a fraction for each enterprise and built into the charges. Small and many medium-sized businesses cannot afford to have this breadth of staff expertise.

If a major issue were to arise, such as a security or application access issue, DaaS providers have sufficient staff to address an issue quickly. Once a Priority 1 (P1) status is declared–implying an emergency situation wherein many users cannot access resources–numerous individual with various areas of expertise s are assembled to focus on remediating the problem in short order, as well as communicating status with the client.

Compare that with an in-house system that relies on calling technical support or a consultant in order to determine where an issue lies and then working through remediation. The cost for these emergency services from the DaaS provider is included in the monthly fees and actually represents a cost savings because downtime is minimized. Because downtime equates to lost revenue within every enterprise, having a group of technical experts immediately available ensures that service impact is minimal.

How Do Cloud Desktops Save Costs?

While the exact numbers for each enterprise will vary, cloud desktops invariably represent a cost savings, especially for small businesses. Hard costs alone will likely justify the financial aspects of cloud desktops. Of course, each CFO should calculate the current hard and soft costs in order to determine specific savings that can be realized by adopting cloud desktops.

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