Physical desktop computer infrastructures no longer make sense for the corporate world. Not only are they expensive, insecure and maintenance-heavy, they also cannot effectively support the changing business IT landscape. The groundswell of Windows 7 migration plans, expanding virtual workforce, growing popularity of mobile devices, and tighter IT budgets all point to the need to reevaluate desktop strategies. While virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) seems like a promising alternative, in reality it is too costly and complex for most companies to implement. Why move the complexities and costs of managing physical desktops to another complex and expensive infrastructure? By moving virtual desktops to the cloud, instead of an internally deployed and managed data center, companies can realize all the promised benefits of virtual desktops—centralized management, improved data security and simplified deployment— without the exorbitant capital costs and management issues.
This white paper will compare the total cost of ownership (TCO) of physical PCs, virtual desktops, and cloud-hosted desktops as a service (DaaS). Cloud-hosted desktops have many benefits outside of TCO as many organizations want the convenience of outsourcing this IT function. The numbers in this study are based upon list prices, when applicable, averages of industry standard solutions, or published analyst numbers including Gartner and IDC.
