Adapt selects Desktone to deliver secure Desktops as a Service to the UK mid-market

With thousands of UK firms under pressure to implement a more flexible and open desktop service to cope with their growing number of mobile devices and remote workers, Adapt has selected Desktone, the pioneer of Desktops as a Service (DaaS), to deliver Desktop as a Service (DaaS) to its customers. As a result of the partnership, Adapt will deploy Desktone’s DaaS software solution within the secure Adapt cloud, to provide affordable, easy to deploy virtual desktops to any number of static or mobile devices.

The integrated DaaS offering will be delivered through Adapt’s real-time management portal (aMP) and via its award-winning enterprise Virtual Data Centre (eVDC) platform. By providing this service as a cloud-based solution, Adapt customers eliminate having to design, build and support their own platform, which is one of the biggest barriers to traditional in-house virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments. It also helps reduce IT management and implementation costs.

Organisations using Adapt’s new DaaS service can quickly and easily roll out virtual desktops to employees, whether they are based centrally, spread across regional offices or connected through their mobile devices, to meet the changing needs of the business. Typically without a corresponding budget increase, many companies now face the challenge of managing and running their numerous business-critical applications on an ever-expanding number of devices including PC, Mac, Android and iOS. To further complicate matters, these devices can be either corporate or employee-owned as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) becomes more popular, increasing flexibility, productivity and loyalty. DaaS resolves this management issue, making all apps compatible with all devices and simplifying the migration path from legacy apps, particularly relevant given the impending demise of Windows XP support in April 14.

Kevin Linsell, Head of Service Development at Adapt, explained that whilst Adapt has been delivering enterprise virtual desktop solutions for several years using a range of technologies, recently customer demand is changing and growing exponentially. Desktone was the only partner which could meet Adapt’s requirements. He said: “Many firms recognise the competitive advantage of a flexible, mobile working environment for their employees – but few have the capability to deliver and manage it themselves. By integrating DaaS with our highly secure eVDC cloud platform, users can quickly take advantage of the scale and cost efficiencies synonymous with cloud computing while benefitting from the security and efficiency of VDI. We evaluated a number of desktop virtualization vendors, but Desktone’s was the only technology that provided the multi-tenancy and grid-based architecture required for a competitively priced DaaS service”.

Because the new service is hosted in Adapt’s highly secure UK data centres, it also meets some of the highest standards upheld in the market – ISO 27001, 9001 and 20000-1. Linsell explained: “For most organisations, but particularly for those in financial services or those dealing with data that must meet stringent compliance regulations, any service like this must strike the right balance between working flexibility and data security.”
Adapt’s DaaS offering will be available to customers via OPEX based monthly subscription pricing. Because Adapt’s DaaS service is readily available and scalable, customers can run ‘proof of concept’ tests and then scale up quickly for organisation-wide roll out.

Simon Fisk, Sales and Marketing Director at Adapt, added: “We’re in the business of delivering high quality, secure cloud-based services and solutions to our customers. Desktone perfectly meets our enterprise-class criteria for delivering cloud-based solutions.”