DaaS: A Cost‐Savings Strategy

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22058
• Author: Kurt Fanning,David M. Cannon
• Date: 01 July 2015
• Published date: 01 July 2015

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© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI 10.1002/jcaf.22058

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DaaS: A Cost-Savings Strategy

Kurt Fanning and David M. Cannon

A

convergence of

several of the

main move-

ments in information

technology IT for the

past decade will allow

firms to become more

efficient while provid-

ing significant cost

savings. At the center

of this convergence is

remote desktop vir-

tualization. Remote

desktop virtualiza-

tion comes in two

forms, Desktop‐

as‐a‐Service (DaaS)

and virtual desktop

infrastructure (VDI).

DaaS provides end users with a

desktop environment through

a cloud provider. VDI provides

the end user with a desktop

from an internal data center.

With many applications and

much of the processing pro-

vided at the server or cloud

level, these systems can eas-

ily work with thin client and

mobile devices. Since they

distribute the operating system

and applications out to devices,

they aid firms with operat-

ing a bring‐your‐own‐device

(BYOD) system. Remote desk-

top virtualization represents a

new way of providing desktop

applications. Most end users

work with Microsoft Office

or other applications installed

and running on their local

computer. If not installed on

their computer, the users work

within a client server where the

applications primarily run on

the server. These two setups

have many issues. To replace

these setups and help solve

these issues, remote desktop

virtualization creates virtual

desktops that deliver applica-

tions on demand.

Remote desktop virtualiza-

tion separates the desktop envi-

ronment and applications from

the device accessing them. The

applications take place on the

firm’s remote operat-

ing system linked to

the end user’s client

device. The network

links to the end user’s

device using a remote

display protocol

through which it

interacts with the

applications. The

applications and data

remain on the remote

system with only dis-

play, keyboard, and

mouse information

communicating with

the lo cal client device.

This device is usu-

ally a conventional

PC/ laptop, a thin client device,

a tablet, or even a smartphone.

VDI uses a hypervisor to

control the multiple desktop

operating system instances on

the server hardware platform.

Unfortunately, many use the

term VDI to refer to any remote

virtualization implementation,

but there are other models.

For example, cloud hosted

virtual desktops is a subset

within the remote virtualiza-

tion model. These methods use

a Software‐as‐a‐Service (SaaS)

model within a cloud comput-

ing delivery system to accom-

plish distribution of application

within their virtualized

Firms are looking to various IT strategies in the

wake of the vendors providing services through

cloud offerings. One of the newest is Desktop-

as-a-Service (DaaS). DaaS is providing end users

with a desktop environment either through an

internal data center or through a cloud provider.

In either case, firms can eliminate many costs

associated with maintaining separate desktops for

its employees and consultants. The firm can also

easily scale up and back with minimum invest-

ment while using DaaS. Thus, this article a ttempts

to explain DaaS while explaining how firms will

be able to achieve cost savings and operational

efficiency by using DaaS. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.