Key Takeaways

• VDI and DaaS have emerged as game-changers for businesses in today’s climate of workforce mobility and remote work.
• VDI uses a CAPEX financial model, while DaaS uses OPEX.
• Both VDI and DaaS are set to see at least double-digit adoption growth in the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought desktop as a service (DaaS) and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to light as reliable, scalable technologies to support the remote workforce.

We have seen a notable change in the way people work and live over the past couple of months, and some of these changes will persist beyond the crisis. As the workforce gets scattered across locations, time zones, and devices, ensuring secure access to their applications and data with the similar experience, as in a corporate climate, becomes crucial.

VDI and DaaS can both serve as a solid solution to such challenges as businesses run applications on virtual machine (VM) and server computers that shift the user experience into the browser running on nearly all sorts of connected devices. As per a survey, 36% of the Both VDI and DaaS are set to see at least double-digit adoption growth in the future. respondents have deployed DaaS or VDI for their remote workforce. Moreover, desktop virtualization will witness a double-digit growth within the next 2 years.

Considering such stats, let’s delve into how VDI and DaaS are shaping the corporate world.

Central IT Management

With VDI, desktop sessions are hosted on servers that your business owns. Your IT team (or a solutions partner, like Anunta) takes care of updating the platform, including secure network services. In general, new iterations of the platform are deployed only on an annual basis. VDI is a mature and tried-and-true solution. Some businesses run hundreds of thousands of concurrent user desktop sessions using VDI.

Compared to VDI, DaaS generally provides less control, because DaaS solutions are hosted in a public cloud rather than local servers. However, a potential DaaS benefit is fast update intervals; DaaS software can be updated continuously from the cloud. Just like VDI, DaaS also unleashes new use cases by using flexible infrastructure subscriptions and a global data-center scale.

If your key goal is to deploy a platform where you have full control over the security, broker, locality, and so on, better go with VDI.

Slash IT Expenses

Desktop virtualization lets you reduce the upfront desktop investments and periodic expenses. VDI comes with a considerable capital expense (CAPEX) stemming from initial scaling costs, infrastructure costs, and regular infrastructure updates. But, if the hardware is already in place, businesses can pay off their technical debt and save the existing subscription fees.

DaaS provides more flexible deployment models. You can operate all user desktops/applications in the cloud – a totally OPEX model. With some additional solutions, you can run some or all user desktops/ applications with on-prem infrastructure (with the broker as a cloud service), fusing OPEX and CAPEX.

If you have a clear-cut consumption pattern with predictable growth and aren’t resource-constrained, VDI – or DaaS with user desktops/applications running on-prem – are the most cost-efficient deployment choices.

Straightforward Set-up

From your IT department’s perspective, you need to consider whether you have the expertise, the resources, and a pressing need to apply ‘the art of VDI.’ If you lack the resources to implement and manage VDI, you may be better suited by DaaS.

All virtual desktops and applications need a connection broker – a control plane – that manages tasks such as ensuring safe access to the exact resources and provisioning user sessions.

With VDI, your end user computing (EUC) team handles developing, setting up, securing, and supervising the entire platform, including the broker – a pretty complex process. With DaaS, the control plane is a managed service run by the DaaS vendor.

If you lack the expertise to take up the task of handling VDI, if your hands are already full, or if you have to utilize cloud resources to support your applications, DaaS is recommended as a better option.

Access Data Anywhere, Anytime

Desktop virtualization lets end-users bring their own devices and use them to access applications, files, and cloud services irrespective of the location. This paves the way for a remote desktop/digital workspace, ensuring a better user experience and making it a lot easier to work remotely as the workforce can utilize tablets, PCs, smartphones, and thin clients. Although bring-your-own-device policies are technically possible to implement under a VDI architecture, they are more complicated and much less common.

If you don’t have a large scattered workforce, then, opt for VDI as you need a deployment that will be reachable and accessible to all supported locations. High latency and low bandwidth significantly affect the user experience along with various remote display protocols.

With DaaS, there is no limit or any boundaries. It supports every end-user from the cloud via VMs in several zones to ensure a smooth user experience. Also, you can leverage the cloud as a connection broker for every region, with user VMs operating on-prem in a few or all locations.

Enhanced Flexibility and Elasticity

Because little actual computing occurs at the endpoints, IT crews can extend the service life of outdated PCs by reprogramming them as virtualized endpoints under both DaaS and VDI strategies. And when the time comes to buy new computing devices, businesses can purchase less powerful – and cheaper – end-user devices, including thin clients.

That said, compared to VDI, DaaS deployments require minimal time to get up and running as the platform and infrastructure are already configured for you. You just have to specify desktop users and settings. Scaling with DaaS services only includes requesting ancillary user licenses or desktop instances. You don’t have to buy or spend time preparing new hardware.

With VDI, it takes businesses a lot of time to achieve software upgrades, and you might be constrained by budget and refresh cycles.

The Path Forward

Looking at today’s workplace scenario and robust environment embraced by businesses, we will see more demand for VDI and DaaS and their rise in the market. VDI and DaaS solutions will play a key role in shaping the market. More people will realize the benefits they offer without spending a lot of cash.

Businesses need to stay up-to-date with the latest technologies. DaaS and VDI are poised to be at the center of technological innovation over the coming decade. With the rising demand for cloud – which is driven in part by the COVID-19 crisis – VDI/DaaS deployment has seen about a 100% surge in adoption during 2020, and this trend will continue in the future.