DaaS, VDI and the Cloud Defined

Posted on May 19, 2015

By Colin Kelly, VP Product Management

One of the joys of language is that words have both their clinical definitions and other definitions – the ones we’re actually familiar with. Around here, we see this in action all the time with Cloud computing, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and Desktop as a Service or DaaS, the latter of which rhymes with mass, something real clouds don’t have much of but our computing Cloud does.

Here’s how we define each:

Cloud Computing

Only in computing could a huge data center filled with thousands of servers be considered a cloud. Light and fluffy? This Cloud most definitely is not. Nor does it take the shape of a donkey head or baby hippopotamus as it floats by in the sky.

The contributors to Wikipedia tried describing Cloud computing as follows:

Cloud computing is a computing term or metaphor that evolved in the late 1990s, based on utility and consumption of computer resources. Cloud computing involves application systems which are executed within the Cloud and operated through Internet enabled devices. Purely Cloud computing does not rely on the use of Cloud storage as it will be removed upon users download action. Clouds can be classified as public, private and hybrid.

Here’s the real scoop – the Cloud is an imaginary place made possible by affordable, fast Internet connectivity and high-performance servers sitting in datacenters. The Internet’s design allows us not to care where servers are located, although closer is sometimes seen as better but not always so.

When computing services are used over the Internet, they’re described as living in the Cloud. And really, when computing something, odds are good Cloud can provide whatever you need – storage, virtual servers, user desktops, security, applications, deployment platforms, etc. There isn’t just one Cloud. Lots of providers like Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Nuvestack and many, many more maintain their own independent Clouds.

This brings us to Cloud computing – a very large term that includes many things, apps and services. You’ll find Salesforce’s Cloud-based CRM labeled Cloud computing as well as Microsoft’s Cloud-delivered Office 365, Amazon’s AWS computing platform and Dropbox storage. Netflix streams movies from the Cloud and games are played there, too.

Simply put, if you use a computer or a mobile device to interact with something and that “something” does not reside on the device you are using or on a disc feeding the device you’re using, that “something” is probably in the Cloud.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

This term gives people fits, as its meaning is broadly whatever the vendor wants it to mean. VDI delivers the user’s desktop experience, typically some version of Microsoft Windows, over a local LAN connection or a WAN connection via the Internet to the user’s endpoint. Thus with VDI, the desktop – that which normally shows up when you turn on the computer and from which you launch all of your apps – isn’t really living on your computer at all. It’s living in on a server somewhere (usually in the Cloud or in your office) as are the apps it houses. You can see and use your virtual Windows desktop but you cannot see or directly interact with the server that provides it to you.

Vendors provide VDI in different ways depending on what they actually have to sell. For example, the desktop may be hosted on Cloud servers living anywhere or it may be hosted on your company’s own servers. Since VDI can vary in terms of what you’re getting and how much of the work you’ll be doing yourself, keep your eye on what is actually being offered when you talk to a vendor as well as the impact it will have on your wallet.

One of the things that typically defines a project as “VDI”, is that your company usually buys and maintains the servers (no matter if the servers sit in your office or in a datacenter somewhere). Classic VDI deployments are also quite difficult to deploy requiring complex knowledge of multiple IT systems. With VDI, your company is responsible for buying, provisioning, licensing and maintaining everything. In addition to setting up all the servers you also need to deploy the Windows OS and Windows apps to each user, keep the OS/apps patched and offer a help desk to your employees to remove viruses and trouble shoot problems. Because of all this, only companies that have a full time, sophisticated, and well paid IT staff are usually able to deploy VDI.

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Desktop as a Service is a subset of VDI. That means DaaS does what VDI does – delivers Windows, a Windows desktop and apps, to users. Most DaaS is delivered over the Internet. The most important word here is “service” because DaaS should be easy to purchase and as inclusive as possible. The “service” part also means you pay a monthly subscription cost per user without needing to spend a lot of money up front.

The main difference between DaaS and VDI is that the server hardware is owned and managed by the DaaS provider. Your company doesn’t need to ever buy or provision servers. Part of your monthly service goes to essentially rent servers (or a portion of a server) in the DaaS provider’s Cloud.

With most DaaS offerings, you’ll still need your own IT staff to setup virtual desktops/apps for users, keep everything updated, and support your end users when they have problems (printing issues, viruses, etc.). You’ll also need an IT staff to help migrate all of your data, documents, and apps to the Cloud.

With DaaS or any VDI, you can usually access the same virtual Windows desktop with any device at any time and have the same user experience. So when you’re watching a game and have an epiphany that solves everything you were trying to figure out all week, you can pull out your phone, log into your work desktop and open the spreadsheet right from the stands, fix the problem and then go back to watching the game again. Problem solved.

Nuvestack’s DaaS

Why is Nuvestack different from regular old DaaS? We assume our customers don’t have access to a sophisticated fulltime IT staff. We do all of the setup, licensing, migration and support for you. At Nuvestack, we even include end-user help desk support and applications so your DaaS comes to you truly a service.

Comparing Cloud, VDI and DaaS

	Cloud	VDI	DaaS
What is it?	A collection of Internet-delivered computing services and applications that reside on remote, external servers hosted by a providers.	User desktop experience in which the user’s Window’s desktop is delivered to the user’s hardware via a network or Internet connection.	Similar to VDI but offered as a complete service, which may include applications and support and often requires little or no support from internal IT teams.
Where does it live?	Cloud data, servers, applications, everything reside at data centers scattered around the world – but users need not be aware of this.	May reside on local servers in a corporate data center, in the Cloud or a combination of both. VDI varies widely by vendor.	Resides in the Cloud; location is transparent to users. DaaS is available over any broadband Internet connection and provides a consistent access experience regardless of device.
How secure is it?	The Cloud is only as secure as the user allows it to be. Good password hygiene and security practices are necessary. Cloud services reside at giant data centers and are considered secure – to a point.	Hosted locally, VDI is only as secure as the local data center. Hosted in the Cloud, VDI benefits from Cloud data center security but user mistakes are still a big risk.	DaaS is Cloud-hosted and benefits from big data center protections. Customers can add their own user authentication schemes to increase protection. Data is protected in-transit.