DaaS – what is it ?

DaaS is an acronym for Desktop as a Service.

DaaS is an outsourced service offering in which a service provider hosts the infrastructure and storage to deliver manage your company’s desktop devices. For many people, DaaS is more difficult to understand than IaaS, PaaS or SaaS. This is probably because IaaS, PaaS or SaaS are all server focused and it is easy to envisage a remote third-party hosted servers service, however it is not so easy to envisage how the ‘PC on my desk’ can be virtualised and run remotely.

DaaS uses desktop virtualisation or VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) to deliver a standard desktop to the users in your company. The desktop (or laptop) device used to access the service can be a ‘thin client’ which means there is very little infrastructure required at the company premises. 

DaaS services are usually accessed by the Internet or in some cases, by a private network.

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What is the relationship between Cloud Computing and DaaS ?

Cloud Computing is a generic term that describes shared computing resources that can be dynamically scaled according to business requirements, faster than traditional computing environments.

DaaS is one delivery model of Cloud Computing. Refer to these articles for information about other delivery models: IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service).

Service delivery options

SaaS is offered through a number of different delivery options, such as Public cloud service, Private cloud, Hybrid cloud and managed cloud.

Refer to this article about Cloud Computing for further information.

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What are the benefits of using DaaS ?

• The up-front cost of introducing desktop infrastructure is reduced, as the usual capital investment in hardware is replaced by a monthly ‘usage’ charge. The economic benefit of this should be verified to account for the services used and data volumes.
• The cost of using the system (should be) less than the cost of hosting it yourself, when taking into account all the infrastructure costs such as hardware, software, backups, contingency provision and ongoing upgrades and maintenance.
• Provides a standard desktop that is secure and locked-down for the users in your company.
• Cost of deploying and upgrading an application can be lower than installing on separate desktops.
• Desktop devices last longer. This is because they are almost a ‘dumb screen’ and don’t need significant processing power, therefore they won’t need upgrading to cope with new applications.

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What should I be aware of before using DaaS ?

• The desktop is usually ‘locked-down’ to some extent, meaning that changes to its configuration will be restricted. If your company has ‘power users’ who have the ability to change their desktop and install software, this solution is unsuitable.
• Deploying a non-standard application may not be possible or may incur charges from the supplier.
• Multi-media applications that demand high processing power or fast graphics capability don’t tend to work well.
• Attaching non-standard peripherals may be difficult, such as USB devices, dongles and bank security card readers.
• Perform due-diligence on the supplier to ensure they are financially stable and have security and operational policies and procedures in place that are at least as comprehensive as those of your company.
• Ensure you know where your data is. Many companies have a legal and regulatory obligation to know exactly where their data is.
• Ensure you know who has access to your data at the service provider. You don’t want a disgruntled employee of the service provider taking a copy of your client database.
• Ensure the data is encrypted on the service provider’s servers and on their backups.
• Ensure the backed-up data is available for you to recover from as a result of an issue caused by your company. For example, many Cloud service providers perform regular backups, but will only restore if they suffer a problem. This won’t help you if you accidentally delete some of your data.
• Ensure you understand the legal and regulatory requirements that you must comply with. For example the retention of month-end backups.
• Ensure the infrastructure is configurable to meet your needs ‘out of the box’. For example, make sure you have the ability to restart servers and install software as you need to.
• Understand how upgrades to the operating system software are applied and whether you have the opportunity to test your business systems on the new version before it is implemented for live use.
• Understand how the system and its security will be integrated into your company’s existing infrastructure.
• Delivery of the service is totally dependent on the performance and stability of the network. Make sure that both the company premises and the hosting provider have sufficient capacity and diverse routing to cope in the event of a failure.

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What is the financial impact of using DaaS ?

Financially, the significant difference of Cloud Computing to the traditional model of owning your own servers, is that Cloud Computing is typically charged on a pay-as-you-use operating expense instead of a capital investment. This may suit many companies, as they can very quickly get access to significant computing power and capacity for no capital outlay. However, tight control needs to be kept on the use of the services, as it is easy to expand and hence increase ongoing charges.

Charges are typically based on the number of virtualised desktops, the amount of network traffic and the data storage space used.

Watch-out for the network traffic charge. Often this is capped at an amount per month. If your Cloud Computing has public access, the network usage could be out of your control and you could end-up paying an excess network usage cost.

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Examples of DaaS

An example of DaaS is the OnePoint Office managed desktop service from Jersey Telecom.

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Do I still need an IT capability in-house ?

It depends on whether the server-side infrastructure is hosted externally. It would be unusual to outsource DaaS and not the server-side. If both sides are hosted externally, the in-house IT capability changes to one of ‘box swapping’ when a desktop unit fails because activities such as hardware maintenance and backups transfer to the service provider. The role of IT changes to be less engineering focused and being closer to the business.

Also read ….

• Cloud Computing – what is everyone so excited ?
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Software as a Service (SaaS)

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