As workforces continue to leave the confines of the office to work remotely, it’s more important than ever for organisations to support their employees with the tools and information they need to get their jobs done. Setting up individual machines for remote workers, however, can be costly and create corporate security risks.
Fortunately, desktops as a service (DaaS) can help you provide your employees with virtual workspaces that are secure and easy to set up. If you’re unfamiliar with the cost benefits of DaaS, this article is here to help. Below, we will breakdown how DaaS can affect your organisation’s bottom line and provide you with a positive return on investment (ROI).
DaaS Cost Benefits
DaaS leverages the flexibility of the cloud to help organisations save time and money while building out their IT infrastructure to support remote workforces. Here are the top cost-related use cases that make DaaS an appealing solution for organisations embracing IT modernisation:
- Reduces Hardware Costs: Your company’s infrastructure is likely already built on a combination of an on-premises data centre and the cloud. (Roughly 87 percent of organisations utilise a combination of on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure.) With DaaS, you can optimise the resources you already have and harness even more of the cloud to build up your organisation’s digital infrastructure, potentially reducing hardware capital expenditure by 56 percent annually.
- Streamlines Software Updates: Updating software and operating systems on countless PCs can be a big time and resource drain on IT departments, and it can also be extremely costly. With DaaS, a cloud service provider handles all updates and maintenance, saving your organisation time and IT resources.
- Improves employee efficiency: Inaccessible information and issues with end-user devices hinder employees from timely completion of work. A reliable DaaS connection gives employees constant access to the information and tools they need to get work done, increasing employee efficiency by about 5 percent.
- Improves IT efficiency: DaaS helps significantly reduce IT costs, increasing IT efficiency by around 10 percent. It takes about eight hours to set up a PC and software for new employees. DaaS provides pooled software resources in one location, simplifying setup so that it is not nearly as time intensive. Also, DaaS reliability and ease of use reduces help-desk calls by about 33 percent, and cuts remaining call times in half.
- Enhances security: With sensitive information kept on vulnerable endpoint devices, your organisation’s revenue could be at risk. As recent as two years ago, 44 percent of IT decision makers stated their revenue was at risk based on the number of employees requiring access to company data and the procedures and security tools at that time. DaaS services reduce that revenue risk by ensuring that data is secure and accessible to authorised users. Additionally, a DaaS service provider ensures all security patches are constantly kept up to date.
How DaaS can affect your bottom line
To get a better understanding of just how efficient and cost-effective integrating DaaS into your organisation can be, look at how DaaS affects an organisation’s bottom line with these use cases:
- Remote work flexibility: The COVID-19 pandemic jumpstarted the migration to remote work over the past two years, but recent trends suggest it’s here to say. With DaaS, employees have the flexibility to work where they choose, and you have the peace of mind knowing they have the resources they need to get their work done without the risk of productivity loss.
- Upgrading infrastructure: Avoid the costly expenses of data centre hardware as you modernise your infrastructure with cloud capabilities like DaaS. Plus, save from having to build out more physical space to house a growing datacentre, as well as the time required for the build and ongoing management.
- Supporting temporary workers: Time and money spent setting up machines for temporary workers can add up fast. DaaS supports the easy deployment of devices that do not need to go through a lengthy setup process, saving your IT department from spending time and resources spinning up workspaces for employees who are not permanent.
- Extend device lifespan: With desktops and apps operating separately from the endpoint, you can extend device lifecycle and slow down the cadence of costly hardware refresh projects. And when employees are ready for new devices, deploy DaaS resources to thin clients and low-cost endpoints for the same great experience without the huge hardware investment.
- Supporting company growth: Growing your workforce requires investments, especially when it means setting up more PCs and expanding your datacentre infrastructure. With the agility of the cloud, DaaS allows you to easily support your organisation’s growth by changing the terms of service rather than spending a large amount of capital on new hardware and software licenses.
Potential savings and return on investment with DaaS
When deciding whether to deploy a DaaS solution, you should factor in your return on investment (ROI) to determine if the expected costs are justified for your organisation. In recent study conducted by Forrester for example, researchers estimated what companies could expect to save with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops. After just three years of service, a company of 15,000 employees can expect a 153 percent ROI as a result of the increased employee productivity and IT efficiency provided by DaaS.
No two organisations are exactly alike, and no two organisations will require the exact same features from their DaaS solution. Because of this, it can be a challenge to find accurate, structured pricing — which makes it difficult to establish a direct desktop as a service price comparison. However, should you factor in the above benefits and its exercises, your organisation can be well on its way to a new sense of resilience within our evolving economy.
