VDI Plants the Seeds for Desktops in the Cloud Desktop as a service offers savings over virtual desktop infrastructure, but both DaaS and VDI come with benefits for desktop delivery and management.

EDITOR’S NOTE DAAS GROWS TO COMPANIES CAN SCALABILITY AND MEET ARCHITECTURAL, REAP BENEFITS PRICE NURTURE DAAS DEVELOPER NEEDS FROM DESKTOPS APPEAL IN THE CLOUD EDITOR’S NOTE What’s So Special About Desktop Delivery?

IT pundits have been predicting explo- performance, management and cost savings. HOME sive growth for virtual desktop infrastructure Next, editor Ryan McLaughlin looks at rea- EDITOR’S NOTE (VDI) and desktop as a service (DaaS) for some sons for the increasing popularity of cloud- time now, but the reality is quieter but just as based desktops and how they compare with DAAS GROWS TO MEET ARCHITECTURAL, important to enterprises. The technologies are VDI’s benefits. Finally, desktop virtualization DEVELOPER NEEDS similar and complementary, depending on how expert Brian Madden examines how scalability

COMPANIES CAN REAP you need to deliver desktops to users. Adop- and price are making DaaS more attractive. In BENEFITS FROM DESKTOPS tion may not be booming as much as promised, the past few years, large IT vendors have got- IN THE CLOUD but VDI and DaaS each provide capabilities ten into the act, not only strengthening the SCALABILITY AND that admins should consider. prospects for DaaS, but also demonstrating the PRICE NURTURE DAAS APPEAL Consultant Todd Knapp compares use cases maturity of VDI. n for VDI and DaaS. He notes that local, on-prem- ises desktops aren’t going away anytime soon, Eugene Demaitre but it pays to keep an eye on evolving endpoint Associate Managing Editor tools. Understand what they offer in terms of End User Computing Group, TechTarget

2 VDI PLANTS THE SEEDS FOR DESKTOPS IN THE CLOUD COMPARING DAAS AND VDI DaaS Grows to Meet Architectural, Developer Needs

It was the spring of 2000 when I first desktop as a service (DaaS). HOME looked at virtual desktops. In the new millen- DaaS is just getting a foothold in the market- EDITOR’S NOTE nium, a new server paradigm had arrived with place. VMware’s Horizon Air, Work- the release of Active Directory. A Citrix rep spaces, Microsoft Azure and a host of smaller DAAS GROWS TO MEET ARCHITECTURAL, told me how, in five years, it would be hard to providers are attempting to deliver the security, DEVELOPER NEEDS find a physical desktop in the corporate world. portability and centralized management of vir-

COMPANIES CAN REAP Nine years later, physical desktops were still tual desktop infrastructure (VDI) without the BENEFITS FROM DESKTOPS everywhere, and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure overhead and specialized skill sets required to IN THE CLOUD 3.0 was renamed VMware View. At VMworld, I own your own deployment. SCALABILITY AND again heard that the coming year would be “the Some industry observers even believe that PRICE NURTURE DAAS APPEAL year of the desktop.” DaaS will be enough to tip the scales away from Another half-decade later, and I drafted this physical computing at the endpoint and that it article on my virtual desktop. Of course, I’m could even “kill” on-premises VDI. still surrounded by physical PCs, but at least I’ve made the transition myself. The past five years have been busy, with Microsoft, Citrix CHOOSE THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB and VMware all fighting for dominance at The debate over which one is better can be the endpoint. The waters have been mud- misleading; VDI and DaaS are both tools that died, though, with the addition of zero clients, provide the most value when they are in skilled mobile devices including tablets, and hybrid hands and being applied to the right problem. cloud-federated operating systems, as well as So, where does DaaS fit in the toolkit when

3 VDI PLANTS THE SEEDS FOR DESKTOPS IN THE CLOUD COMPARING DAAS AND VDI compared to own-your-own VDI or even phys- It should also be noted that the architecture ical desktops? described above is best fit to remote or mobile DaaS offers organizations the ability to have users as opposed to pools of users sitting rapidly scalable virtual desktops while avoiding locally to the servers. This is because remote the costs of local infrastructure and a product- users will access DaaS via the Internet and specific VDI skill set. However, it’s not enough then open applications via the direct connec- HOME to simply spin up a desktop in the cloud. An tion from the cloud to your network. EDITOR’S NOTE enterprise must be able to access resources that Local users would likely need to transit the are meaningful to the user. same connection to DaaS as that cloud uses to DAAS GROWS TO MEET ARCHITECTURAL, In other words, if my servers are here and my access the applications. This effectively adds DEVELOPER NEEDS desktops are in the cloud, how do I get access load to that connection, potentially affecting

COMPANIES CAN REAP to my applications and data? performance. Thus, you need a larger circuit or BENEFITS FROM DESKTOPS Some providers address this issue by offer- additional connections, either of which costs IN THE CLOUD ing VPN connectivity or even direct point-to- more money. SCALABILITY AND point circuits between your core infrastructure So, , the ideal use for DaaS will be one PRICE NURTURE DAAS APPEAL and their cloud platform. In most cases, these where the servers and applications that a large services are offered by peripheral, or niche, population uses can be located in the cloud. providers in the DaaS space. This is where bigger providers such as VMware Direct connections can absolutely work, but and Amazon have a strong play. operationally this is exactly the same as hav- Imagine a company that needs to rapidly ing a branch office full of PCs that connect establish a support center for a new prod- back to your servers to access applications. uct that’s gaining rapid adoption. Typically, All the problems that could occur in that sce- it might race to buy real estate, renovate, buy nario—such as performance lag for bandwidth- support center software, build servers, set intensive applications—will follow you in this up a resource domain and buy PCs (or roll architecture. local VDI).

4 VDI PLANTS THE SEEDS FOR DESKTOPS IN THE CLOUD COMPARING DAAS AND VDI With DaaS, the company has a new option. DaaS has utility for development It can subscribe to a cloud provider, federate teams, but consider the implica- its AD environment to that cloud, stand up tions. Do data security policies some cloud VMs for the call-center application cover such systems? What about and then spin up virtual desktops for the user regulatory compliance? population that will work from home. No office HOME full of desks, no insurance needed and no new EDITOR’S NOTE infrastructure to manage. leakage prevention policies need to evolve to Of course, lots of companies will still choose support the DaaS paradigm. DAAS GROWS TO MEET ARCHITECTURAL, to seat their employees on premises, but that One unconventional application of DaaS DEVELOPER NEEDS doesn’t diminish the value of being able to technology is increasingly taking hold. That’s

COMPANIES CAN REAP rapidly scale or deploy siloed user groups and DaaS as a disaster recovery tool. If you’re repli- BENEFITS FROM DESKTOPS workloads. cating your servers to a cloud provider, why not IN THE CLOUD consider subscribing to DaaS and maintaining SCALABILITY AND an updated master image in the cloud? PRICE NURTURE DAAS APPEAL DAAS AND DEVELOPERS In the event of a disaster, you can spin up As with many cloud technologies, DaaS also your virtual machines and then use the master has utility for development teams. Standalone to provision a volume of desktops that can be pools of desktops can provide rapidly deploy- delivered to users either at home or at a tem- able, unpolluted OSes for test processes and porary operating location. an off-network assessment of Web-delivered company assets. Be careful, though, to consider the implica- THIS IS NOT THE END tions of DaaS for testing and development. DaaS clearly has a lot of great uses. So, why Do data security policies cover such systems? won’t this be the end of on-premises virtual What about regulatory compliance? Data desktops? The answer is that there are plenty

5 VDI PLANTS THE SEEDS FOR DESKTOPS IN THE CLOUD COMPARING DAAS AND VDI of cases where local VDI makes more sense. The bottom line is that DaaS is one more Highly customized environments and perfor- step in the evolution of endpoint computing. mance-sensitive desktops may require GPU It’s not going to replace physical desktops offload, protocol offload or advanced hardware or even on-premises VDI. While desktop in performance characteristics that aren’t avail- the cloud is a powerful proposition, it does able in DaaS contracts. require planning if you want it to be effec- HOME Compliance-sensitive organizations may tive. EDITOR’S NOTE want the flexibility and centralized manage- VDI and DaaS are still evolving. There’s a lot ment of VDI, but they aren’t yet comfortable of discussion now about abstracted applica- DAAS GROWS TO MEET ARCHITECTURAL, letting the data leave their direct control. tions being delivered to mobile devices without DEVELOPER NEEDS In addition, large environments where work- the overhead of the surrounding OS.

COMPANIES CAN REAP loads are varied and users aren’t as siloed as in The desktop-delivery toolkit will get ever BENEFITS FROM DESKTOPS the support center case may find that it’s not bigger as the focus shifts from the delivery IN THE CLOUD feasible to span local resources to desktops that methodology and the compute paradigm to SCALABILITY AND are delivered remotely. empowering the user. —Todd Knapp PRICE NURTURE DAAS APPEAL

6 VDI PLANTS THE SEEDS FOR DESKTOPS IN THE CLOUD CLOUD BENEFITS Companies Can Reap Benefits From Desktops in the Cloud

As the use of mobile technology in the VDI yourself—and fronting the associated HOME enterprise continues to grow, employees expect costs—DaaS allows your company to subscribe EDITOR’S NOTE to have efficient access to work resources from to one of several services that will do the heavy anywhere at any time. Companies looking lifting for you. DAAS GROWS TO MEET ARCHITECTURAL, for a low-cost, highly scalable desktop deliv- Customers are still responsible for manag- DEVELOPER NEEDS ery model can reap major benefits by putting ing their own desktop images, applications and

COMPANIES CAN REAP desktops in the cloud as an alternative to full- security, unless desktop management services BENEFITS FROM DESKTOPS fledged VDI. are included as a part of the subscription. For IN THE CLOUD Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is com- all intents and purposes, DaaS is a far simpler SCALABILITY AND plex to pilot, deploy and manage, however, and option than VDI to give employees a way to PRICE NURTURE DAAS APPEAL it’s difficult to provide a flawless user experi- remote in. DaaS provides end users the advan- ence. But desktop as a service (DaaS) can save tages of VDI at the cost of a subscription. It you from much of that trouble. It can also help also has the advantages of more time, more keep your employees happy and productive and money and less stress for you. make your job a little easier. If you’re a small or midsize business and you want to provide employees access to virtual desktops but a VDI is cost-prohibitive, DaaS WHAT IS DAAS, AND WHY SHOULD I USE IT? might be right for you. It’s also a good option DaaS is a cloud-based desktop-delivery model if your user base is currently small but you in which a cloud provider hosts and delivers expect it to expand in the future. virtual desktops to users. Rather than hosting If your organization already relies on

7 VDI PLANTS THE SEEDS FOR DESKTOPS IN THE CLOUD CLOUD BENEFITS Web-based applications, if your efforts to get up a virtual infrastructure, including any new VDI up and running have failed, or if you want personnel you might need to manage it. employees to be able to work from almost As with VDI, users will be able to work from anywhere on nearly any device without a lot anywhere. But with cloud desktops, they can of trouble, DaaS could help. And you also can benefit from improved performance, even on use DaaS if you just want some of the difficult smartphones and other hardware that is less HOME parts of managing a VDI to be someone else’s powerful than PCs or laptops. As a result, EDITOR’S NOTE problem. devices and workers can be more efficient and productive. DAAS GROWS TO MEET ARCHITECTURAL, Unlike VDI, the costs of DaaS over time are DEVELOPER NEEDS COMPARE THE BENEFITS OF DAAS VS. VDI predictable, thanks to the subscription-based

COMPANIES CAN REAP Cloud desktops are cheaper, easier to use and model that providers use. Additionally, you BENEFITS FROM DESKTOPS easier to implement than VDI. They can save aren’t responsible for the time and money it IN THE CLOUD your IT department from some of the hassle takes to replace faulty hardware. SCALABILITY AND that comes with VDI because the DaaS pro- DaaS is becoming increasingly popular, which PRICE NURTURE DAAS APPEAL vider your company chooses will take care of means many flavors are available for compa- resource provisioning, load balancing and net- nies looking to hop on the bandwagon. Options work issues. include Amazon WorkSpaces, VMware Horizon In addition, DaaS pilot programs require DaaS, Virtual Bridges’ Verde, dinCLoud, Leo- much less planning than VDI pilots. If your Stream, tuCloud and DaaS from Citrix. Citrix company expands or downsizes, DaaS can and VMware also both provide Windows as a instantly expand or downsize with it. DaaS also service through public cloud providers. circumvents the upfront costs required to set —Ryan McLaughlin

8 VDI PLANTS THE SEEDS FOR DESKTOPS IN THE CLOUD DAAS APPEAL Scalability and Price Nurture DaaS Appeal

New products from major vendors at year or two? There are a few reasons. HOME pretty low price points—plus the benefits First, VMware bought Desktone, one of the EDITOR’S NOTE of cloud scalability and performance—make world’s most prominent DaaS providers. This desktop as a service (DaaS) more viable than deal came as a surprise to many people because DAAS GROWS TO MEET ARCHITECTURAL, ever. Customers can tiptoe their way into a VMware previously only sold build-it-yourself DEVELOPER NEEDS new technology without having to make a huge VDI software. But as VMware transitions its

COMPANIES CAN REAP capital investment. business from on-premises software to cloud- BENEFITS FROM DESKTOPS Think of DaaS like virtual desktop infra- based platforms, it makes sense that this move IN THE CLOUD structure (VDI) that you pay for as a service would include desktops too. And buying Desk- SCALABILITY AND from someone else. So traditional VDI means tone gives VMware a foothold in the DaaS mar- PRICE NURTURE DAAS APPEAL you build a bunch of servers in your own data ket, especially since VMware has the ear of the center to host desktop virtual machines that majority of CIOs on the planet. your users access remotely. With DaaS, you Shortly after that, we learned that Amazon don’t build anything—you just pay some pro- is also getting into the DaaS business with vider to give your users access to their desk- Amazon WorkSpaces. WorkSpaces was built tops in the provider’s cloud. internally by Amazon, though it licensed the From a technology standpoint, VDI and DaaS PC-over-IP remote display protocol from are nearly the same thing. The only difference —the same protocol VMware uses for is where the servers live and how you pay for VDI, incidentally. Amazon has a stellar reputa- them. The proof is in the pudding. So why do tion of being able to deliver cloud-based ser- we think DaaS has finally arrived in the past vices that customers trust.

9 VDI PLANTS THE SEEDS FOR DESKTOPS IN THE CLOUD DAAS APPEAL What’s amazing about Amazon’s DaaS offer- advantages of any software as a service or ing is the price point. The company offered a cloud-based product, including cloud scal- fully persistent personal Windows desktop VM ability and performance. Customers can tiptoe with 4 GB of RAM for $35 per month, per user. their way into a new technology without hav- At that price, it was cheaper than what most ing to make a huge capital investment, they can organizations could build on their own inter- scale up and scale down instantly, and they can HOME nally. (Read that again to understand the grav- enjoy high levels of service and performance EDITOR’S NOTE ity of it: Amazon can sell you a virtual desktop that are not available to customers who build and still make money on it for an amount that’s things on their own. DAAS GROWS TO MEET ARCHITECTURAL, lower than you can build and operate a desktop Based on all this, we can say with a high level DEVELOPER NEEDS yourself.) of certainty that DaaS is now a real option

COMPANIES CAN REAP Not to be outdone, Citrix started hitting the where it wasn’t before. The bottom line is that BENEFITS FROM DESKTOPS marketing waves hard with DaaS last year, and if you’re considering VDI, you have serious IN THE CLOUD Microsoft was rumored to be working on its options regarding whether you want to build SCALABILITY AND own offering. it yourself or just pay for your desktops as a PRICE NURTURE DAAS APPEAL All of these DaaS products share the service. —Brian Madden

10 VDI PLANTS THE SEEDS FOR DESKTOPS IN THE CLOUD ABOUT THE AUTHORS TODD KNAPP is founder of Envision Technology Advisors LLC and has over 15 years’ experience in project manage- ment and business technology integration. A certified vExpert, Knapp speaks throughout New England about virtualization and storage technologies and is a regular contributor to industry publications on the subject. VDI Plants the Seeds for Desktops in the Cloud is a HOME SearchVirtualDesktop.com e-publication.

RYAN MCLAUGHLIN has written and edited content for EDITOR’S NOTE Colin Steele | Associate Editorial Director TechTarget’s endpoint and virtualization sites. He has DAAS GROWS TO MEET maintained their homepages and produced the Desk- Eugene Demaitre | Associate Managing Editor ARCHITECTURAL, DEVELOPER NEEDS top Digest and Mobile Digest newsletters. Before joining TechTarget, McLaughlin worked as a copy editor for Ars Linda Koury | Director of Online Design COMPANIES CAN REAP Technica and Tom’s Hardware. BENEFITS FROM DESKTOPS Neva Maniscalco | Graphic Designer IN THE CLOUD BRIAN MADDEN is known throughout the world as an Rebecca Kitchens | Publisher SCALABILITY AND [email protected] PRICE NURTURE DAAS opinionated, supertechnical, fiercely independent desktop APPEAL virtualization expert. He has written several books and TechTarget over 1,000 articles about desktop and application virtu- 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466 alization. Madden’s blog, BrianMadden.com, receives www.techtarget.com

millions of visitors per year and is a leading source for © 2015 TechTarget Inc. No part of this publication may be transmitted or re- produced in any form or by any means without written permission from the conversation, debate and discourse about the application publisher. TechTarget reprints are available through The YGS Group. and desktop virtualization industry. He is also the creator About TechTarget: TechTarget publishes media for information technology of BriForum, the premier independent application deliv- professionals. More than 100 focused websites enable quick access to a deep store of news, advice and analysis about the technologies, products and pro- ery technical conference. cesses crucial to your job. Our live and virtual events give you direct access to independent expert commentary and advice. At IT Knowledge Exchange, our social community, you can get advice and share solutions with peers and experts.

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11 VDI PLANTS THE SEEDS FOR DESKTOPS IN THE CLOUD