Demystifying the Cost of DaaS
- 1. Demystifying the Cost of Desktop-as-a-Service
- 2. Raise your hand if you’ve heard Desktops-as-a-Service (DaaS) can help your organization trade capital expense for operating expense, lowering the total cost of ownership for your entire IT infrastructure? But, have you heard about how different pricing structures fuel pay-as-you-go desktops?
- 3. It’s important to understand the various DaaS options and the wide price ranges available to you. If you’re shopping for DaaS or cloud desktops there are a few questions you should be asking potential vendors regarding price.
- 4. 5 Questions on Cost What to ask DaaS vendors about pricing.
- 5. Where are the desktops hosted? Semi-private vs. public cloud. 1
- 6. About Semi-Private Cloud The majority of DaaS offerings are provided by companies who build a semi-private cloud in their data center. The costs associated with building the data center can place a high price tag on DaaS in the semi-private cloud.
- 7. About Public Cloud To overcome the cost hurdles associated with semi-private clouds, some DaaS vendors turned to the public cloud as their hosting providers. Public clouds are managed by respected enterprises such as Amazon and HP and provide highly available and secure platforms for hosting desktops.
- 8. 2 What are the licensing fees?
- 9. Semi-Private Cloud Vendors that build their own data center typically use well-established virtualization platforms, such as those by VMware or Citrix, and offer Microsoft desktop operating systems, such as Windows 7. Add-on licensing fees can become quite expensive. Public clouds, on the other hand, include built-in Microsoft operating system licenses for Windows Server 2008, which can be used along with a Microsoft RDS CAL as a lower cost cloud desktop operating system. Public Cloud About Licensing Fees
- 10. 3 What type of desktop performance level do I need?
- 11. Most DaaS vendors offer a variety of desktop performance levels such as standard, premium, or super premium. The more processing power and storage you need the more expensive your desktop will be.
- 12. For the best bang for your buck, make sure your requirements align with the appropriate desktop performance level. $ $$ $$$
- 13. 4 Are there any long-term contracts?
- 14. Yearly agreements have become commonplace in the DaaS space. Don’t get locked into unnecessary payment terms and agreements if you can help it.
- 15. 5 Is there a minimum desktop usage?
- 16. If you’re a small business, minimum desktop orders might make certain DaaS offerings cost- prohibitive for your business. Be careful of minimum orders on the number of desktops.
- 17. It’s important to understand the various (and sometimes hidden) costs of moving your desktop environment to the cloud. Learn more with this free eBook Everything you Need to Know about Cloud Desktops as a Virtualization Solution. LeostreamDesktops.com