DESKTOP AS A SERVICE

Microsoft provides a managed infrastructure and application delivery platform for you to run your software applications from. Your software applications are enabled on infrastructure within Microsoft’s data centres.

This means that all of your software may be delivered to all of your users, wherever they are located, with virtually the same experience that they may have from an in-house system. Your users will see the same software applications on a hosted desktop and will operate in the same way. However, you no longer need to be concerned with servers, storage, backups, operating system, security and administration costs.

Virtually any software may be delivered to your users with Microsoft’s Desktop as a Service. This includes your line-of-business software, which may be heavily customised, standard applications, as well as custom-built software.

You retain your existing business relationship with your current application software vendor(s). Support is still provided to you by the same application support provider, whether the software is installed “in-house” or is hosted by Microsoft.

The systems engineering skill base of Microsoft provides professional resources to plan and implement a transition from an “in-house” solution to a cloud environment. The Microsoft team of systems engineers provides infrastructure upgrade services, system monitoring and support 24/7, security filters, data backups and maintains system up-time in excess of 99.9% over the long term as an integral part of the low, per-user, monthly fee.

Business Benefits

Reducing the cost of ownership, while enhancing organisational capability, are key drivers behind Microsoft’s Hosted Desktop solutions.

The Challenge

Many businesses are hamstrung by ageing legacy infrastructure coupled with rising support costs. The continual release of new desktop software operating systems and applications has highlighted the need to refresh ageing desktop environments. Businesses are also under severe pressure to transform and improve the service they are providing to their own users and customers. At the same time, most I.T. budgets and resources have been cut as a direct result of budgetary pressures.

The Solution

Reducing the cost of ownership, while enhancing organisational capability, are key drivers, complicating the decisions surrounding the desktop strategy. Organisations need to retain control and provide flexibility to end users. This journey has led organisations towards creating a virtual desktop supported by a collaborative, agile and open I.T. model, namely technologies delivered as a service.

Microsoft’s Desktop as a Service uses proven technology to deliver flexible working, addressing the need for agility and control. Desktop as a Service redefines the desktop, removing the constraints of existing infrastructure by virtualisation. Using our expertise and economies of scale, move to a simply managed, scalable and secure environment.

 

The Benefits

Microsoft’s Desktop as a Service provides the following business benefits:

• Enables control of the desktop environment
• Lowers cost of software delivery to users
• Greater business flexibility and agility, with the freedom to access each user’s desktop from anywhere, from any place, at any time, from any device with an Internet connection
• Stronger security with Microsoft’s enterprise-class security protection and resilience
• Transforms current in-house I.T. into state-of-the-art systems, irrespective of company size
• Flexibility of I.T. resource with infinitely scalable and dynamic new resource provisioning to cope with growth
• Easy scalability downwards if staff numbers are reduced, thus lowering costs in direct proportion
• Ease of management with delegated System Administrator self-service controls
• Utility-type pricing, only paying consistent and predictable costs, based on actual usage
• Green computing credentials with lower Microsoft carbon generation flexible user work options thus reducing travel time and resultant carbon emissions
• Outsource all or most in-house I.T. infrastructure and day-to-day desktop management, support and maintenance issues and costs
• Allows a focus on your business, not activities that cannot create value

 

Technical Overview

All of the equipment supporting the Desktop as a Service solution is connected to Microsoft’s highly-available core network and security infrastructure.

Microsoft’s core network environment comprises state-of-the-art Cisco enterprise-class equipment and all core switches and security equipment is duplicated, thus ensuring no single points of network failure exist.

By leveraging Microsoft’s highly-available shared services, you will gain the benefits that would normally only be cost-effectively deployed in much larger organisations. You will immediately gain the advantage of migrating to a robust and stable Windows Server Domain and Active Directory when you deploy.

Microsoft provides authentication services for your Microsoft Desktop as a Service using Microsoft Active Directory. Microsoft provides Active Directory services using highly-available Windows servers operating in Windows domain-native mode.

Most day-to-day Active Directory functions can be delegated to your System Administrator personnel via the Microsoft Control Panel if required. Functions available from the Microsoft Control Panel include creating and deleting users, maintaining contact and group information and other attributes.

DNS and WINS services are also provided by redundant Windows servers providing name resolution for both Active Directory and public DNS queries. DHCP services will generally be provided by local network equipment at each client site, such as routers, and these can also be managed by Microsoft.

Microsoft’s file storage platform achieves high availability through Microsoft’s Distributed File System (DFS) technology based on a Windows Server platform. Similarly, Microsoft’s Microsoft Exchange environment achieves high availability by using technologies in Exchange, including database availability storage groups (DAGs) across redundant independent hardware platforms. These technologies allow services to be reliably delivered with no single point of hardware failure.

Microsoft’s Desktop as a Service clients are immediately able to take advantage of the additional functionality and reliability afforded by these newer versions of existing platforms. By simply migrating software and data to these established and stable environments, Microsoft’s Desktop as a Service clients mitigate many of the risks associated with upgrading these critical existing platforms to newer versions.

Microsoft operates clustered anti-spam and content filtering solutions based on MailMarshal and Web Marshal. Microsoft’s Desktop as a Service users are migrated to this infrastructure.

Applications are delivered to your users via Citrix XenApp, (formerly Presentation Server) on Windows Server. Microsoft has deployed this technology across several existing clients and has found the performance and stability of the environment provide a compelling reason for migration.

Microsoft is easily able to set up client test environments to confirm the functionality and interoperability of applications in the its Desktop as a Service environment prior to any upgrades into a production environment. Importantly, from a technology and end-user adoption perspective, the upgrades are evolutionary, thus further improving end-user adoption and decreasing risk.

Microsoft’s Desktop as a Service clients can leverage, at any time, Microsoft’s highly available virtual server and storage platform to accommodate any future growth beyond your current staff and application levels, whenever new staff or applications are introduced.

 

Any questions? Please contact us.