Cloud and Infrastructure
Desktop as a Service
Desktop as a service runs each person's desktop, applications and files in a provider's cloud and streams the screen to whatever device they use. The work happens in the data center. The laptop, the home computer or the tablet in front of the user only shows the picture and sends the keystrokes.
- 25 companies on the shelf
- Coverage
Buyer's checklist
Eight questions that decide this purchase
Think these through before you buy. Answer what you can and your quote comes back faster. Skip what you cannot, and we will work through it with you.
- 01
How many people need a desktop in total, how many in the first group, and how much storage does each one need?
- 02
What will sit in front of the user: a simple connect-only device, a reused PC, a laptop, or their own equipment?
- 03
Should each person's desktop remember their settings, or reset to a clean image every session?
- 04
Which applications must run on it, and do any of them need graphics hardware, attached devices or older software that may not virtualize?
- 05
How does each site connect to the desktops, and how much bandwidth does each location have for the number of people there?
- 06
Which tasks does the provider own outright, such as patching, image updates and the help desk, and which stay with your IT staff?
- 07
Which standards apply to you, and in which regions must the desktops and the data sit?
- 08
Is there a trial or a proof of concept before you commit, and what is inside the per-seat fee as opposed to billed separately?
No company matches every box you checked
That usually means the combination is rare, not impossible. Clear a filter, or add the service and we will go find who can do it.
Capabilities come from published supplier material. We confirm them for your addresses before anything is quoted.
More on what it is
The older name for the idea is VDI, virtual desktop infrastructure, which usually meant running it on servers you owned. With the service version the provider owns the servers, the storage and the software that carves them into desktops, and you pay by the seat.
Two design choices shape everything else. A persistent desktop remembers a person's files and settings from one login to the next, like an ordinary PC. A non-persistent desktop resets to a clean standard image every time, which is simpler to manage and suits shared or task-based roles. Separately, you can publish a single application to someone's own device instead of a whole desktop. People who run design or engineering software can be given sessions backed by dedicated graphics hardware.
The appeal is control. Company data stays in the data center instead of on a laptop that can be left in a taxi. IT can end a session or remove someone's access in a moment, without having to get a machine back. A new hire or a replacement for a lost device becomes a login, since the desktop already exists. And the number of desktops can rise and fall with seasonal or project staffing.
Three cautions. First, the desktop is only as good as the network between the user and the data center, and a thin connection at a busy site will be blamed on the platform. See Business Connectivity. Second, not everything virtualizes cleanly. Scanners, label printers, specialty USB devices and old line-of-business software should be tested before you migrate, because discovering it afterward is expensive. Third, do not assume the provider patches everything. Updating your own business software often stays with you unless the contract says otherwise.
Who needs it
- Your people work from home, from branches or on the road and need the same applications, under the same controls, wherever they sit.
- You have seasonal, contract or high-turnover staff and want to grant and remove desktops without buying and retiring hardware each cycle.
- You are absorbing an acquisition and need a new group of people on compliant desktops quickly.
- You work in healthcare, financial services or another regulated field and must prove where data sits and who can reach it.
- You face a hardware refresh, or a desktop operating system that is losing support, and would prefer not to replace every machine.
- You already run virtual desktops on your own servers and no longer want to own and refresh them.
If everyone works in one office on fairly new PCs and your data already lives in cloud applications, this adds cost and a dependency on the network without solving a problem you have.
Signs you need it
- IT spends much of its week patching, imaging and replacing desktops.
- A new hire waits days for a working machine.
- A lost or stolen laptop is a real incident, because the data was on it.
- You want to allow personal devices without opening up company data to them.
- People in branches or at home have a visibly worse experience than people at headquarters.
- When someone leaves, cutting off their access depends on getting a laptop back.
- There is no plan for how staff keep working if an office becomes unavailable.
How IT Raven helps
Add Desktop as a Service to your quote list and tell us how many people, what they run and why you are looking. A person takes that to the hosted desktop providers in our 500+ partner network and sorts them on what disqualifies: their minimum and maximum deployment sizes, the regions and standards you need, whether they support your graphics users, and how much of the daily work they will take on.
We push for a trial with your real applications and your real peripherals before anyone signs, because that is where these projects succeed or fail. We also look at the network at each site at the same time, so the desktops are not judged on a connection that was never sized for them.
Hosted desktops often arrive with neighbors: Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace licensing, Backup and Disaster Recovery for the data, and Managed and Co-Managed IT for the help desk. We quote them together, stay on one thread through the pilot and the migration, and remain on the account as you add and remove seats.
How buying works
The store is the easy part. Staying on the account is the job.
Anyone can show you logos. The reason to buy here is what happens on install night, and on the ticket you open nine months later.
- 01
Build your quote list
Add services and companies as you shop. No form stands between you and the shelf.
- 02
We bring back real options
A person shops the bench against your addresses, then walks you through what fits and what does not.
- 03
We handle the order and install
Paperwork, site survey, install dates, cutover night. You get one thread, not five vendors.
- 04
We stay on your account
Same team for moves, adds, tickets and the next renewal. That is the part everyone else drops.