Virtual Desktops – providing you with the ultimate work environment

A Virtual Desktop or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) uses desktop virtualisation software. This separates the desktop operating system (OS), applications, and data from the local hardware, which means the code, the 1s and 0s of the OS and applications, can be running on any hardware in any location.

What is virtual desktop hosting?

Virtual Desktop Hosting is the ability to run a virtual Windows desktop on cloud-based servers, managed and supported by the virtual desktop hosting provider. You can connect to the virtual desktop from anywhere over the internet, no IT skills are required, and non-Windows devices can connect to it.

What is a virtual desktop in Windows?

Some versions of Windows desktop and Windows server include the Hyper-V feature.  Hyper-V enables users to create a virtual version of an operating system, working independently of the Windows operating system installed on the PC or server hardware. The virtual desktop can be a different OS such as Linux.

What Is A Virtual Desktop Windows 11?

Windows 11 Professional, Enterprise, or Education included the Hyper-V feature so you can create your own virtual desktop Windows 11.

A Hosted Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (hosted VDI) means that the hosting provider looks after the infrastructure providing a fully managed Desktop-As-A-Service (DaaS) solution giving business users cloud based virtual Windows desktops to access their documents, data and applications without having to worry about managing or supporting a complex, on-premises Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.

At Your Office Anywhere this service includes managing the anti-virus and the Windows updates as well as backing up the data, documents and the virtual operating system itself.

Remote Desktop Services

At Your Office Anywhere we run a type of Hosted Virtual Desktop Infrastructure called Remote Desktop Services, sometimes called Hosted Desktops. With this type of VDI solution all the users’ desktops run on one Windows server. This has several advantages over individual Virtual Desktops including:

Software Updates

• You only need to update software applications once on the server and everyone gets the update.
• There’s no risk of users accidentally running different versions of software.
• If you need to upgrade the operating system this is also only done once, there is no need to upgrade every single virtual desktop.

Costs

• A Hosted Remote Desktop service is much more cost effective than other forms of VDI desktop.
• Only one operating system exists so storage costs are much lower.
• Only one operating system licence is needed so licence costs are lower.
• Everyone has the same consistent environment so people are more productive and support costs are lower.
• Resources (Memory and CPU) are pooled across all users providing a much more efficient use of resources and so reducing costs.

Security and Data Protection

• All data and documents are held centrally; no data is held on either the individual user’s virtual desktop or the user’s local device.
• All data is backed up.
• Less risk of Data Privacy or GDPR violations.

Moving to cloud based virtual desktops is a big decision, especially for existing businesses. It is important to have a provider you trust and have confidence in. Your Office Anywhere have been implementing and supporting remote desktop environments for over 20 years and have been hosting Virtual Desktops for customers since 2006.