OVH “Virtual Cloud Desktop”—a virtual desktop solution which simplifies mobile working
Telework is popular among French workers. Nearly two thirds (64%)* are in favor of this work method which makes it possible for professionals to conduct their business outside of the work place. Yet, the absence of acceptable technological solutions acts as a disincentive to the expansion of mobile working practices which are synonymous with flexibility and cost reduction. Today only 17% of the French labor force telework, which is low compared to Sweden, where one out of two employees use a virtual desktop. As for BYOD, a real headache for SMBs and large enterprises alike, it is deemed too risky.
The new OVH “Virtual Cloud Desktop” offer aims to change that by allowing companies and their employees to benefit from all the advantages associated with working from a mobile desktop.
An enhanced user experience
Until now, mobile or home-based working was defined as remote access to applications used at the work place and data previously synchronised with storage space in the cloud.
“Virtual Cloud Desktop” redefines the concept of the remote desktop by permitting users complete access to their own customized work environments including their tools, data, applications, shortcuts, configurations, documents being edited, browser tabs…
The OVH.com offer differentiates itself from the competition by providing administrator access. Therefore, users are not limited to an application catalog, they can install any software and even use the licenses that they already have. A freedom of choice made possible by a significant amount of work on the security of the infrastructure and isolation of each virtual desktop within a VLAN, so that users cannot cause harm to their neighbors.
“Video conference, SaaS business applications, collaborative tools, most of our work environments have already migrated to cloud. Virtual desktops are in line with these tools. On top of that, they make it possible to combine and make the most of them. Continuing to work from a local computer, is working outside of the Internet,” explains François Loiseau, technical manager.
A range designed for a wide variety of uses
To build its Cloud Desktop offer and propose so many uses, OVH.com relies on VMware’s Horizon solution—chosen for its user-friendliness and performance especially associated with Blast Extreme technology (used to compress video streams and allow more demanding applications).
Today, the virtual desktop range offered by OVH.com consists of 4 models, starting at €9.99 per month (excl. tax) to meet a wide variety of needs. From office suites (Cloud Desktop 1 or 2 to browse the Internet and work with Excel files of several hundreds of MBs) to photo or video editing with models including a GPU card (Cloud Desktop 4), including development, for example to run Java IDEs which are resource intensive (Cloud Desktop3).
The “Cloud Desktop infrastructure” offer is specifically aimed at IT managers administrating more than 50 workstations, by allowing them to deploy their own virtual desktop infrastructure themselves. It is also intended for software publishers, who can use it to allow their customers to benefit from optimal and multi-device access to their SaaS solutions.
Program optimisations include a greater choice in available operating systems—until now limited to Windows—by offering Linux distributions and enriching the virtual desktop offer with existing OVH solutions, either as an option, like Exchange, or as preinstalled application, like Office 365 Pro Plus, or as package with Internet access and VoiP.
The virtual desktop solution is available throughout Europe and will soon be offered on the North American market.
Discover the OVH Virtual Cloud Desktop solution."