Desktone Desktop Virtualization Appliance Enables Public, Private Cloud Flexibility

Desktone, desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) provider, is looking to enable cloud services providers with customers that want the flexibility and cost savings of the cloud but also the control of traditional on-premise IT environments. The new cloud-managed virtual desktop solution enables SMBs and enterprises to develop a cloud model that best suits their business needs, whether it’s public, private or hybrid.

Additionally, the desktop virtualization offering also enables choice in desktop options, including Microsoft RDS, VDI and Remote Apps. According to Desktone, this should eliminate the barriers associated with traditional VDI deployments.

“Cloud-hosted virtual desktops offer great benefits, but not everyone is ready or willing to go 100 percent hosted. Some businesses want to leverage the capacity of their own private infrastructure-as-a-service environment or retain more control by keeping hardware on-premises. Others want a hybrid model, where certain offices are fully cloud-hosted and others are cloud-managed. These companies and service providers have been asking Desktone for a solution,” said Peter McKay, CEO of Desktone, in a prepared statement.

As our sister site MSPmentor noted, the new solution gives managed service providers new options for delivering virtual desktop offerings to end-customers. With the appliance, service providers will not only be able to make margin off of the hardware sale (off of a price tag of $10,000 to $12,000), but because it’s a hosted service, the provider will also gain recurring revenue throughout the life of the subscription.

Desktone has released two configurations of the product — one for enterprises and one for SMBs and branch offices. Enterprises are able to use existing private cloud IaaS environments or use the Desktone blueprint, which includes a choice of server hardware from NetApp and EMC, as well as desktop virtualization software. The SMB/branch office version can be deployed as a pre-configured virtual desktop appliance that includes GreenByte‘s vIO virtual storage and compute and desktop virtualization software.

The cloud-managed virtual desktop offerings are now available through authorized Desktone service providers. It’s also available from cloud provider partners like Dell, Fujitsu, Time Warner Cable and Dimension Data.