The last couple of years have seen a rapid growth in the number of businesses of all sizes shifting towards hosted desktop services. They have a range of benefits for businesses, with small and medium enterprises finding them particularly beneficial.
Hosted desktops help to facilitate a more robust and flexible working while enhancing security. Let’s explore in more detail why so many SMEs can benefit from this.
What is a hosted desktop?
In the IT world, ‘hosted’ refers to services that are outsourced to a specialist third party provider who looks after the service that is being provided. Company websites are the most commonly used examples. A professional web hosting company safely and securely hosts thousands of websites passing on considerable economies of scale to their clients. They will ensure consistency of service, provide updates and technical support for an annual or monthly fee.
The same applies to hosted desktop services. Rather than the company looking after the server that’s running the desktop, it will be managed by a cloud computing company. These will take care of the daily operations, attend to any necessary maintenance, ensure that clients have access to updates and new tools, while minimising the risk of any downtime.
In the past, companies would typically run applications such as Microsoft Office, customer databases (CRM), payroll and accounting systems. These applications will frequently require shared data allowing for different people across the company to access and contribute to. This would be stored on a computer in the business called a server. As the amount of data and the sophistication of applications has grown it has become more challenging for companies to have their own server. The growth of remote working adds further complications.
Hosted desktop services tackle these problems providing secure, reliable, and affordable access to all the applications that employees need wherever they are and whenever they need them.
The benefits for SMEs
Hosted desktops have a range of benefits for businesses. These include:
Accessibility
Hosted desktop services give employees the ability to access their desktop wherever they are. It means work can be flexible, enabling companies to deliver a consistent service and respond to sudden changes.
All the files, applications, email, and other important data can be accessed remotely without the need to be physically present in the office. When the Covid-19 pandemic began and companies had to shift overnight to remote working, those which already used hosted desktop services were able to make the transition much more quickly.
Reduced Costs
Hosted desktop services are cheaper and more efficient to run than buying, running, and maintaining your own in-house server. They offer considerably more capacity and flexibility, enabling you to quickly scale up or down without incurring extra costs.
All of your applications are available on demand and new accounts for users can be set up in an instant. There’s less need for expensive IT hardware.
Productivity
The combination of access and configuration makes a hosted desktop more convenient. This convenience helps people work productively. Employees are able to work as when it’s required, reducing delays and downtimes. They can access everything they need wherever they are, be that in the office, at home or on their commute. There’s no need to wait to access important files or to share pertinent information with colleagues.
Reliability
Hosted desktop services reduce the risk of technical problems becoming serious issues that lead to downtime. Cloud servers have been shown to be much more efficient and reliable than in-house servers. Problems with in-house IT services can be costly and can lead to significant downtime. They might even require calling in outside IT specialists.
Hosted desktop providers have their own expert IT teams that monitor services and respond very quickly to any problems at no cost to the end-user. Hosted desktop services can be relied upon to be there when you need them.
Better Backup
Hosted desktop services provide much better backup services for your company. Your data will be backed up automatically and backups are tested regularly to ensure they work properly.
Improved Security
Cyber security is an increasingly important concern for businesses. Keeping ahead of the criminals and associated threats is difficult for most companies to do on their own. Hosted desktop services provide higher levels of security than most companies can deploy independently.
Data is stored in high security data centres. The latest software fixes and security updates are always being applied and security is constantly monitored. Any potential threats are identified and dealt with. Cloud encryption means that storing data in the cloud is now safer than storing it onsite.
Hosted desktop services from One Tech UK
One Tech UK’s secure hosted desktop services enable you to access files, applications, emails. and documents wherever you are.
To find out more call 0333 800 1313 or email [email protected] to speak to our friendly team of experts.
