Category Archives: desktop as a service

Amazon, AWS, desktop as a service, desktop virtualisation, Gene Farrell, News & Analysis, Vendor, Virtualisation

AWS doubles down on DaaS with virtual desktop app marketplace

AWS is bolstering its ecosystem around desktops

AWS is bolstering its ecosystem around desktops

Amazon has launched an application marketplace for AWS WorkSpaces, the company’s public cloud-based desktop-as-a-service, which it said would help users deploy virtualised desktop apps more quickly while keeping costs and permissioning under control.

Last year AWS launched WorkSpaces to appeal to mobile enterprises and the thin-client crowd, and the company said the app marketplace will allow users to quickly provision and deploy software directly onto virtual desktops – with software subscriptions charged monthly, and Amazon handling all of the billing.

To complement the marketplace the company unveiled the WorkSpaces Application Manager, which will enable IT managers to track and manage application usage, cost, and permissions.

“With just a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, Amazon WorkSpaces customers are able to provision a high-quality, cloud-based desktop experience for their end users at half the cost of other virtual desktop infrastructure solutions,” said Gene Farrell, general manager of AWS Enterprise Applications.

“By introducing the AWS Marketplace for Desktop Apps and Amazon WAM, AWS is adding even more value to the Amazon WorkSpaces experience by helping organizations reduce the complexity of selecting, provisioning, and deploying applications. With pay-as-you-go monthly pricing and end-user self-provisioning of applications, customers will lower the costs associated with provisioning and maintaining applications for their workforce,” Farrell said.

AWS has spent the better part of the last 9 years building up a fairly vibrant ecosystem of third-party services around its core set of infrastructure offerings, and it will be interesting to see whether the company can replicate that success on the desktop. Amazon says many companies, particularly the larger ones, deploy a mix of upwards of 200 software titles to their desktops, which would suggest a huge opportunity for the cloud giant and its partners.

Asia Pacific, Citic Telecom, desktop as a service, Horizon, Infrastructure as a Service, News & Analysis, Telco Cloud, VMware

Citic Telecom taps VMwarre for desktop as a service

Citic Telecom is using VMware Horizon to stand up its desktop as a service offering

Citic Telecom is using VMware Horizon to stand up its desktop as a service offering

Hong Kong-based telco Citic Telecom CPC has launched a desktop as a service offering based on VMware Horizon, which the company claims is the first of its kind in the region.

The company said the virtual desktop solution will be aimed at enterprises in the Asia Pacific region that operate in multiple locations but don’t necessarily have the resources to stand up their infrastructure.

“Many enterprises in Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific region are employing a bigger mobile workforce, and more and more are running on a multi-office model. However, the technical infrastructure of these enterprises is not able to support the dynamic requirements in everyday operations,” said Mr. Daniel Kwong, Senior vice president of information technology and security services at Citic Telecom.

The move is part of a broader effort to strengthen the telco’s reach in the regional IT services, particularly in Singapore, Taiwan and mainland China. To strengthen its cloud offerings the company launched its first cloud datacentre in Shanghai last year, and it also plans to open two more cloud datacentres in Beijing and Guangzhou in late 2015.

It will also give the virtualisation incumbent a boost in the region. Last year VMware expanded its cloud services in Asia in partnership with China Telecom in China and SoftBank in Japan.

Danny Tam, general manager of VMware Hong Kong, said: “The mobile cloud is transforming how enterprises should operate, and this is the core of what we do. Our collaboration with Citic Telecom CPC will open the door to more enterprises in Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific region, given Citic Telecom CPC’s extensive network and the credibility that both VMware and Citic Telecom CPC have in the market.”