With its familiar background image or colour, and its array of files and folders, a desktop is your personalised control panel. It’s the first thing you see when you power-up your PC or Mac in the morning, and it’s home to everything you need throughout the day.
Traditionally, all the elements on a desktop have been stored on a hard drive. So only one device has all those applications, documents and other essentials you need to do your job. But cloud desktops are changing that.
Because with a cloud desktop, everything you see on your desktop, including your settings, preferences and operating system, isn’t stored on your computer’s hard drive anymore. It’s on the internet.
That means a cloud desktop (also called a hosted or virtual desktop) can be accessed from any device with an internet connection, making remote working and working on-the-go much easier and more productive.
What’s The Difference Between A Cloud Desktop And VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)?
With VDI, your IT department is responsible for loading and managing the server which is hosted in a datacentre. Your company also needs to manage all the software, hardware, licenses and how VDI is used across your business. If that sounds like a lot of work and a lot of responsibility, it is.
Another downside to VDI is that its efficiency and performance can be compromised by a weak network connection. Scalability is an issue too. Expanding your VDI as your business grows poses challenges in terms of balancing increased capacity with the inevitable increased costs.
Contrast all that with a cloud desktop in which your operating system and all your data and applications are hosted in the cloud and managed by a third party service provider. So instead of all the management, licensing and other hassle you get with VDI, with a cloud desktop you just pay a vendor a subscription and leave the management and technical side to them. There’s no need to hire a VDI expert (or two) for your IT team. Even better, scalability is a breeze. You can upsize or downsize on demand, and you’ll only ever pay for what you use.
4 Reasons Why Your Business Should Choose Cloud Desktops
- Very little (if any) upfront investment is needed to start-up.
- There’s no expensive hardware to buy or maintain.
- Benefit from predictable costs thanks to the subscription model.
- Get high quality processing power, memory, storage capacity, and network bandwidth capacity as part of the package.
Is Cloud Desktop Secure?
Even though data is accessible from anywhere, it’s stored on advanced servers in super-secure data centres. Encryption and regular security updates add extra layers of system protection.
With a traditional desktop, if a laptop or computer is stolen, the data on it becomes vulnerable. With cloud desktop, data isn’t stored on any computer, so can be easily and remotely wiped if a device is mislaid or falls into the wrong hands. It makes any security breaches easier to handle and potentially far less damaging.
And because cloud desktop data is backed-up automatically, should a system crash or other event cause a failure of your IT system, all your company’s data will be safely stored and readily accessible from the cloud.
A cloud desktop empowers remote working
Your employees will have access to all the data they need wherever they’re working with cloud desktop. They can switch devices and still access the same desktop without any annoying logging in, logging out or forgotten passwords.
Day-to-day benefits of Cloud Desktop
- Streamline business processes
- Enhance the ability of your teams to collaborate
- No need to buy and manage your own server
- Keep using the applications that drive your business, such as MS Office
- Easily add new users or delete old accounts
- Boost your storage capacity on-demand in minutes
- Quickly add new applications if required
Discover more about how a cloud desktop can benefit your business. Reach out to one of the team here at Cloudshepherd today. We are experts at seamlessly integrating cloud desktops into all kinds of businesses. The levels of support and customer service you’ll receive really set us apart. So call or email us today.
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