How does HVD (Hosted Virtual Desktop) Work and why is it so popular?

A hosted virtual desktop (HVD) is a virtual machine installed on a central server and accessible online through portable devices. With a total cost of ownership (TCO), they provide a similar user experience to conventional PCs. A traditional PC has a TCO of thousands of dollars a year when you factor in upfront hardware acquisition costs and ongoing maintenance and upgrades.

How Hosted Virtual Desktops Works?

Hosted virtual desktops, or HVDs, are complete desktop environments that run as virtual machines and then utilize cloud-based servers’ compute and storage resources. HVDs are implemented by using virtualization software from vendors such as Microsoft, VMware, Amazon, etc. In contrast to local PCs or the company's internal network, the data and applications of the business are stored on the IT infrastructure of the service provider.

Applications and data are accessible just as if the user were using a physical PC at their desk. In a hosted virtual desktop, the user's data and business applications, and data become wholly separated, ensuring greater security. Virtual desktops also adhere to organization security policies.

Various hosting services offer virtual desktops (HVD) or Desktop as a Service (DaaS). Each service provider has its management console, services, and support. Businesses can free their staff from maintaining security, storing data, backing it up, maintaining updates by outsourcing these functions to service providers.

Hosted virtual desktops: Benefits

Traditionally, companies used desktop computers for about three decades before mobile devices and the resulting growth of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and flexible work environments. Companies must enable access to business applications anytime, anywhere, and manage multiple devices per user in the modern workplace. Using HVDs, businesses can optimize productivity, cost-efficiency, and employee satisfaction while addressing the challenges of the contemporary workplace.

Utilizing HVDs has several advantages, such as lower costs, easier maintenance, enhanced reliability, and improved security. We'll take a closer look at these.

Low TCO

Perhaps the most significant advantage of HVD over conventional PCs is the lower upfront and operating costs.

Organizations can save substantial capital expenditures (CapEx) by granting remote access to various applications and storage hosted on the servers of a cloud service provider. Employees can use thin clients or personal portable devices to access their virtual desktops. In place of buying hardware for sporadic use, companies can deploy new HVDs as needed and remove them after they are no longer required. Pay-per-use HVD implementations allow companies to only pay for the virtual desktops they use.

Upgrading and maintaining are easy

When desktops are hosted offsite, there is significantly less hardware to maintain and upgrade. Your HVD provider maintains the cloud-based IT infrastructure. Patches and updates must be installed just once on the central server instead of on each device individually. The maintenance of hardware can also be reduced with HVDs.

Indistinguishable experience

With a hosted virtual desktop, employees experience their desktop consistently across multiple endpoint devices just as they would with a traditional PC. As with conventional desktops, virtual desktops can be customized by each user. Users can continue working from where they left off in the previous session, no matter where they are located and what device they are using.

Reliability and security are excellent

Data storage and backups are the responsibility of the provider in HVD deployments. Having the data stored at a centralized location instead of on individual machines makes implementing access control policies and authentication and authorization control much more straightforward. By separating personal from business-related environments, hosted virtual desktop provide maximum data security in BYOD environments. Cloud-based servers can protect employee data even if a personal device is lost. This feature can trigger natural disasters or hardware failures.