Desktone Debuts Desktops-as-a-Service

Startup Desktone claims to have developed a new, outsourced approach to desktop virtualization.

Today the startup unveiled its Virtual-D solution, which despite sounding like a rap album, is actually a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) offering for service providers.

Whereas traditional desktop virtualization works with servers and storage within users own data centers, Virtual-D transfers the images off to a third-party service provider such as Verizon, according to Jeff Fisher, Desktone’s senior director of strategic development.

“This is a new model that we’re hoping to pioneer in terms of desktops as a service,” says Fisher. “What we do, essentially, is that we move the problem outside of the data center.”

The Virtual-D solution uses Linux code and VMware’s ESX hypervisor to link service providers’ hardware together. These server and storage ‘elements’ are then connected to a user’s data center via an OC3 link, for example, enabling users to send their virtual desktop images off-site.The Virtual-D solution will be available in the second quarter of this year, with pricing expected to be somewhere between $60 and $80 per desktop.

Touted as an alternative to Microsoft’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), Desktone claims that Virtual-D removes much of the complexity that is associated with virtualization.

“Like any new trend, there’s lots of confusion,” he adds. “It’s not an easy solution to put together -- it requires hardware and software from multiple vendors.”

Desktone is also pushing desktop virtualization as a way to ease the strain on users’ storage infrastructure, something other vendors are pushing.

"A big piece of this is solving the storage problem,” says Fisher, explaining that a Windows XP Desktop image could typically consume up to 30 Gbytes of storage.Despite the hype, Desktone has announced just one beta customer, Merrill Lynch, which is looking to outsource its desktops to IBM. “There are a bunch of other users that are in early-stage trials,” adds Fisher.

At least one analyst thinks that Desktone may be on to something, but warns that it could be years before DaaS really catches on.

“Look at Software-as-a-Service, that has become a huge market; this is really taking it to its next step,” says Natalie Lambert, a senior analyst at Forrester, adding that Desktone is the first vendor she is aware of that has built this type of solution.

“The problem is that this virtual desktop technology is still not fully understood,” she adds. “I think it’s going to be a year or two or even more before we see widespread deployment of desktop virtualization, even in users’ own data centers.”

Desktone claims to be in discussions with a number of service providers, including Verizon, IBM, T-Systems in Germany, and Japan’s Softbank, according to Fisher.The exec told Byte & Switch that, in addition to VMware’s ESX hypervisor, support for Microsoft’s Hyper-V, and Citrix’s XenDesktop is also on the horizon.

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