6 reasons why you need Hosted Desktops in your organisation
With the current advice surrounding COVID-19, workforces are again being urged to work from home. Fortunately, there has never been a more secure, simple and mobile way to work than using a Hosted Desktop.
Nowadays, many businesses are looking to move their IT to privately hosted cloud solutions such as a Hosted Desktop. In fact, a survey by Right Scale found that 77% of respondents had adopted some form of private cloud service.
A Hosted Desktop – also known as a Desktop-as-a-Service, is much like the name suggests and is a virtual desktop hosted in the cloud. To the end-user it appears no different to the traditional desktop they are used to. The difference lies in where your data and apps are stored. Rather than being stored locally on the hardware, it is stored via the cloud in a secure data centre. Using a Hosted Desktop will liberate your apps, giving them a new lease of lift when lifted to the cloud and also helps your workforce be more productive as they use the desktop to work from anywhere, on any device when connected to the internet.
Although the uptake of such cloud solutions is accelerating across the world, many still have their concerns about moving over. After all, when you grow so accustomed to having everything stored on-site, it can often be disconcerting putting this in the hands of a cloud provider.
Whether you are looking overcome your fears of moving to the cloud or someone who simply wants to learn more, we have gone through the main benefits of implementing a Hosted Desktop in your business can bring.
No IT expertise required
It is expensive and often out of reach for smaller to medium-sized organisations to hire a team of specialists to help and operate their IT systems. A Hosted Desktop is fully managed and supported by the cloud provider such as Serval IT Systems, meaning that we are the experts, so you don’t have to be.
Moreover, because everything from license renewals to patches and updates is taken care of for you, your on-site IT team can be more efficient and focus on projects related directly to the growth of your business.
Cost-effectiveness
Hosted Desktops are cost-effective in the terms of both capital expenditures and operational costs. Firstly, purchasing your own server infrastructure often comes as a one-off cost which is not cheap – this can impact the cash flow in some businesses. With Hosted Desktops, all data and applications are stored in the data centre of the cloud provider, meaning there is no need for you to factor this cost into your IT budget. Moreover, as IT is their main business, cloud providers will more often than not have the most cutting edge, new technology. As a result, you get to use and benefit from this, without having to front the high bill for it.
Secondly, as part of the low, fixed monthly fee per user cost, on-going routine IT administration, security and maintenance are all taken care of, ensuring you don’t have to worry about high, unanticipated costs that come with operating your own infrastructure. Over the years, entrust IT Group analytics have revealed that on a three-year basis, our Hosted Desktop will typically cost 60-65% of traditional IT, if all cost factors are included.
Enhanced security
Given the prevalence of cybercrime on businesses today, ensuring the security of IT systems and sensitive data is paramount. A successful data brech or cyberattack can cause not only devastating financial loss but also serious reputational damage. Fortunately, many Hosted Desktop services are hosted on very advanced infrastructure in data centres which are consequently secure. Your business data is secure in the hands of experts, who ensure that all backups and updates are routinely performed so that, among other tasks, you don’t have to rely on another person to remember to do so.
Furthermore, because all the data is stored in these secure data centres and not on specific hardware, you can have peace of mind that company data will not be lost or fall into the wrong hands if a device is lost or stolen.
At Serval IT Systems, our Tier III data centres are certified by an international security standard called ISO 27001. It describes how to businesses are to manage information security and was created by some of the experts in the industry. Data centres with this certification are some of the safest and best in the industry, where data isn’t at risk of being hacked, lost or damaged.
Increased mobility
The ability to access business applications and data from anywhere is one of the main reasons why companies are switching to cloud-based solutions. Hosted Desktops have been designed with mobility in mind. They are that same Windows desktop your employees use when in the office, but it is not tied to this hardware and can be accessed on almost any device if the user has an internet connection.
With this mobility, staff are able to be more productive, as employers can provide them with the choice to work remotely, or in the way they work best. Remote work is a trend that has proven to be hugely popular in the modern workforce and is especially relevant with the current situation surrounding Covid19.
Scalability
Hosted Desktops are suitable for businesses of any size, from a small start-up to a corporate enterprise. This is because thanks to their scalability, they can be scaled up (or down) by adding (or removing) employees through the click of a button or a phone call to your provider. You will only pay for what you use.
With traditional on-site infrastructure, more often than not, businesses will have to fork out and pay for whole servers, resulting in unused, wasted space.
Reduced downtime
When outsourcing your IT to a third-party provider such as a Manager Service Provider like Serval IT Systems, you will often be provided with a Service Level Agreement (SLA). This is where you set appropriate expectations for elements such as resolution times, support response and escalation procedures. The aim setting expectations in this form is to ensure your business stays up and running at all times, and if downtime were to occur, that there is as little disruption to your business as possible. Here at Serval IT Systems, we offer a 99.99% SLA, which is made possible by to our professionally trained service team technicians as well as the quality of our data centre facilities.
Compare that to an in-house IT department, which usually relies on one person. It might take days to be back running as usual when downtime occurs if that person was out of the office or busy working on a project.
Hosted Desktops are a simpler, cheaper and safer alternative to owning and maintaining your own IT systems – all while providing staff with more versatility, flexibility and efficiency. What’s more, the popular Microsoft 365 suite is now integrated into our Hosted Desktop solution, so you won’t miss out on using any of the productivity and collaboration apps that you have grown to know and love over the years.
Serval IT Systems have been providing Hosted Desktop to organisations of varying sizes, in a broad range of industries for many years. Our experienced service team is contactable 24/7 and will work to ensure any issues are solved before they become serious problems, allowing you to focus on morew important elements in your business.
Please get in touch for more information.