Quest, Desktone Partner on Cloud-Hosted Virtual Desktops

Desktone Inc. , a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) specialist, has partnered with Quest, a VAR500 company, to promote cloud-hosted virtual desktops to Quest’s enterprise business customers.

First, a point of clarification: Quest is a global service provider based in Sacramento, Calif. The company is not to be confused with Quest Software, which develops IT systems management software and owns PacketTrap MSP.

Interest in cloud-hosted virtual desktops has grown as end-customers seek to access their PC desktops from tablets and smart phones. Desktone won its first big client of the year, Paladin Building Services, LLC, in early January 2012.

Quest, meanwhile, serves business customers ranging from SMBs to Fortune 500 corporations. The company has been continually building partnerships in order to meet an increasing demand from its customer base for desktop security, support, availability and performance on different types of end-user devices, including mobile devices. Quest partnered with NetApp back in August 2011 in order to offer virtual desktops in a scalable cloud environment.

But now Quest has called upon Desktone to help take virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) one step further. According to Quest CEO Tim Burke, the combination of NetApp and Desktone virtual desktop solutions will allow Quest to offer VDI support on smartphones, tablets, desktops and laptops.

“Service providers are looking for a complete Desktop-as-a-Service solution for their customers and are finding that shared desktop technologies and traditional VDI can’t provide the flexibility,” said Desktone CEO Peter McKay, in a prepared statement. McKay noted that other VDI solutions are built to be deployed on-premise and don’t provide the flexibility, performance and return-on-investment (ROI) that businesses need today.

Conversely, McKay says Desktone’s platform is a multi-tenant VDI approach for any mobile device.