Quite frankly, IT organizations could try to roll their own, but they would have to reinvent the wheel where both the learning curve and the cost could very easily be too high. Moreover, individual organizations are unlikely to be able to have all the skills, resources or time to do the job as well. dinCloud's intellectual property (IP) is its secret sauce--allowing the company to embrace a new generation of cloud-oriented data center requirements and also making it unlikely that the company's solutions will be replicated by individual enterprise efforts.
In its purpose-built cloud, dinCloud provides the key elements of a central service for all processes, applications and data, but does not require the users to change their current way of working. But how does dinCloud provide the necessary infrastructure at an affordable cost?
The virtual desktop concept requires a bit more of an explanation since it, too, often has more than one connotation. Typically, virtual desktop infrastructures or interfaces refer to network or Internet-connected devices in which a partial or substantial amount of processing is performed or data resides in a central data center. Thin- or zero-client devices are used as endpoints to utilize these centralized resources. Yet, dinCloud doesn't use either--citing the high cost yet inability of most such devices to equal, much less surpass, the physical desktop experience many users enjoy today.
dinCloud expands the virtual desktop concept to include any personal computing device a worker uses to access information from/for his or her employer. That could be a desktop located in a company office, but it could also be a mobile device, such as a laptop or tablet, or even a smartphone. (Android support is available today, with Windows and Apple support coming.) It could also include public computers that an individual uses for a short period of time, such as those at a library or a hotel. Note that one individual may use multiple devices, and that the company may not own or control who has access to many or even most of the devices that any individual employee uses. Note also that not only do users expect to use a device at any geographical location, but they also want to enjoy an experience that reflects their needs.
In fact, user experience is critical to the overall value of any VDI solution. Recall that each device has physical (such as screen size), software-hardware (mouse vs. touch screen) and software (user interface functionality) characteristics that distinguish it. That does not mean that all issues have been solved; standard business apps such as Word and PowerPoint can be easily displayed on an iPad, but many common video capabilities (such as Adobe Flash support) available for Windows clients are not natively available on Apple's iPads or iPhones. In addition, devices must allow users to securely access information meant for them alone, such as some email (and that can be commingled between business and personal e-mail communications). Users must also be able to share common internal data (such as HR forms and documents) as well as information that is company-external, like communications with partners or customers.
The user may also make use of public communications and collaboration services (such as Twitter and LinkedIn) and information sites (such as Google searches) that may be commingled, as employees often use business devices for private use. Finally, the user should be able to personalize the look and feel of the device (what icons are displayed, what size they are, and so on). The bottom line is that each individual worker has unique requirements that must be preserved (no master clone will be allowed). Failure to respect those requirements may find users chafing at the constraints at first, but will eventually (if not much sooner) result in the business equivalent of an immune system "rejection" of the proposed system.
Obviously, dinCloud respects and preserves mandatory and inevitable requirements for uniqueness as it provides the HVD cloud-based services for businesses. If it didn't, the company wouldn't stand much of a chance. That gets us to the second connotation of the company's HVDs, where the "desktop"--including corporate data, personalized preferences and so on--actually resides securely in the cloud. Since an individual device may be lost, stolen, suffer from irreparable hardware failure, be confiscated either temporarily or permanently by customs officers, or suffer any number of other common and exotic fates, workers must to be able to quickly and seamlessly access business information using a new device. This is possible if the information is stored on a central system somewhere in the "cloud."
