Desktone, Equinix Partner on Hosted Desktop as a Service

virtual desktop

The companies announced their partnership today, pointing to the bring-your-own-device trend and security concerns that accompany it as a driver of demand for DaaS. By using DaaS with employee-owned mobile devices IT organizations can ensure data remains protected and safe in the data center, while users get a consistent experience and access to that data, regardless of the device they are using, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet or PC.

The companies promise the partnership will enable MSPs to offer quick implementation while it limits downtime and geographic-induced latency.

DaaS Market Poised for Growth

DaaS is a market that is poised for growth. Desktone cites Cisco research that shows 79 percent of organizations have current or future plans to use virtual desktops while 25 percent are already using VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure.)

The partnership with Equinox reduces the big barrier to entry for MSPs — upfront cost and complexity.

Desktone’s DaaS platform is purpose-built for the cloud, the company says, providing the benefits of virtualized desktops, including reduced deployment complexity, and improved management, security and compliance.

Desktone says that a 1,000 desktop trial that would otherwise take six to nine months to complete can be deployed in 45 days using the company’s reference architecture.

The partnership’s desktop-as-a-cloud service lets service providers wrap virtual desktops around their existing cloud offerings such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) while providing customers with a device-independent desktop management strategy. In addition, the company notes, once a customer moves its desktop environment to the cloud, storage and applications often follow suit, opening up more revenue opportunities.

Equinix’s ability to connect with more than 900 networks globally will help service providers deliver an optimal end-user experience and offer improved time to market. Equinix offers a choice of DaaS connections via public or private IP networks.

Next month Equinox will introduce a Solution Validation Center demo environment using NetApp storage systems. The demo environment will enable Equinix customers to test Desktone solutions from different parts of the world and validate performance metrics around DaaS.