Desktop management has long been the bane of IT’s existence. In office settings, IT personnel are forced to refresh PCs and laptops every few years. Once the hardware arrives, they must load each user’s software, data, and settings, and ensure access privileges are properly assigned. It is a time-consuming task, and it doesn’t end once the refresh is completed. IT then babysits each endpoint from there on in terms of backup, patch management, security, and Help Desk duties. In some organizations, it can appear that desktop management absorbs almost all the time – actively preventing work on business priorities or urgent digital transformation projects.

Enter Desktop as a Service (DaaS), a managed service that takes care of any and all matters related to the procurement, management, maintenance, and performance of organizational PCs and laptops. Here are ten of the top benefits of DaaS:

1. The End of Procurement Headaches

DaaS simplifies the hardware procurement process via device leasing. Every three years on average, new devices arrive loaded with the appropriate software without IT having to do much more than hand them out or plug them in.

1. 2. Lower Lifecycle Costs

Device procurement, it turns out, only accounts for 20% of overall lifecycle costs. The other 80% is spent on deployment, management, maintenance, support, replacement, and disposal of devices. As well as taking care of procurement’s 20%, DaaS eliminates the burden of the 80% of costs incurred across the lifetime of devices.

3. 3. One Monthly Fee per Device

Instead of paying for the cost of hardware and software then paying IT personnel to manage and maintain the desktop infrastructure, DaaS is available for one low monthly fee. This reduces infrastructure and IT management costs, while helping businesses to avoid costly capital expenditure (CAPEX) and hardware refresh costs.

4. 4. Remote Device Management

The pandemic forced everyone to work from home, leading to bring your own device (BYOD) chaos. IT scrambled to connect employees to the network using whatever devices were at hand. In some cases, these were approved corporate laptops. But in other cases, they were home PCs shared among family members. Security issued multiplied and performance suffered along with productivity. DaaS provides a sensible alternative by enabling seamless device management for the entire workforce whether at home, in the office, or on the road.

5. 5. Better Support

DaaS reduces IT complexity and hardware costs by transferring high CAPEX into low subscription-based operating expenditures (OPEX). This monthly fee also includes support. When the right providers are involved, such support services often far exceed the capabilities and expertise available within IT. After all, DaaS providers serve a great many clients and have been doing so for many years. They know the issues that can come up and how to rapidly remedy them.

6. 6. Freeing Up IT

Even when the IT department possesses skilled IT resources that could competently and efficiently take care of desktop management, such resources are better deployed elsewhere. Desktop management is far from anyone’s priority. Yet it consumes an abundance of time. IT resources are better spent on developing business-critical applications, forwarding the goal of digital transformation, migrating functions to the cloud, and addressing the most urgent technological needs of the business. DaaS eliminates worry over desktop management so IT can get on with more pressing matters that bring about competitive advantage.

7. 7. Higher Productivity

Desktop procurement and management may be the last thing IT wants to deal with – and it shows. There are still desktops out there loaded with Vista and other obsolete OSes, processors from the Stone Age, and running unsupported versions of applications. The last thing employers want is employees struggling along with sluggish systems that take ages to boot up and waste minutes as people shift from one app to another. Hours every day can be lost due to retention of legacy equipment and software. DaaS ensures that every employee has current equipment, is supplied with the latest software and updates, and can spend their days productively operating on high-performance systems.

8. 8. Tighter Security

Security challenges ramped up sharply coincident with COVID-19 enforced work-from-home (WFH) mandates. These days, ransomware and malware are more virulent than ever. With most people still working remotely, security issues often swamp IT help desks. Phishing schemes trick employees into clicking on malicious links and attachments. Access control is often scrambled due to the urgent needs of remote executives that sometimes pester IT into allowing them administrative privileges to “reduce the WFH hassle.” Similarly, home networks are often shared among family members. This opens the door to incursion if another family member is lax on security. DaaS comes with built-in security features and is monitored by trained personnel who are constantly on the lookout for anomalous behavior, misuse of ports, or other signs of an ongoing or imminent attack.

9. 9. Patch Management

There are now more Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) than ever. It sometimes seems that there is a new CVE issued or a new data breach reported every day. Patch management, therefore, is more vital than ever. Yet it is one of the duties that internal IT rarely does well. As it is a routine action and is done over and over at times when the organization is NOT suffering an attack, it is easy for IT to gradually pay less attention to this essential function. That’s why it is common for CVEs that are months or even years old to remain unpatched in some organizations. IT either takes too long testing patches, or simply neglects them. DaaS services include keeping software up to date and all urgent security patches deployed rapidly.

10. 10. Available Anywhere

With DaaS, the user’s workspace, data, and apps are all hosted in the cloud. This means it’s easy to access work from anywhere the user wants to work. Anywhere with an internet connection becomes a workplace, so users are free to work when and how they want without the traditional office barriers.

At Whitehat Virtual we are experts at making it easy to work from anywhere. We’ll unlock the talent, tools and technology you need to focus on the work you love. Work efficiently from anywhere and save money while your enhancing productivity and growing your business. Learn more here.

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