The fact that small and medium businesses
stand to benefit the most from a remote workforce has not been lost on them. In
fact, SMBs have been taking their business to the cloud faster and with greater
motivation than their bigger counterparts. According to one report,
the number of total organizations looking to embrace cloud for 100% of their
workloads is set to increase by 70% in the next two years and 45% of these are
SMBs. The reason for such a wholescale adoption of cloud technologies is but
simple.
Today, cloud remote desktops are business
critical.
The reality of a post-pandemic world has to do
with a remotely located distributed workforce that is increasingly dependent
upon remote and hybrid modes of working. As a rule, SMBs look to hire a
considerable pool of overseas talent and this means, a significant portion of their
critical workforce is located off-premises. To make the most of a diverse
talent pool, available resources including remote desktop services need
constant improvement, so employees can be more productive off-site than they
would be on-site. Contrary to the commonly held notion, a workforce located at
home or away from office is capable of delivering more because conflicts caused
by work-life imbalance do scarcely arise here. However, for a home-based or
mobile workspace to perform optimally, cloud remote desktops are crucial. Accordingly,
remote desktop services offers a host of essential features that focus on remote
access and consistent desktop performance.
Remote Desktops are what every SMB needs.
Remote working, in large part, depends on an
employee's ability to deliver independently and outside of direct supervision. It
can, therefore, gain substantially from managed desktop services that combine
self-supervisory capabilities with maximum productivity. Cloud remote desktops
must act in a way to relieve the employer's headache around what or how much a
remote workforce can deliver. That is why, for remote desktop services to be
the most effective, they should be entirely managed. Ace Cloud Hosting
brings to the global SMB sector managed Remote Desktop Services that
takes care of everything from server management to IT upgrades.
Remote Desktop Services, earlier known as Terminal
Services, have been in play for a while now. The new phrase has mostly to do
with the fact that terminal services are now being fully managed and equipped
with a complete, end-to-end desktop experience. This need of the hour has arisen
partly due to the emergence of a remote workforce after the pandemic, and
partly because IT costs are greatly minimized. For SMBs to flourish, inessential
cost-cutting is a must. Remote desktop hosting arms clients with the ability to
divert funds from managing IT to managing business, thereby tremendously
raising productivity levels and output cycles.
Myth-Busting 101: Remote Desktops are
restrictive.
There's a bit of an adage that remote desktops
are meant only for a remote workforce, and best avoided for in-office
employees. It goes on to imply that remote desktops are somewhat limiting in
their access, functionality, and features - so unless one really cannot do
without them, there is no need for remote desktops. These presuppositions are
not just wrong, they are contrary to the truth. In addition to the economical
side of things, remote desktops are a great (perhaps, the greatest) way to amp
up working capabilities of employees - whether located on or off premises. That
is because, cloud remote desktops are high-performance and very easy to work
with. They are typically offered as part of remote desktop services (RDS) and empower
users to remotely access and work on Windows-based desktop sessions.
Linux-powered sessions are also available, but most SMBs rely on Windows
because it offers greater familiarity and ease of access among users. These
sessions are built on cloud servers and delivered to end-user devices over a
secure network. The reliability and security of the service comes down to the experience
and reputation of the provider, and every competent RDS provider offers services
that vouch for a richer and speedier desktop experience on remote desktops.
Thus, SMBs rely on a cloud-hosted remote
desktop infrastructure not only for reasons of cost-effectiveness. It also
guarantees greater access and faster computing performance. Usually, the
management of such resource-intensive sessions along with the upkeep of high-end
servers can get very complex and expensive. But, thanks to the end-to-end
remote desktop solutions by providers like Ace Cloud Hosting, infrastructure
maintenance is now handled by a group of dedicated experts situated off-premises.
Cloud Remote Desktops are for everyone,
everywhere.
Fully managed remote
desktop services are not worth their salt unless they
offer 24*7 customer service. This means, come rain or shine, weekends or
holidays, work goes on uninterrupted. It is also not enough to just be able to
reach a call center. The ability to connect with on-site RDS experts and fix
issues in real time is equally important. Competent service providers make sure
that a solid customer support system forms an important aspect of their managed
solutions.
And all things on a pay-as-you-go basis, so clients
only pay for what they end up utilizing. In fact, this last feature holds
special meaning to SMBs that frequently work on a scalable basis, with a
variable workload and flexible workforce. To make the most of all available
resources at any given point of time, remote access unleashes a hands-on
approach to business-critical processes. All permissioned users - no matter
their location or device capability - can access work data, run any number of
applications, and work on a unified workspace towards reaching bigger goals.
So how do Remote Desktops make it all
possible?
RDS cuts out on physical, on-premises
infrastructure that is vulnerable to internal and external breaches. On-premises
VDI is replaced with remote cloud servers hosted
in data centers located in some of the world's safest, anti-intrusive
locations. On the one hand, the presence of multiple data centers reduces
chances of IT outage, and on the other hand, it makes sure that data is backed
up and easily restorable. With data being stored in remote servers,
vulnerabilities arising from end-user devices cannot compromise data-integrity.
The inclusion of state-of-the-art digital
safeguards, such as multi-factor
authentication system, TLS 1.3, antivirus, ransomware, and DDoS management, make
sure that desktop operations take place in a protected environment with
multi-layered security. Low-latency routes for desktop sessions imply the use
of high-end SSDs (solid state drives) for optimal performance and zero lag.
Faster processing time with minimal performance issues are the key to
maximizing the potential of a remote workforce.
In conclusion
SMBs are known to operate on an
"all-hands-on-deck" mode. Working with flexible resources and a low budget,
however, does not spell lesser productivity or lower goals. The invasion of RDS
into the SMB workspace has catapulted limited resources into unlimited
possibilities, and the resulting sector-wide transformation has renewed hopes of
"Start Small, Grow Big." Undoubtedly, the growth and potential of this sector
has been driven in part by mobilizing a remote and distributed workforce. But
that process of mobilization has only been possible due to the evolution of Remote
Desktop Services. Cloud
remote desktops bring together the need for high
performance with the capabilities of a remote workforce by deploying a
dedicated workstation that is secure, reliable, and accessible anytime,
anywhere.
This is why, more SMBs in the future shall
find them indispensable.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sayani Sinha is a
senior technical writer with Ace Cloud Hosting. A career writer, her penchant
for all things tech has found the perfect outlet in her many tech articles over
the years. She works closely with other writers and the marketing team for
ideation and production of content related to Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.
When not writing,
she cheers for the Red Bull F1 team.