Desktop as a service solves some, but not all virtualization issues

Grazed from ITWorld. Author: Nancy Gohring.

Today Cisco becomes the latest to make an announcement in the desktop-as-a-service market. It is offering a set of products to cloud providers so that they can offer DaaS to end users, based on either VMware’s Desktone or Citrix’s desktop virtualization technology. The announcement follows VMware’s acquisition of Desktone in October and Amazon Web Services’ entry into the market in November with its own desktop service for businesses. What’s driving all of this activity, given that desktop virtualization has been stagnant for years? Here are a few reasons for the buzz around DaaS:

–Consumerization of IT. “Increasing mobility and flexible workstyles in the midst of rising compliance needs — including the need to support multiple OSs and device types that are often owned or managed by the employee instead of the company — means that companies need simpler ways to provide secure, managed access to Windows desktops, applications and other systems of record behind the company firewall,” said Forrester’s Dave Johnson…

–Ease of use. Desktop virtualization has traditionally been a nightmare to manage in house. Letting someone else handle the complexity is a good idea for businesses that don’t want the hassle. DaaS will particularly appeal to “smaller organizations and departments in larger organizations with specific needs, for whom developing the skills and tackling the complexity of traditional on-premise VDI is difficult to justify,” Johnson said…

Read more from the source @ http://www.itworld.com/cloud-computing/391899/desktop-service-solves-some-not-all-virtualization-issues