In 2019, before the lockdowns, the technology consulting firm Gartner Group estimated that desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) would grow at an annual rate of nearly 60 percent (58.8%) through 2023. Analysts were already optimistic about the rapid adoption of virtual desktop solutions.
Procurement costs as well as software compliance and licensing inventory were listed as the top two major difficulties associated with traditional desktop management. Virtual desktop solutions offered the new remote work experience with access to more applications on cloud-based exchanges and enhanced digital capabilities. Consider it a home run when you add strengthened security to the mix while cutting costs and improving the employee experience as part of the reimagined workplace.
The convergence of home and office happened a long time ago, and Silicon Valley has been telling us about cloud-based workspace for years. These pioneer companies learned the requisite technology tricks and cultural moves to make the transition to be mostly self-sustaining, but they had time. Likewise, they also installed the necessary broadband capacity, office equipment, conferencing technology and furniture to be productive and comfortable.
However, pivoting to cloud-based solutions was not without its challenges. For employers assessing potential digital workspaces, enhancing employee collaboration also remained a top priority. Security vulnerabilities and risks associated with these workspace environments being the second most important factors, according to the report. Migrating risk controls and security protocols to meet regulatory and compliance mandates also required upfront time investment. The required shift of investment from CapEX to OpEX was complicated and time consuming for many companies.
Nevertheless, enterprises have begun to reshape their digital footprint having ample reasons to permanently consider the cloud as an important way to transform and enhance even more end-user experiences.
Then came COVID-19 and the massive work from home experiment of 2020. Pandemic hasn’t changed the advancement of the remote worker, it simply accelerated it in record time. There are little options when employees are restricted to working from home, making the IT administration routines challenging for system administrators. To accommodate virtual workforces, an increasing number of companies now relied on third-party cloud solutions including WaaS, DaaS, WVD, SVD, Google Workspace and customer deployed virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
A rushed COVID-19 remote-work policies have made many businesses experience a telecommuting baptism by fire. Many IT departments simply executed and took a calculated leap. Devices and users needed to be kept secure, and enterprises have had to swiftly adopt a new management approach with the predominantly cloud based remote workforce.
If you had to accelerate your remote work environment for COVID-19, now is the time to re-examine and optimize. This is where CBTS Hawaiian Telcom can help our customers reevaluate their environments to make sure they are running their businesses on a secure, manageable and cost-effective go-forward decision.
CBTS Hawaiian Telcom has developed our own desktop-as-a-service offering - Workspace as a Service (WaaS). This remote working approach has offered several significant advantages over other solutions, including security, scalability and cost-effectiveness.
We will talk more about WaaS solutions at our upcoming event Transforming to a Digital Workspace. Are you in? Click for more details.