DaaS – Cooper Mann Consulting

When discussing technology and cloud, most IT resellers and MSPs serving small businesses equate “cloud” with web-based applications (SAAS) and web-based file sharing and assume that any talk of cloud desktops means desktop-as-a-service (DAAS). Unfortunately, web applications and file sharing services, and especially DAAS, are often NOT the best or most advantageous solutions available to the SMB/SME organization.

Rather than taking an “all or nothing” approach to cloud, small businesses benefit more from a strategic combination of cloud servers and desktop software, a hybrid model where the business gains the best of both worlds.

It is sometimes frustrating that small business IT personnel are the drivers behind migrating businesses from desktop applications to their web-based counterparts.

Most SMB software purchases are solely handled by IT, disregarding other important stakeholders.

Capterra’s 2023 SMB Software Buying Trends Survey

These non-business users pave the way for moving the business to cloud-based applications rather than modernizing the platform for existing applications to enable improved processes and workflows. This is especially challenging for accounting and finance operations where the businesses are being encouraged to migrate without first considering the underlying business processes or the accessibility of the impacted and associated data.

Businesses have developed an appreciation for the stability and predictability of desktop applications, along with the recognition of the challenges of transitioning from a system that is deeply integrated into existing workflows. Training users and adapting the work while migrating to cloud applications can be complex and costly without delivering significantly new or increased business benefits.

Data control and security are also large considerations. Most desktop applications allow businesses to retain direct access to and control over their data. Sensitive information remains within their reach rather than under the direct control of a 3rd party SAAS provider from whom they must gain permission and access to retrieve their data.

Rather than pushing the business towards web-based application services, a hybrid approach that modernizes the server and network platform as well as the user working environment may make more sense and provide the organization with greater advantage. This allows businesses to leverage their investments in desktop software, processes, training, and data and still make significant operational improvements and transformations.

Even more, some businesses rely on specialized software that isn’t easily replicated in a web-based environment. Existing desktop applications, especially industry-specific or custom-built tools, may not have cloud equivalents. Migrating these to the cloud server platform allows for uninterrupted productivity even as the business transitions from local to cloud-based platform and operations. Employees comfortable with existing software can maintain productivity without significant adjustments.

Using a cloud server to replace on-premises servers and user desktops, and keeping desktop and network applications working more securely, with improved access and management is the hybrid approach most advantageous for small and medium size businesses.

Noobeh works with Microsoft Azure, providing cloud servers that are scalable so small businesses can adjust their computing resources based on demand. Whether it’s expanding during peak seasons or downsizing during quieter periods, cloud servers offer flexibility that on-premises machines can’t.

Businesses can continue to use the critical desktop application tools they rely on and retain direct control over their data at the same time. Sensitive information remains within their cloud network, but users can access it from anywhere.

This hybrid model combines the benefits of cloud servers, including scalability, cost-effectiveness, agility, and security, with the benefits of keeping existing desktop software, including functionality, stability, data investment and control.

A hybrid approach to modernization allows small businesses to leverage the advantages of both cloud servers and desktop software, tailoring their technology stack to the unique needs of their businesses and in a way that is most advantageous to the business.

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Is it Cloud or is it Desktop?

There are a few realities that users of purely SaaS-based solutions are finding, and among them is that most web-based applications don’t readily integrate with the desktop – and the desktop is still where a lot of the real work gets done. Yes, users are increasingly mobile and are using smartphones and tablets to create and access information via mobile applications and services, yet the PC desktop – whether it’s an actual desktop computer, laptop or full-featured tablet – remains as the workhorse for business. Even the most popular SaaS applications continue to rely upon the desktop and locally installed applications to get some of the work done (note that many Salesforce.com users still find Excel to be their most effective reporting tool). In an effort to deliver mobility for those applications traditionally tied to the desktop, software developers have adopted two main approaches: redevelop the application for the web (which usually means bringing functionality down to a lowest-common-denominator approach), or applying a traditional terminal server or virtualized application approach and calling it “cloud”.

Neither option is awesome for the software maker – the time and cost of development certainly isn’t low, and the realities of hosting conventional desktop or LAN-based applications in shared infrastructure are pretty ugly at best. What these software makers need is a way to allow businesses to continue to use their software for the desktop and LAN, enabling the user with software license use rights to access that software product and associated data on any of their “desktops”, regardless of where that desktop might be (or what device it is running on). The model is cloud, but then it’s a desktop model too.

Independent software vendors are more frequently turning to platform providers (PaaS) to help deliver whatever “cloud” approach the company elects, and these ISVs are also feeling the bite of outsourced service fees and growing costs of delivery. It is not just the direct customer questioning the cost of deploying resources in the cloud – software providers are questioning these costs, too, especially as they attempt to deliver resource-intensive solutions from hosted infrastructure that bills them based on resource utilization. MyQuickCloud is proving that ISVs and their customers no longer have to bear large infrastructure costs in order to deliver complete user mobility. MyQuickCloud supports IaaS providers and their partner networks, allowing infrastructure-as-a-service offerings to include a simple and fast way to immediately make that infrastructure useful for desktop and application delivery.

The information technology industry has seen a lot of disruption in recent years, with complexity and risk in systems rising as users demand more functional mobile capability and software developers struggle to protect and preserve their assets (users included). MyQuickCloud jumps right into the middle of it, delivering solutions for business customers, software developers and cloud providers alike, and answering the question of whether it’s cloud or desktop. The answer is “yes”.

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Is it Cloud or is it Desktop?

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