General Information On Hosted Virtual Desktops

By Alyce Larson


Hosted virtual desktops is trend in computing that entails the running of virtual machines on hypervisors located in datacenters, instead of running single desktops at the client level. The storage of data in a central location allows users to access their applications and data from remote devices such as smartphones, laptop, thin clients, desktop, tablets and other mobile devices. They are accessed over WANs and LANs.

This concept is based on an infrastructure commonly known as VDI, Virtual desktop infrastructure. This is desktop based service charged with hosting desktop users on various remote servers. A user connected to a network uses a remote display protocol to access the servers. The different users are connected to their sessions via the connection brokering services. The administration of centralized systems is much easier and facilitates quick response to emerging customer needs.

There are very many benefits associated with this form of computing. It enhances the security of data in an organization. Company data is not stored on the local physical system and therefore when a system crash or theft occurs none of it is lost. It is backed up every day and is protected from unauthorized access by firewalls and any form of virus attacks.

Resource sharing is an effective technique used to reduce operational expenses. This computing concept helps to achieve this and eliminates the need to provide single machines for employees where it may be unnecessary or may require additional costs. The data is backed up from time to time and incase of the occurrence of a disaster it is available for system recovery.

This system is built to support flexibility in order to allow for customization when needed. A number of business applications are installed to meet the diverse and specific needs of the clients. Their integration into the existing environment is easy since they can be adopted using the step-by-step approach. The time and cost of migration is also very minimal.

This technology helps to improve the productivity of a company. Virtually hosted data can be accessed from any location and allows a person to work in different a location besides the office station. It also reduces expenses since no investments in notebook computers and PCs are necessary. It eliminates maintenance and upgrading costs which are performed by the service provider.

This technology allows the separation of the system software including the various applications and the operating system from the underlying hardware. These systems are highly scalable and allow room for expansion since it is easy to add more virtual machines depending on the needs of the organization. The machines are highly available since they are implemented in three or four tier systems creating multiple redundant network paths powered by several servers.

Hosted virtual desktops are beneficial to both small scale and large scale businesses. They contribute greatly to the success of these organizations. They enable firms to take advantage of security, redundant information and easy access of their information and files. Access to data is further improved by the wide range of mobile devices available. However, organizations encounter complexity and cost problems in the implementation process.




About the Author: