By Simon Townsend, Chief Marketing Officer, IGEL

Cloud Wars - The Rise of DaaS

The much-anticipated Episode IX of Star Wars is almost upon us and so too is 2020. As we enter a new decade it's time for reflection, and reevaluation. And no IT area is this more relevant than at the desktop.

End User Computing (EUC) has been evolving year on year for some time. The majority of folks have been on the ‘WinTel' treadmill for some time, managing desktops/laptops and migrating through the various versions of Windows. For others, Citrix and VMWare have provided desktop virtualization solutions, improving security, attempting to reduce the cost of managing desktops and solving many other challenges along the way. These methods have seen the technology and feature set evolve for some time, but the overall cost and investment has been similar for many years. In 2020, with the end of support for Windows 7 and new ways to consume Windows desktops and applications, here are my predictions for 2020 and why I think 2020 will start to see more of a revolution than evolution...

The year of VDI is 2020, and VDI is spelled WVD. Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) will take the cloud workspace market by storm. In fact, I expect that it will take off much faster than anyone expects, shipping more than 5,000,000 licenses in 2020. Why? The Microsoft Azure-based Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution offers Microsoft customers an easy migration path from traditional Windows on individual endpoint devices to Windows in the cloud. And it's not just about the technology (say that to yourself again!) Simple virtual desktop licensing and new DaaS-friendly features like multi-session Windows 10, make Windows Virtual Desktop a logical, economical and safe choice. Plus, you can bet given Microsoft's success with Office 365, Microsoft will put some serious muscle behind its new entry to the DaaS market.

It's not just about Desktops... Deploying applications continues to plague organizations and Microsoft App Attach, Amazon AppStream, Liquidware, Droplet Computing and layering technologies from other ecosystem vendors will be an interesting area to watch. With the ability to securely deliver "legacy Windows" desktop applications to any computer or provide new ways to deploy application sets to common non persistent images, these technologies will play a major role in the move to virtual desktops. Other, new DaaS and application delivery as a service solutions, such as Nutanix Frame and Workspot also offer new ways to consume both applications and desktops from the cloud.

VMware and Citrix will realize record growth in VDI. This might at first sound counterintuitive, but Windows Virtual Desktop will drive more businesses to look at Desktop as a Service. Whilst WVD offers a lower cost licensing option, going Native WVD for some organizations will not provide them with the feature set they have become accustom to. With Citrix and VMWare providing complimentary solutions, in addition to their on premises and cloud-based alternatives, organizations will continue to look to the market leaders for complete solutions, combined with the commercial benefits of WVD.

Desktop security and management tools vendors will have to change their strategy. As EUC moves more towards the cloud, desktop security and tools vendors will be required to focus more attention on support for DaaS and less on traditional endpoint management. With desktops hosted in the cloud, there is less need to have tools locally deployed. More security and control will be applied directly to the cloud-based applications and at times, managed as a service. In addition, between VMware Workspace One and the newly announced Microsoft Endpoint Manager, both VMware and Microsoft 2 will dominate the endpoint management space and how we control traditional, non-cloud workspaces. Improved workflows, on boarding, embedded security controls and all-encompassing licensing will mean more organizations can deploy and manage endpoints from cloud services which both cost less time and money. As this continues, more business units, like HR, compliance, and service desk, will need to be more involved in the acquisition of traditional IT tools.

The cloud supremacy battle will intensify. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud will each be clamoring to secure the greatest market share, particularly with enterprises. As a result, we'll see many announcements of multi-billion commitments to these vendors. Likewise, you'll see an increasing pressure for software vendors to offer truly cloud-agnostic solutions so that customers can retain choice and be free from cloud lock-in.

Green tech gains ground. Global climate change will undeniably accelerate, and as a result more companies will seek opportunities to go "greener." Green technology options - DaaS and efficient, environmentally friendly endpoint devices among them - will increasingly see a higher billing on selection criteria lists compared to solutions that don't contribute to greater sustainability.

And the endpoint itself...well, I am somewhat biased. Microsoft is more open source than ever...Linux is winning in the cloud, in IOT and now on the endpoint. Smaller, greener, more efficient endpoints are available. And with Windows desktops and applications in the cloud, the endpoint is no longer the dark side of IT which consumes time and money.

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About the Author

Simon Townsend is the chief marketing officer for IGEL, provider of the next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. Having managed and led marketing, product marketing, product management and global systems engineering and pre sales teams, Simon is a passionate and experienced technologist, evangelist and marketing leader with both field, channel and executive-level experience.