Conversational Managed DaaS

By David M. Davis

Copyright© 2015

Conversational Managed DaaS

Published by Conversational Geek Inc.

www.conversationalgeek.com

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Publisher Acknowledgments

All of the folks responsible for the creation of this guide:

Author: David M. Davis

Project Editor: J. Peter Bruzzese

Copy Editor: John Rugh

Content Reviewer(s): Shanna G. Giarrano

Note from the Author

After being in the IT industry over 20 years, I feel like I’ve seen just about everything. When learning about something “new”, rarely do I feel a huge sense of “wow” because that “new” thing is just like something else everyone’s been using for a long time, but the new thing is “newer” and “cooler”, usually in some superficial way.

When I first learned about “the cloud”, the pessimistic side of me was unimpressed. So many so-called “cool cloud services” were just hosted versions of existing services, but with a monthly price tag. However, over the last few years, many cloud services have really started to mature. Finally, it feels like these cloud services can be of tremendous value to real enterprises. Cloud services are starting to live up to their claim of being able to not just turn CapEx into OpEx but, more importantly, assist us in our quest to be a better, modern business by eliminating the concern over the desktop infrastructure so we can focus more on the productivity, mobility and security practices we employ. Managed Desktop-as-a-Service (or Managed DaaS) is one of those cloud services that is now able to truly make a difference in real companies.

In this book, you’ll find out what DaaS is, how Managed DaaS is different, and how Managed DaaS can make a difference in your life and in the bottom line at your company.

Welcome to the future of desktop computing – Managed DaaS!

David M. Davis

The “Conversational” Method

We have two objectives when we create a “Conversational” book: First, to make sure it’s written in a conversational tone so it’s fun and easy to read. Second, to make sure you, the reader, can immediately take what you read and include it in your own conversations (personal or business-focused) with confidence.

These books are meant to increase your understanding of the subject. Terminology, conceptual ideas, trends in the market, and even fringe subject matter are brought together to ensure you can engage your customer, team, co-worker, friend and even the know-it-all Best Buy geek on a level playing field.

“Geek in the Mirror” Boxes

We infuse humor into our books through both cartoons and light banter from the author. When you see one of these boxes, it’s the author stepping outside the dialog to speak directly to you. It might be an anecdote, it might be a personal experience or gut reaction and analysis, it might just be a sarcastic quip, but these “geek in the mirror” boxes are not to be skipped.

Greetings. Within these boxes I can share just about anything on the subject at hand.

Read ’em!

DaaS: What is it and Why should you Care?

For those who have never heard of DaaS, your first question is probably “how do I even say it?” Is it pronounced “D.A.A.S” or “Daaaa-ah-ssss”? Certainly DaaS is an abbreviation for “Desktop-as-a-Service” and it can be pronounced either as an acronym (“Daaaa-ah-ssss”) or an initialism (D.A.A.S). Usually I like to say “Daaaa-ah-ssss”, but it’s unlikely anyone will be offended if you prefer to say the letters individually (but it could throw off a newbie alarm).

So we ask again, WHAT is DaaS?

Desktop-as-a-Service (or DaaS) is a cloud service through which you access a virtual desktop via a cloud service provider. In other words, DaaS is your PC desktop or laptop, virtualized, and running in a public or private cloud. Usually, DaaS is kicked off by a company to virtualize a large number of end-user desktops, but there is no reason it can’t be just a single end-user desktop as well.

DaaS can run in private clouds, which is essential in the case of compliance or

sensitive data for industries that require it (ie. healthcare, government, finance, etc.).

Over the years, you might have heard about “VDI” or virtual desktop infrastructure. VDI is the virtualization of end-user devices (usually their desktop computer) and is run in a data center. In many cases, that data center is local to the end-user, but VDI is also very popular for remote users who might be at a remote location (remote offices, at a customer site, a trade show or conference, home office, and so forth).

DaaS can be thought of as “VDI, provided by an outside company, and accessible over the Internet”. In other words, it’s usually called VDI if you’re doing it “in house” in your own data center, but it’s DaaS if someone else is doing it for you, in their data center.

Why DaaS?

Anytime a new technology is offered, in my opinion, the first question at least one sane person out there should ask is “why do we need this?” or “how does this help us?” (And I’ll say “great question! I’m glad you asked!”)

DaaS became possible and popular at an intersection of need and technology:

The Proliferation of the PC – at some point, it got to the

point where every end-user needed a PC to do his or

her job. This is true now even if the person drives a

forklift as their job because they need to check their

email (to get company updates, of course), and they

need to browse the web (to check into a new forklift

model or certification), of course. Note: certainly they

aren’t using the desktop computer just to send cat

jokes or check the lotto results – no, never. Anyhow, it

got to the point it seemed that the business required a

desktop for every single end-user PLUS laptops for

many end-users who travelled (they might even have 2

devices). In case you don’t know, end-user desktops

are painful and time-consuming to manage (often

requiring direct access to the device itself), so this

desktop proliferation was expensive, inefficient, and a

time suck (especially from the perspective of the IT

group).

The Rise of Virtualization – at the same time, server

virtualization became possible and even popular in the

data center. The IT group said “if we can virtualize

servers, then why not also virtualize these end-user

desktops that are very difficult to manage, un-secure,

hard to update, and where remote access is a

challenge?”

The Growth of Mobile Users – in the past, end-users

were only working if they were sitting at their desk.

Today, end-users want to work wherever and

whenever they please. They want to work in their PJs

in bed, they want to work at the local coffee shop, and

they want to work in their swimsuit at the beach (for

some crazy reason). First the CEO needed this access

(and of course it was approved), then the CFO, then

the Director of Human Resources, then everyone else

in the company followed. Today, everyone wants

access to their applications, anywhere and

everywhere.

I know we keep focusing on the desire for folks to “work from anywhere”, but that’s not the full story. There is also a growing

need for organizations to have an available, enabled workforce in order to be more

nimble and responsive, if not proactive to changing demands, not just trying to give mobile workers access, but trying to send the work with them so they’ve no excuse

not to keep pushing forward.

Demand for Agility – more and more businesses are

demanding agility in new and creative ways. They need

to have new employees come in and get to work that

same day, they might want to acquire a company and

provide 100’s of users’ access to the company CRM

immediately, they might want to roll out a new

application to 2000 end-users “today.” With

traditional physical desktops, all of these business-

critical needs take a long time to meet. It takes time to

spec out, order, configure, and deploy hundreds of

end-user desktops. It takes time to install an

application on thousands of end-user desktops. It

requires downtime to keep end-user desktops up to

date with the latest OS and applications. Plus, when

the company needs to lay off hundreds of end-users,

they don’t want to have to deal with reformatting all

those individual desktops, or disposing of them (for

pennies on the dollar), and they don’t want laid-off

employees taking company data home on thumb

drives.

DaaS can help to remedy all of these company / end-user needs and it can do it in record time.

How Does DaaS Benefit You as an End-user?

Let’s say you have a company desktop computer or a laptop computer, or BOTH. Likely you do, just about everyone does these days, right? So let’s get personal for a minute (I promise I won’t ask for your ATM PIN). Forget your company for a moment.

How can DaaS help you, as an individual?

Here are 5 ways DaaS helps end-users:

1. Access to your Applications, Anytime and Anywhere –

what you really need to do your job most effectively is

access to your company applications anytime and

anywhere. Whether you are on your office desktop,

your roaming laptop, or even your iPad or Android

phone, you want to be able to run the same handful of

critical company applications – things like email,

spreadsheets, word processing, database reports,

CRMs, and more. With DaaS, no matter where you are

or what device you are on, you can access these

applications. That ability can make the difference

between a huge commission or a huge commission

lost.

2. Access to your Data, Anytime and Anywhere – whether

it’s an email, MS Word doc, spreadsheet, or report,

you can access the data you need anytime and

anywhere. Version control is a key aspect of this too.

Your laptop and phone will always have access to the

most current data and documents, rather than risking

mismatched versions because of local saves.

3. Built-In Security and Resiliency – no longer do you have

to worry about “what if my laptop is stolen?” or “is my

hard drive encrypted?” With DaaS, the data stays in

the data center, on the company’s protected servers.

As for resiliency, imagine you leave your laptop in a

taxi. You can run to the store, pick up a new laptop,

cheap tablet, Chromebook or whatever, and spin up

your complete desktop with all your data and apps

intact.

4. Storage and Compute Resources – With DaaS, your

storage can scale, with some admin influence. So you

don’t have to worry about external hard drives if yours

fills up. If you’re an engineer or require high-end

computer resources, you don’t have to carry around a

$12,000 laptop because all your compute resources

are in a data center.

5. Familiar End-User Experience– You get the same

personalized experience you want and need, without

the fluff or clutter you don’t need (you’re provisioned

your critical resources / desktop). It’s a familiar

Windows desktop experience on any device. So not

only can you bring your own device, you can use a

MacBook, whichever kind of tablet you want, or you

can even use a netbook with an inexplicably tiny

keyboard – all still within Windows. This may, of

course, have implications on productivity. Plus, many

companies are moving to a BYOD, or bring-your-own-

device, policy. This means you have the flexibility to

use whichever device you like best to do your work and

still be able to use all your company’s favorite

applications.

How Does DaaS Benefit IT Professionals?

It's obvious that DaaS offers many benefits to end-users of all shapes and sizes. But how does DaaS benefit IT professionals who manage the data center and support the end-user desktops?

As we talked about earlier, VDI offers numerous benefits to end-users, enterprises, and desktop support personnel. DaaS has similarities to VDI, but offers even more. Here are the top five benefits of DaaS to enterprises, IT administrators, and end-user desktop support specialists:

1. Infrastructure cost, support, and maintenance – DaaS

eliminates the need for enterprises to purchase, in

most cases, end-user desktop PCs. As an alternative

you might go with thin clients, shared terminals,

affordable alternatives to high-end laptops and so

forth. When compared to the VDI, DaaS allows

enterprises to eliminate the up-front Capital

Expenditure for physical servers, storage, virtualization

hypervisor, and all associated management tools.

Additionally, don't forget about the costly support and

maintenance associated with all of these products.

For those who support and manage the end-user

desktops, when they are virtualized, there are

tremendous efficiencies gained, thanks to the

virtualization of the end-user desktop OS and

applications (like centralized control of computer

resources, application provisioning, desktop

configuration, policy controls, user groups, etc.)

However, with DaaS alone, activities such as OS and

application patching, desktop security and end-user

data protection are still required. But wait right there:

with Managed DaaS, those types of support activities

can be eliminated. That’s something we’ll talk about

more in the Managed DaaS section.

2. Improved security and compliance – DaaS improves

enterprise security, because critical and confidential

data employee’s access daily will now be stored in a

secured data center instead of being stored on their

end-user desktops or on a roaming laptop.

Additionally, the data centers where desktops are

being run are some of the highest quality and most

secure data centers in the world.

The typical DaaS data center offers enhanced security

with features like biometric palm scanners, 24 hour

guards, and video surveillance. Many of these data

centers go through rigorous compliance certifications

as well. When your company's data is stored in these

types of data centers, you can rest assured that it's

much more secure than it could ever be stored on end-

user desktops, mobile devices, and even in your own

enterprise data center (as proud of it as you may be).

3. Availability and disaster recovery protection - many

companies struggle with high-availability for their tier 1

applications and don't even consider high-availability

for end-user desktops. With DaaS, the multiple

worldwide data centers running your end-user

desktops will include high-availability, (should you have

server or storage failure) uninterruptible power

supplies and multiple redundant network and power

connections. Once you've implemented DaaS, your

business continuity plan for end-user devices can be

considered complete, because end-users will have

immediate access to their desktops, applications, and

company data, no matter what happens at the

company headquarters and to your in-house data

center.

The image here is an example of one service provider’s array of data centers.

4. End the constant refresh cycle – by moving to DaaS,

enterprises will be able to stop the constant refresh of

end-user hardware devices. With DaaS, the role of an

end-user device is simply to display what's happening

on the end-user desktop, running in the cloud, and to

send back any keyboard and mouse input. Because of

this, end-user devices connected to desktops in the

cloud can be thin client devices that have a very long

shelf life, have no moving parts, rarely fail, are very

secure, are easy to troubleshoot and come with a very

low price tag.

5. Turn CapEx into Opex - as with many cloud services

that use a “pay-as-you-go” pricing model, DaaS will

allow your company to pay only for the desktops your

company’s end-users consume. Thus, you can get out

of the constant capital leasing and refresh cycle, and

instead just pay a single monthly fee that can easily be

associated with the exact departments and end-users

that require desktops.

This “pay-as-you-go” or utility-based pricing model is a

financial arrangement your CEO and CFO will greatly

appreciate. Instead of using your IT budget and IT staff

to constantly refresh end-user desktops and/or

maintain a VDI infrastructure, your IT group can spend

their time helping the company utilize technology that

will make a positive financial impact on the company's

bottom line.

I personally use ‘thin clients’ to help explain the value of DaaS, but this may irk some.

Logically there are other options. The point (and where the thin client really helps make the point) is that your data center becomes

your “computer” and your computer just becomes your screen and controls. The goal is to help you visualize a world in which the device is less responsible for capabilities or

limitations and is only the delivery system to the data center. So it doesn’t matter

whether you use a thin client, cost effective laptop, etc.

DaaS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

With the concept of DaaS being quite new to you, it's likely you have a number of questions. Here are some of the most common questions (with answers) technology professionals have when considering the jump to desktop-as-a-service.

Q: What if I’m in a place that doesn't have Internet access?

A: It’s true that if you are in the rare place that does not offer any kind of Internet access, you won't have access to your desktop or applications. However, with the proliferation of high-speed cellular data and even high-speed Internet access on airplanes and trains, it's rare to find a location that offers no Internet access. In those instances, it’s still possible, depending on the end-user device, to edit files locally and upload the revised data once Internet access is regained.

Q: Who provides the software licenses for the operating system and applications?

A: Software licensing is typically provided by the enterprises using the cloud desktops. However, in many cases this can be negotiated with the DaaS provider.

Q: What about protection for my end-user data?

A: As with most end-user desktops, the operating system and applications typically are backed up, and end-user data files are typically stored on a storage system that is fully protected. With cloud desktops, the same type of data protection arrangement applies, but you need to make sure you fully understand exactly what's being protected and how. This is something that we’ll get into more in our section on Managed DaaS.

Q: What about my existing servers that run the applications accessed by my end-users?

A: It’s true that end-user desktops aren’t an “island”. They require access to internal company applications, and those are typically accessed via a VPN or dedicated connection from the cloud provider back to the internal private environment. However, if you'd like to virtualize those applications and run those in a private data center through the cloud provider, this can be easily arranged.

Q: What about common end-user desktop management tasks such as antivirus, security patching, Web filtering, and image management?

A: These types of services aren’t typically provided in a traditional DaaS offering. Instead, they are commonly left for your internal IT teams to manage and configure. If you’ve got a strong team available to tackle these tasks, great! For many businesses, these requirements can be challenging, time consuming, and often, out of the realm of specialty for an over-encumbered and generalized IT staff. However, this is something that is provided in the latest and most innovative Managed DaaS offerings. We’ll talk about it in our next section.

Q: Is it possible to get your company’s data back out of the cloud once you’ve moved to the cloud? (aka “Hotel California”)

A: Absolutely. Your company’s data can be copied over the network by an administrator, or you can request it be delivered on magnetic media at any time.

Top 5 DaaS Use Cases

You’ve learned a lot about what DaaS is, how it helps end-users, and how it helps IT professionals. So what are the most common use cases for Desktop-as-a-Service in real enterprises today?

1. Development and Test – if you have a development

group that needs access to different types of desktops

and multiple environments, DaaS is an excellent

solution to quickly and efficiently provide that

flexibility.

2. Improved security – for companies that want to

protect their intellectual property (IP), DaaS is an

excellent solution to provide improved security,

because it stores all data in highly secured data

centers, off of end-user desktops and laptops and even

out of what may be a less-secure data center run by

your company (if you’re not in the data center

business).

3. Advanced graphics – traditionally, virtualized desktops

were unable to provide advanced graphics capabilities

such as those required by architects and 3-D graphic

designers. However, today DaaS is an excellent

solution for companies in need of high-performance,

secure, and flexible desktops that can run applications

requiring advanced graphics.

4. Non-persistent desktops – There are many companies

that require access to a large pool of non-persistent

desktops for conferences, labs, training environments,

or demonstrations. Perhaps you have task workers or

shared workstations that only serve one purpose, and

you don’t want distraction, changes, or customization

beyond what admins set. DaaS is the ideal solution to

provide on-demand access for application or desktop

sessions.

5. Shifting CapEx to OpEx – Companies need to be more

agile and more technologically advanced than the

competition. Innovative companies are moving their

savvy technology experts from maintenance mode into

innovation mode by moving infrastructure, desktops,

and applications to the cloud where they can save time

and shift their capital to more frequent technology

innovation instead of ongoing capital purchases or

leases.

The Big Takeaways

So what’s the big take away here? Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) is a mature technology solution that smart enterprises are leveraging to make a difference for their end-users, for their IT staff, and for the bottom line at their companies. DaaS virtualizes desktops and moves them to the public cloud, offering greater security, greater flexibility, and greater efficiency. However, just because a desktop is in the cloud doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t have to be managed, maintained, secured and supported.

In our next section, we’ll learn about how an all new form of DaaS is taking DaaS to the next level by eliminating all the support and management requirements still associated with today’s DaaS solutions. Read on to find out how the power of Managed DaaS can help you!

Introduction to Managed DaaS

From reading the first part of this book, you now know what DaaS is, but what is “Managed DaaS”? Call it the next iteration of DaaS, DaaS 2.0, “comprehensive cloud desktops for the enterprise” – whatever makes you feel good! Managed DaaS is the same DaaS we talked about above but with all the things you would have wished DaaS had when you started using it!

Envisioning Your Managed DaaS Workspace

Picture this – without any configurations or customizations from a system administrator, an end-user who gained access to “desktop-as-a-service” would have just that – access to a desktop. That desktop would have the Windows or Linux OS on it – and that’s it. If you’ve ever done a fresh installation of

Windows, you can picture exactly the applications you have available to you. You have Notepad for “word processing”, of course, you have MSPaint.exe for “graphic design” and not much else, right? Oh, by the way, you log in as “Administrator”, you have no anti-virus or file sharing between workgroups; you have to perform all your own Windows updates and data protection.

The point being that traditional DaaS provides desktops ONLY, for the most part.

Now, picture this as a pool of 1000 desktops, all with access to the latest internal company applications, the latest Microsoft Office suite, anti-virus and anti-malware protection, stateful firewalling, web content filtering, role-based file sharing, enterprise-grade email, calendar, and collaboration, data protection, directory services, and a company-wide authentication, authorization, and accounting system. All of those layers of configuration, applications, backend infrastructure, and full time security updating happen thanks to a managed desktop-as-a-service infrastructure.

Figure X – Managed Desktop-as-a-Service (Managed DaaS)

You can think of traditional DaaS as being like the middle of a jelly donut (jelly donuts aren’t jelly donuts unless they have filling).

Then, managed DaaS adds on all the yummy dough and icing around the jelly to make the jelly donut complete. The graphic shows you

what it looks like (before eating it)

What’s Necessary to run Enterprise-Grade DaaS?

While traditional DaaS is necessary and very cool, once you think more about DaaS, you start to realize that it is a huge step in the right direction, but that your desktop administrator and support groups are still going to have to spend a lot of time to “make DaaS enterprise ready”.

Those Managed DaaS services might include:

Consulting and Implementation Services – Including

golden image and desktop network design, image

container buildout and user acceptance testing (UAT)

and optimization, desktop provisioning and data

migration.

Desktop Image Management Services – Working to

simplify the activities for desktop image configuration

and to maintain peak digital integrity.

Desktop Help Desk Services – End-user and

administrative support from dedicated, expert service

partners.

It’s these types of features, configurations, and customizations that DaaS really needs to be fully enterprise ready and truly allow your IT personnel to spend their time innovating with new technology that can help your company’s bottom line or

that can help you company stand out above the competition (technology can do that you know!)

Managed DaaS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Now, just like we answered with DaaS, let’s answer some of the most common Managed DaaS questions:

Q: How do end-users remotely access their desktops?

A: There is a secure web portal for remote access available to each Managed DaaS subscriber, accessible from virtually any web connected device.

Q: Do you have desktop experts on staff available to help with configuring “golden images” for my different end-user types and their different application needs?

A: Absolutely. A true Managed DaaS provider is going to have desktop design and support experts on staff to help you with image management, desktop resource configuration, AD configuration, desktop security, data protection, and connection back to your enterprise applications, wherever they may be.

Q: How do I manage and update my desktop images?

A: Managed DaaS customers can opt to have the Managed DaaS provider take care of that for them, or there is a web-based, self-service portal where they can do it themselves.

Q: How would I migrate my existing end-user customizations to the new Managed DaaS solution, or would my end-users have to “start over”?

A: They wouldn’t have to “start over” at all. End-user customizations can be migrated from their existing desktop (physical or virtual) to their new cloud-based desktop.

Q: What about when end-users need help with their desktop? Who do they call?

A: Quality Managed DaaS providers offer help desk support services to support end-users with connectivity, peripheral device usage, end-user profiles, security, and more.

Q: Do cloud-based desktops actually offer good performance, and are they scalable?

A: Yes, they perform very well. In fact, one service provider’s cloud-based desktops can scale up to 8 vCPUs and 32GB of RAM per desktop, with multiple configurations for compute, storage, and GPU-enabled graphics available.

Benefits of Managed DaaS

If you’ve read all that managed DaaS offers, above, the benefits of managed DaaS over traditional DaaS should be glaringly obvious, but to ensure you have a succinct list of the benefits offered by Managed DaaS, here they are:

Eliminate existing desktop and data center

infrastructure that provides desktop services, saving

time on administration, maintenance, and

troubleshooting as well as saving up-front IT spend on

all the hardware and associated maintenance.

Eliminate the need to have dedicated personnel for

desktop management and support.

Secure desktops and end-user data, incorporating

compliance goals, if needed

Provide end-users with critical applications wherever

they need them, and on whichever devices they prefer

to be productive

Optimize your desktop images and applications,

leveraging a dedicated provider for service and

support, eliminating the need to manage this in-house

Strengthen business continuity for end-user desktops

and applications, in the event of a disaster

Turn existing capital expenditures (that fuel your

inefficient and constant technology refresh projects)

into monthly, pay-as-you-go operating expenses that

financial geeks (and executives) love

Free up time in the IT group to finally implement the

business-changing technology projects you’ve been

dreaming of for years (and now have the money to do

them)

The Big Takeaways

To be candid, the big takeaway from Managed DaaS is that you don’t want to consume just a blob of jelly, you want the whole jelly donut, right? Managed DaaS provides enterprises comprehensive desktops “in the cloud” with all the enterprise-grade features and functionality they need. There are many different challenges DaaS can help companies and end-users overcome.

When considering DaaS for your company, make sure you fully analyze all the different features and configurations that are truly required to make DaaS a success. Ensure you select only innovative Managed DaaS providers that can offer you and your company a comprehensive cloud-based desktop solution.