BlueFire supplies a dozen services over virtual desktops including backup and disaster recovery, Microsoft’s Exchange and Office. Serda says managed services supplied over virtual desktops will still sell well against cloud services such as Microsoft Office 365 because managed providers have better support.
“There still is a requirement for service,” Serda says.
“I think they still want to call someone. We provide 24x7 response with guaranteed times. With cloud, you’re relegated to email support.”
BlueFire competes with Telstra, which sells Microsoft Office 365, the cloud version of the software giant’s business productivity software and the next version of its Business Productivity Online Services. Serda says BlueFire often wins because its service is “quite similar” and yet is “in country, it’s high speed and you have better” contractual agreements.
In 2005 Microsoft was rolling out Windows Vista IT. At the time, as IT managers were asking how to roll out the operating system, desktop virtualisation was emerging as a fast, clean if more expensive way to install an operating system on PCs.
But today, millions of devices running operating systems such as Google’s Chrome OS and Apple iOS are filtering into organisations, and applications have jumped from on-premises servers to streaming cloud providers. Still, vendors touting the case for desktop virtualisation push the line that business cases have expanded.
“The age of true browser-independent applications is upon us,” says VMware product manager David Wakeman. “I can grab any device or OS, open up an app that is browser based and that solves a whole range of problems. I can consume what I want, security stays at the user level.”
Opening Windows
Whether an application is running on a local hard drive, as a virtualised instance from a data centre or through the browser, it needs an end point such as a desktop or mobile device controlled by a user.
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