RDS vs VDI

Web scraping has become a common practice among individuals and companies nowadays. With every business striving hard to grow, today data is in demand more than ever before. Businesses today cannot even sustain themselves if they lack the useful data to make business decisions in their domain.

But before we understand why there is a growing demand for web scraping let us first understand what actually web scraping is.

What is Web Scraping?

Websites around the globe have a tremendous amount of valuable data that includes product pricing, hotel pricing, financial data, and many more. We can use this data for either beating our own competitor or creating a report on market sentiment.

If you want to access this data you either have to copy and paste the data manually or you can use any web scraping service.

However, if you chose to do it manually then the process of extracting data from million pages would be near to impossible. Thus, we can take advantage of web scraping.

Extraction of data from a website in a non-clean fashion using a script is known as web scraping. The data collected can then be stored in a database or can be exported in CSV files.

For example, you can use web scraping to export a list of product names and prices from any eCommerce website into a CSV file. If the website does not block you while scraping then you can prepare a python or nodejs script to scrape the website and if it does block you then opt for web scraping tools. Frankly speaking, web scraping can be a challenge if you are a beginner or you are facing a website with top-notch anti-bot detection like LinkedIn.

Today websites are built in a very different format. Let us understand how we can scrape websites of all kinds.

How do web scrapers work?

Any web scraper will be given a target URL (the webpage you want to scrape) for web scraping. Then the scraper will either make a normal HTTP GET request in order to extract the data or it will render javascript if the website loads with several API calls.

You can also check this by visiting the network tab of that website. Once this is done the scraper can return data in JSON or HTML format, CSV, etc.

On the internet, you can find many web scrapers. Now, web scrapers are available in many different forms:

Browser Extension

Desktop app

APIs

Proxies

Why do different industries scrape data?

Many financial companies scrape data from the web so that they can buy and sell stocks at the right time. This data provides them with a clear trend of where the next investments can be made.

Many restaurants scrape reviews so that they can analyze which dish or department is not working well. Timely they can make an important decision and can even improve the service.

Travel companies scrape pricing from niche websites to keep track of their pricing. To make a competitive edge in the market you need pricing data from your competitor’s website.

Many Enterprise businesses scrape yelp to generate cold leads. They extract names and contact details in a sheet and then contact them to convert them to their paid customers.

eCommerce websites scrape the web to analyze which data is in demand or how to set the pricing of any particular product.

Many governments also scrape data before elections to analyze the mood of the nation. Obviously, they outsource this job. This helps them to pick topics for rallies.

Is Price Scraping even legal?

Well, the correct answer is yes & no. You can scrape publicly available data. However, if you scrape private data it can be against the scraping laws.

A few points that should be taken into consideration before you scrape a web page.

See if the page is not behind an authentication wall.

The page does not include any private information of a user.

You should follow the robots.txt file.

Do not overload the host server with unnecessary calls.

Again it all depends on your business needs, but let’s not forget the legal actions that can be taken against you when you scrape private data or private profiles.

Final Take

Every business has different needs when it comes to the data they need to analyze. To take business decisions, it has become important for stakeholders to get data as much as they can to run their successful businesses.

Through, web scraping it is easy to get extract useful information & hence, businesses harvest it via different sources. You are just reducing the time taken manually to extract data when you scrape web pages.

Do you agree that moving to the cloud may be the best decision for your organization?  

Almost 90% of organizations are currently using the cloud in some manner, and 47% are believed to be using a cloud-first strategy. The cloud adoption rate has consistently improved in the past few years and helped businesses function more flexibly.  

However, the idea of experiencing challenges during cloud adoption is unnerving. When an organization is planning for cloud hosting, they evaluate the degree of challenges, which may be only myths, but encourages businesses to decline the idea of cloud adoption.

Therefore, this article will briefly discuss a few important private and public cloud hosting myths.  

The Myths (And The Truth)

Understand the truth about cloud hosting adoption and know how it can improve the operational efficiency of your business.

Cloud Hosting Means Data Security Challenges

With the average cost of containing a data breach reaching as high as USD 4.24, there’s no doubt that businesses are concerned about cloud security.  

However, that doesn’t indicate that the cloud is not secure. There’s a possibility of a cyberattack or data breach on any data reserve. But, experienced professionals of the cloud hosting provider create better-secured infrastructure.  

With industry experience, cloud hosting providers offer data encryption, multi-factor authentication, multi-firewall support, Intrusion Detection and Prevention, and AI-based security monitoring systems.  

There’s added physical security of servers and data centers in form of CCTV, digital entry provision, etc.  

Cloud Hosting Costs Too Much

The major reason many organizations adopt cloud computing is that they need to reduce the cost of operations. Setting up VDI or hosting applications in-house requires a big budget when compared to the pay-as-you-go model of cloud hosting.  

When migrating to cloud hosting, businesses can minimize unnecessary expenditure.  

No upfront costs

Long-term hardware use

Optimum scaling, cost-optimization

Migration May Cause Downtime

Every organization, regardless of its industry, size, and geography, can accept only some downtime. When the downtime increases from hours to days, it starts affecting work patterns and data access. Cloud is believed to cause downtime, which is the opposite of the truth.

Most leading cloud hosting providers promise around 99.99% hosting uptime; very less downtime in a month.  

Cloud is a network of multiple servers spread across the globe in strategically evaluated geographical locations. The idea is to redundantly store data and apps to offer seamless, high uptime to users.  

You may, however, experience some delay in adapting to the cloud depending on the readiness of your people. However, that can be minimized with proper training.

My Business Is Big/Small For The Cloud

There’s no right size for an organization to adopt the cloud; every organization can use cloud hosting.  

No cloud provider will ever prepare a cloud specific to a company’s size. There are, however, pricing models suitable for company sizes and requirements. This is just to help organizations use relevant resources for their functioning.  

Any business with more than 10 employees and a few clients can benefit from hosting on the cloud.  

Cloud Provider Won’t Allow Me To Control Configuration

Cloud hosting solutions are not rigid in terms of control. While the server setup and backend VDI infrastructure are created by the provider, individual businesses have the power to control their cloud servers. From deciding the performance and configuration of your cloud instance or hosting to scaling on-demand, you can modify cloud services based on your requirements.  

In fact, before cloud migration, the team understands your requirements and deploys your application in the way you require.  

Summary

VDI solutions are created with a desktop virtualization process that allows hosting hardware and software IT resources of the company on a centralized server. The term VDI was originally designed for an in-house infrastructure with an on-premise data center for storage and performance needs. However, with the progress of technology, we found the value of VDI on cloud servers, which helped us invent Desktop as a Service or cloud VDI.  

We can host VDI on a hybrid, public, or private cloud. Most managed DaaS services use a secured public cloud, and here’s how that helps your business.  

The Evolution of DaaS  

Desktop as a Service is a virtualization solution that deploys your desktops on cloud servers. These desktops are provisioned, managed, and maintained by the cloud provider to offer high performance and unhindered access. Ideally, the infrastructural elements that we use for DaaS are similar to Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and its deployment.

For example, creating several virtual machines on the cloud with the help of a hypervisor. Using a load balancer to manage load and distribute access between different virtual and physical servers of the cloud.

Once we have set up the same VDI infrastructure on the cloud, we create thin clients. We open these thin clients using a network via an internet browser or a provider portal. The difference between using VDI on the cloud and in-house is the feasibility of remote work, simple accessibility, and advanced IT infrastructure.  

VDI Solutions on Public Cloud

When we are using Desktop as a Service or VDI on the cloud, what type of cloud is utilized by the managed service provider?  

Usually, a managed service provider offering your Desktop as a Service solution may end up using public cloud solutions for hosting DaaS, such as Ace Cloud Hosting apps and Desktops. These are fully managed solutions that are offered to B2B customers on a subscription basis.

However, since the name of the solution is attached to the public cloud, it should not be viewed as a non-secure or unworthy solution. Public cloud only refers to the method used by the provider to manage and offer cloud to customers.  

For example, the iCloud services used by many Apple mobile and product users are also on the public cloud. Does that mean this service is not secure?  

It doesn’t!

Public cloud services offer storage optimization and affordability features. As a result, customers receive a better opportunity to use the cloud without spending a huge amount on the infrastructure. The provider offering VDI solutions manages the security of the cloud with the help of measures like firewalls, multi-factor authentication, etc.  

Benefits of Public Cloud DaaS

Using the public cloud for desktop virtualization solutions has a range of benefits that we have discussed below:

1. Cost-Effective Solution

VDI service provider creates a VDI infrastructure on the public cloud accordingly. This solution is backed by an expert IT team and security experts. The provider's IT team completes operations of the cloud, including provisioning, deployment, maintenance, and upgrade. Your business is just acquiring a subscription, which is cost-effective. Many other businesses like yours use a similar subscription, which helps divide the cost of the entire cloud and reduce the load on your budget.

Further, logically if you are not really using the configuration of your end device, you don’t need to consistently repurpose and upgrade your systems. We can upgrade these configurations on cloud desktops, which saves you money.

2. IT Efficiency

VDI solutions are fueled by the efficiency of your IT admins. This team offers daily support, consistently monitors VDI, and improves infrastructure over time.

On the public cloud, your VDI services provider manages IT hassles. For example, upgrading systems, managing hardware, ensuring high performance, and other tasks are monitored by the managed cloud provider’s team. Your team needs to ensure the efficiency of hardware, software, and network functioning of office resources.  

When responsibilities of managing a huge VDI architecture are divided, we are able to maximize the IT efficiency of the business.

3. High Uptime

Moving VDI infrastructure from an on-premise data center to the cloud offers high uptime. On-premise servers and tangible hardware units create unplanned outages and challenges. This leads to unexpected downtimes, and regardless of how swiftly you respond to unplanned outages, productivity dips happen.

On the cloud, VDI solutions receive 99.999% uptime approximately. Since there’s server redundancy, it is easy to divert traffic from a server facing issues and still offer uptime to customers.

4. High Performance

Organizations that use VDI solutions on a public cloud are better able to meet the performance demands of the workplace. The huge data center and network of servers help you upscale and downscale your performance, resources, and storage without causing challenges and budget overheads.  

5. Flexibility

VDI on the public cloud uses a huge network, which offers you the flexibility to access data and apps from anywhere virtually. You just need a device (smartphone, tablet, or laptop) with an internet connection to start using your thin client.  

6. Advanced Security

Public clouds are secured with the help of the following security measures:

Multi-factor authentication

Encryption

Software firewall

Intrusion Detection and Prevention

OS patching

DDoS protection

These security measures save your data under multiple circumstances and help you access desktops without challenges.

Remote Desktop Service (RDS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) are both types of desktop virtualization technologies. Desktop virtualization is the process of creating virtual machines on a server that are offered as high-performance, versatile virtual desktops to users.  

While RDS and VDI provide desktop virtualization only, there’s a difference in the implementation and maintenance. Therefore, in this article, we will discuss the benefits, drawbacks, and differences between RDS and VDI.

What is VDI?

A Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a type of desktop virtualization model that creates a client-server architecture. Using a centralized server or data center, we create multiple virtual machines. These virtual machines are distributed to employees of an organization or end-user over a network remotely.  So, we can say that VDI providers create a combination of software, hardware, and network configuration to make virtual servers and desktops. End-users can access virtual machines remotely and flexibly via a network.

Is this a virtual desktop or a virtual machine?

A virtual machine contains a full range of setups, including a virtual operating system, resources, and server. These are virtualized units on a large centralized physical server. Every machine on the server has dedicated resources to improve access and operational efficiency.  

If we closely evaluate the above definition, then that means we can create multiple virtual machines (or virtual desktops) on one server.  

Here, we have an option to select between persistent and non-persistent virtual desktops. Both terms are explained below.

Persistent Desktops

Persistent desktops are designed as per the requirements of different users. For example, your IT team and graphics team can have different customizations on a virtual desktop. Other than this, the end-user can also customize the desktop according to their requirements. These changes are retained when you turn off the computer or sign out.

The experience of a persistent desktop is similar to that of your office PC. It is even better, but the functioning is more or less like your office PCs.  

Non-Persistent Desktops

There’s another type of VDI implementation called non-persistent desktops. These are a pool of virtual desktops or machines. This is a type of standard deployment that replicates the same type of machine multiple times.

Your end-users don’t get a customized desktop. The apps are preinstalled and can’t be edited or changed by the end-user. It also means that non-persistent virtual desktops roll back to their original state once you sign out.  

VDI advantages

Setting up VDI is beneficial for the organization in multiple ways:

There are fewer compatibility issues with an application than with a VDI because every user gets a dedicated VDI instance, which has its own operating system.

With the help of persistent desktops, we can isolate data utilized, generated, and collected by a user. An entirely customized configuration is used for every type of user.  

VDI allocates resources according to the requirements of every virtual machine. For instance, end-users using high-load applications receive better resources than users with basic processing requirements.  

VDI uses snapshot technology, which allows you to roll back to a previous state in the case of malware infection or other issues in the system.

What is an RDS?

Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is a type of desktop virtualization that uses Microsoft Windows Servers for remote VM access via a GUI (Graphical User Interface). The IT team can create a desktop image of your server, which can be accessed by users for data and program access.  

However, for this model to work, the RDS client and Windows Server are required so that we can connect with terminal servers. This means every operation on an RDS is at the server, not the user.

Multiple users can share programs, operating systems, and resources. Data and apps for every device are unified, which makes customization and maintenance easier.  

It is worth noting that RDS lets you access a single app as well as an entire desktop. For instance, RemoteApp by Microsoft helps users access an application remotely.  

However, RDS has poor customization capability, as every user on the network is using one operating system. In the long term, this can also create performance issues.  

RDS advantages

There are many benefits of RDS for organizations:

In RDS, every employee uses the same OS and apps. The moving parts in the infrastructure are fewer, which is why it is easier to deploy RDS instead of VDI. The IT admin can achieve this without prior training.

RDS is low-priced. You are practically using one operating system, so the licensing costs are minimized. Further, RDS does not require many resources as it has a shared system.

The RDS infrastructure is simpler because it has fewer components, low resource requirements, and a shared operating system. The IT team only needs to provision workstations for employees.  

Differences between RDS and VDI

From the definition, the differences between RDS and VDI are evident. Here’s an overview of how VDI providers offer seamless virtual desktops.  

Cost

In the case of RDS, we are using one operating system. But, for VDI, we need different operating systems for different instances, which means every user has their own instance of the virtual machine.

Ideally, VDI infrastructure is costlier when compared to RDS. However, cloud VDI providers can mitigate your costs, as you don’t need to spend on the infrastructure, hardware, and maintenance.  

User Experience

Every user, in the case of RDS, will get the same user experience. This means you may require a separate architecture for many users as they may require advanced configuration or resources.

VDI offers a dedicated experience to every user. Every virtual machine has dedicated resources and performance capabilities, which customize the user experience. This means we can customize the user experience for everyone.

Customization

RDS can be modified or customized for users, but in the same manner for every user. A multitude of users is using the same operating system or virtual machine equipped with a set of apps and data.  

VDI providers help you customize your machines. End-users can install apps, customize the look and feel of the machine, and use it as their personal computer.  

Conclusion

The RDS vs VDI comparison is intertwined with the requirements of the business. Many organizations with thousands of employees prefer to use a hybrid model. Some users in the organization can benefit from an RDS infrastructure, while others can function well with VDI. Properly accessing business needs can help understand the RDS and VDI requirements.

Last year’s spending on DaaS was marked at more than 2 billion. It is also amazing to note that this year the worldwide spending on DaaS may reach up to 2.7 billion.

The given growth is proof that more and more organizations are moving towards a remote desktop culture. If you are on this page for the same reason, we have shortlisted some of the best-hosted desktop services for 2022. Let 2022 be the year of seamless scalability, IT cost optimization, and uninterrupted remote services.  

Here’s a quick overview of what a hosted desktop service is:

A hosted desktop service is a type of virtual desktop infrastructure. VDI is a desktop virtualization technology that centralizes the desktop architecture of the workspace by hosting everything on a server and data center. This on-premise data center and server are used to create virtual machines, which are offered to employees remotely or over a network.

If cloud servers and data centers are used in place of on-premise servers and data centers, we get Desktop as a Service. The backend implementation of DaaS is VDI with additional cloud benefits, such as simple access, scalability, and cost-effectiveness.

Best Virtual Desktop Services 2022

Here’s an overview of hosted desktop services offered by leading VDI providers like Citrix and Amazon.

Citrix Virtual Apps and  Desktops

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops are well-known names in the market. It offers valuable hosted desktop services for Android, macOS, Windows, Chrome OS, iOS, etc. The hosted desktop provided by Citrix not only adjusts to different screen sizes but also helps you decide the configuration of your desktops in the desired format.  

You should consider Citrix if you require BYOD support, remote access to your office machines, data encryption, and centralized management.

However, Citrix lacks the power of autoscaling, and you can only use 25 users at a time.  

Amazon Workspaces

Amazon Workspace is another widely recognized name in the virtualization industry. It is a leading technology provider with a range of pricing options and seamless DaaS features like encryption, scalability, secure access, etc. Users can access Amazon virtual machines on macOS, Windows, Chromebook, Amazon, iPad, and Android tablets.  

If you want the feasibility of CPU scaling, GPU usage, storage scalability, and 24.7 support, Amazon Workspaces may be the right solution. They offer optimum support and different pricing options for different types of users.  

However, it is difficult to move data from your local PC to the virtual machine offered by Amazon. Furthermore, you can only manually add users to your network.

VMWare Horizon Cloud

VMWare Horizon Cloud is the last, and optimum option, on our list. It provides DaaS, or hosted desktop service, for improved performance, maintenance, uptime, and scalability. You have the power to clone a virtual machine from its parent whenever a new employee joins. While these new machines are generated by cloning a master image, they are still standalone separate machines. So, individual users of the machine can easily customize the machine.

If you need to access DaaS on different devices, easily scale, and save money, VMware is a suggested choice.

However, with this hosted desktop service, users don’t have the power to downgrade or upgrade the computing power of their virtual machine.  

Managed Desktop as a Service

You can also utilize managed DaaS where everything is maintained by the provider; from deployment to server upgrades. Leading providers in the domain are:

Ace Cloud Hosting

Ace Cloud Hosting is a provider of fully managed hosted desktop services. Using the VDI technology, the provider creates high-level, mobile, and flexible desktops that access remote access.  

In a flexible working environment, we require technology to support dynamic decisions, quick access calls, and security requirements. Ace Cloud Hosting helps you ensure all this with domain expertise. You can easily deploy DaaS on your network within the required budget. The power to scale and flexibly decide your configurations help you optimize the costs and performance of every desktop. There’s feasibility, operational efficiency, and productivity in this desktop-hosted service.  

Features of hosted virtual desktops:

Access hosted desktop from any location and device, including tablet, computer, laptop, or smartphone.  

High-performance storage SSDs and data centers allow seamless customization and performance ability with low latency.  

Completely managed server. From centralized deployment and IT support to maintenance and upgrading of the DaaS, everything is managed by the provider.

Advanced security with SSL security, firewalls, antivirus, Intrusion Detection and Prevention, DDoS prevention, OS patching, and continuous server monitoring.  

You don’t need to spend money on the infrastructure, which means a low cost of setup. There’s a monthly charge for the hosted desktop service, which is much less than on-premise VDI.  

dinCloud’s dinWorkspaces

dinCloud’s hosted desktop service is designed for a high-computing flexible environment. It helps you work remotely without interruption.  

Benefits of using dinCloud’s din Workspace:

Physical and virtual advanced security controls and on-premise surveillance.

Advanced security for optimum data access and processing from the server.

Customization solution according to the unique requirements of every business.

Scalable services for simpler cost optimization and resource management.  

Personalized customer support for every user.  

Anunta’s Managed DaaS

Anunta’s Managed DaaS is the last option on our list and a valuable one. The provider offers hosted desktop service on the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform. The service provides high-end computing, cyber-security, scalability, and lower costs.  

Benefits of Anunta’s Managed DaaS:

Scale your resources whenever required.

Utilize the pay-as-you-go subscription model.

Reduce your IT TCO with no maintenance.

Improve security and compliance of your apps and data.

Centrally manage your office.

Conclusion

Are you trying to find the right hosted desktop for your business?

After careful consideration, we have prepared the above list. Compare these managed DaaS services, understand which provider has the power to help you mitigate your challenges, and start using this technology.

Back in 2019, remote working culture was just gaining importance. According to reports, more than 50% of employees were working remotely at least once a month. Almost two years down the lane, and now we have 16% of companies that are completely remote.

In two years, the market has completely transformed, and the remote workplace has become essential for every business. As a result, there’s a rise in the use of remote working technology.

Remote Desktop Session Host is a part of Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Service that helps host desktop and app sessions for remote access. This technology helps create multiple user sessions, share resources, and ensure remote access of resources important for employees.  

This article will review what Remote Desktop Session hosting is, what remote desktop hosting is, and how RDSH works.

What is RDSH?

A Remote Desktop Session Host contains session-based desktops and apps that are accessed and used by your end-users. Business users reach these desktops and apps with the help of Remote Desktop clients running on macOS, Windows, Android, or iOS. Business users also have the power to connect to the desktop or app via a supported browser on a web client.

Businesses can benefit from the following RD session host features:

It is possible to structure your apps and desktops on more than one RD Session Host server. These are known as collections. These collections are customizable for different user groups inside every tenant. For instance, we can have one collection where the user group can only use the QuickBooks application. But, every user outside this group doesn’t have the power to use the QuickBooks application.

If you have a small deployment, then it is feasible to install your apps on the RD session host server directly. But, in a large deployment, a base image should be provisioned with virtual machines.  

Businesses can expand their collections by including VMs in a collective farm that has VMs of a collection with identical availability. This enables resource-intensive applications to be supported.

More than one user utilizes one RD session host server that uses Azure resources for remote desktop hosting. This means you need to allow non-admin sign-ins for these users. For full admin rights, we can create a personal session collection.

With the help of a virtual hard disk in a Windows Server OS for RD session host VM, we can further customize desktops for user groups.  

Remote Desktop Connection Broker

With the assistance of the Remote Desktop Connection Broker, we can handle RD session host desktop connection requests. This connection broker takes care of both remote apps and full desktop collections.  

When new connections are generated, the RD Connection Broker can load balance across collection servers. We can’t use DNS round robin with RD Connection Broker for balancing. This is why the RD Connection Broker helps reconnect end-users to the right RD session host and recover lost sessions.

If you want to decrease the cost of this, you can use Windows Server 2016 Connection Broker. If you have to scale, include VMs of RD Connection Broker in the availability set, which will allow making a cluster of RD Connection Broker.

Remote Desktop Gateway

Azure's cloud services provide public network-based access to Azure apps and desktops.

This Desktop Gateway component of remote desktop hosting utilizes SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for the encrypted channel between the server and the client. Here, the VMs for the RD Desktop Gateway is used via a public IP address that ensures inbound UDP and TCP connections to ports 3391 and 443, respectively. As a result, the user can connect to the desktop or app via an HTTPS internet connection.

Remote Desktop Web Access

When you want your users to access desktops and apps on a web portal, we can use Remote Desktop Web Access. The desktop or app is launched via the Microsoft Remote Desktop Client native to the user’s device.  

We can use RD web access for public apps and desktops for non-Windows and Windows devices. It is even possible to publish apps and desktops to a dedicated group of users.  

However, for your RD Web Access to work seamlessly, you need Internet Information Services (IIS). The HTTPS connection creates an encrypted channel between the web server and the client, which makes the VM accessible on a public IP.  

Remote Desktop Licensing

The Remote Desktop License allows you to connect to the servers that have your desktops and applications. Usually, we get tenant environments with RD licenses pre-installed. But, you need to separately configure licensing for hosted environments.  

Just remember that you need the optimum number of Remote Desktop Services Subscriber Access Licenses (SALs) for unique users that may access your service.  

Functioning of RDSH

How does RDSH work? Do we need to use Remote Desktop Services?

Let’s find out:

Whenever a user logs in, a connection to the RDSH server is created with the help of the Remote App or RD Connection Broker. This allows accessing session-based apps and desktops. As already discussed, the admin groups RSDH servers to create a collection. This feature helps manage the load amongst different connected servers.  

For every remote session generated at the RDSH, which is a request by a remote user, the server requires one valid unique license. RDS keeps track of every session on the server to evaluate whether there are only valid active sessions or not. In a basic or standard license, you get important features to start using RDSH.  

You may be wondering if you can directly install your apps on the end devices of every user. Isn’t it?

While that is true, there’s feasibility in using RDSH. You can quickly roll out updates, improve the data access abilities of end-users, and allow secure app and desktop access on home devices.  

Conclusion

RDSH is a seamless, reliable, and valuable technology or service, which has existed for decades. We have been using it for remote app and desktop access for a long time. Therefore, it is much easier for your organization to find the right remote desktop hosting provider or a provider offering efficient RDSH services.  

Do you want your employees to work from anywhere?

Amid the increase in value of remote work due to the ongoing pandemic, cloud technology and hosted virtual desktops (HVD) are becoming popular. Cloud-hosted desktops are designed with inherent capabilities to offer seamless work from home and the flexibility to adapt to dynamic situations. For this reason, these desktops are extremely beneficial across a multitude of industries, such as accounting, finance, IT, software, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and many more.  

Reasons for Cloud-Hosted Desktop Popularity

Cloud desktops offer a multitude of features like dynamic resource allocation, scalability, accessibility, affordability, and streamlined IT support. Some of these features contribute to the popularity of HVD. Let’s understand how:  

Dynamic Resource Assignment

Most businesses hosting tons of data use an in-house data server to access and transmit files across the company to stakeholders and employees. However, we need to understand that even the largest server in your company has its limitations. There’s a maximum limit to the amount of data and files it can hold while properly maintaining the transmission of this data.

An answer to this is to split the sorted data between two different or multiple servers. While employees’ PCs may still have access to both servers, it is likely that a person with one server access may not get data from another server. Therefore, the time spent on accessing data across multiple servers is just too much.

In the case of cloud-hosted desktops, your business can dynamically extract and transmit data across connected cloud servers. Now, here too, data may be redundantly and separately stored on different servers, but through seamless communication, you can extract data in real-time. Therefore, the resource allocation ability of HVD is one of the major reasons for its wide use.  

High Processing Power

When we have on-premise servers with the best capability, they work fine. However, with time, we keep adding more and more data to this server. Technology also changes, which means after some time, computers are handling too much load. As a result of this, servers are slow in responding and it is hard to crawl to the files employees need.  

What does this mean for business?

Slow processes! Your employee requested a file 5 minutes ago and it is still not loading. Although 5 minutes is too little time, in theory, waiting this long for a file to load is both irritating and hectic for the employee.

Cloud-hosted desktops are backed by high-performance SSD-based servers. This helps you retrieve files in milliseconds. You won’t even realize how quickly documents open in the cloud. All you require is high-speed internet, which allows cloud servers to support swift processing.

This is important because it helps employees function properly without disruption. With this, data-based collaboration is also streamlined and simplified. 

Scalability and agility

The data that we collect today only increases exponentially in size with time. This means that you consistently need more and more space to store and process this data.

As a small or medium business, how can you ensure productivity with consistent agility and scalability?

Cloud-hosted desktops can be scaled on-demand. Whenever you need to scale resources, you can connect with the HVD provider and receive better storage and processing power. There’s flexibility and agility in terms of processing and storage because you can also descale on demand whenever required.  

Affordability

Cloud-hosted desktops are affordable because end-user spending is largely reduced for businesses.  

Here are some reasons why HVD improves productivity and still manages to reduce costs:

There’s no deployment spending. The HVD provider helps deploy virtual machines.

The best machines to use for business functions are the ones present in your office. There’s no need to purchase new machines or PCs.

The cloud-hosted provider completes maintenance and upgrades, which helps reduce IT-related costs for the business.

VPN-Less Usage

With the help of the internet, we have the power to share data across channels in real-time. While that statement is completely true, we forget to consider the risk of data security. When we are transmitting a company’s records and sensitive data, such as a QuickBooks file, it is not advisable to send this data unguarded over the internet.  

For this reason, businesses use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to secure endpoint access to the server for secure connections. However, VPNs are not as secure in 2022 as one might have hoped.  

When employees lose devices, leave desktops open, don’t use antivirus, or access unsecured WiFi, they risk the company’s data.  

Cloud-hosted desktops make remote access possible without a VPN.  

A virtual image of all the desktops is created via the cloud. When an employee accesses this image, they only get a virtual image of the desktop on any end device. If this end device were to get attacked, the virtual machines would stay safe. You can easily reboot the VM, change credentials, or format it remotely to avoid security loopholes.  

IT Support

Lastly, IT support is required for every task, from in-house desktop management to system upgrades. Even when you have VDI, you still need IT resources to deploy, manage, and maintain these resources.

HVDs are designed to reduce IT support. You only need your IT team to handle the admin tasks. For example, taking care of the internal PCs, ensuring access control, and managing the user-friendliness of the technology. There are no intensive IT-related activities, which reduces dependency on the IT support team.

When you have technical issues, you can also get help from the IT team of the cloud service provider. The guidance will help you eliminate issues related to cloud-hosted desktops.

Conclusion

A cloud-hosted desktop assists small, big, and medium enterprises in streamlining internal and external workflows. With remote functioning power and seamless collaboration, your employees can work in dynamic workplace settings and deliver optimum operational efficiency. Find out your reason for using cloud-hosted desktops and start HVD deployment today.