Desktop as a Service

It's no secret that users have changed dramatically over the past ten years or so. While they once had to sit at a computer terminal in the office and log in to gain access to corporate data, now they log in from anywhere -home, airports, meetings in other offices, on their mobile phones and in coffee shops and airport kiosks.

This has presented grave challenges to corporate IT personnel in providing data to their users without compromising security. Security was a lot easier in the old regime. Now it is complicated by the security capabilities and features of mobile devices, wireless networks and outside data providers.

One concept that has gained some traction has been the idea of the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Under this approach, a virtual desktop would be served up on a secure server and made available over secure channels to the users, VDI would provide an opportunity to exercise more controlled control over security.

Companies, however, have found VDI to be difficult and complex to implement.

As a response to this whole set of needs, some companies have begun to offer up the idea of Desktop as a Service (DAAS). They are offering over the internet secure desktops that could be controlled and kept up to date. Mokafive is a leading-edge provider of this service.

DAAS has a lot of potential. Also, there is a bit of irony in that a solution may be coming from the cloud, which started off by greatly complicating the lives of security policy makers and administrators.

An excellent article on this area can be found here.