Desktop as a Service

In today’s world of DevOps, development, deployment, operations and support are being done at lightning speed compared to methodologies employed just several years ago. With the implementation of “Infrastructure as Code” (IAC), a type of IT infrastructure, development and operations teams can automatically manage and provision through code rather than using a manual process.

A part of this movement includes, “Desktop as a Service” (DaaS) which is a cloud service where the back-end of a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is hosted by a cloud service provider. The service is purchased on a subscription basis. In the DaaS delivery model, the service provider manages the back-end responsibilities of data security storage, backup, and upgrades. DaaS has a multi-tenancy architecture which means a single instance of a software application can serve multiple customers at one time.

Each customer is called a tenant. Tenants may be given the ability to customize some parts of the application, depending on the terms of the contract and SLA, but they cannot customize the application's code. The customer's personal data is copied to and from the virtual desktop during logon/logoff and access to the desktop is device, location and network independent.

The provider handles all the back-end infrastructure, costs, maintenance and risk. Customers may choose to manage their own desktop images, applications and security requirements unless those services are part of the subscription. With desktop as a service, major upgrades can easily and quickly be integrated across multiple customer environments with little or no need to perform any tasks at an employee device level. Their machines are effectively the same, all of which are accessing data and applications through the cloud service provider without storing anything locally.

This should mean the days of IT professionals trekking to each work station or desktop, performing the same task multiple times, will be joyfully a thing of the past that we can tell our grandchildren about.

For more information on IT Service Management training and certification: www.itsmacademy.com

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