Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) is steadily gaining traction among businesses of all sizes, as demonstrated by the worldwide DaaS market’s revenue increase from $1.21 billion in 2020 to $3.79 in 2023. It streamlines IT operations and enhances employee productivity. However, without careful planning and effective execution, DaaS adoption could lead to costly errors. In this article, we delve into six common DaaS blunders and offer valuable advice on how to avoid them.
Thinking all DaaS providers are the same
Not all DaaS providers offer the same level of service, and selecting the wrong one can have serious consequences for your business. When choosing between DaaS providers, consider factors such as security, mobile access, uptime guarantees, support availability, and scalability.
It’s also critical to understand the differences between shared and multiple DaaS solutions. While shared providers prioritize ease of use, multiple solutions provide greater flexibility and performance by providing customers with individual cloud assets. Carefully consider your business needs and choose a DaaS provider that aligns with your goals.
Prioritizing cost savings at the expense of user experience
While cost savings are undeniably crucial for business success, prioritizing them over user experience when implementing DaaS can be a costly mistake. One trap businesses often fall into is choosing a cheaper, shared service (wherein you share cloud resources with other customers) to reduce expenses without considering the potential impact on performance. While sharing resources can lower costs, it may lead to frustrating performance issues that hinder productivity.
Achieving the optimal balance between cost and user satisfaction is key to successful DaaS implementation. To make an informed choice, consider leveraging user experience monitoring tools such as Cisco AppDynamics or Datadog to get quantifiable data.
Inefficient resource management
DaaS relies heavily on resources such as memory, storage, and network capacity. Inefficient resource management can slow down performance and increase costs. To prevent these issues, you need to continuously monitor resource usage to ensure optimal DaaS performance and effectively meet user needs.
Effective resource management begins with understanding application usage patterns and user behavior to identify resource imbalances. Overprovisioning too many resources can be wasteful, while underprovisioning can degrade performance. By closely monitoring resource usage, you can strike the right balance for a cost-effective and high-performing DaaS environment.
Neglecting security
Although DaaS protects against physical theft, robust security protocols are still essential to guard against cyberthreats such as malware and phishing.
Common security oversights include outdated software, weak access controls, and insufficient employee training. To mitigate these vulnerabilities, stay informed about the latest threats and best practices, enforce stringent security policies, and provide comprehensive employee training. Additionally, consider investing in advanced security solutions to proactively identify and address network threats.
Overlooking employee training
Successful DaaS implementation hinges on employee support. Insufficient training, however, can lead to frustration, decreased productivity, and a surge in support requests, diverting your IT team’s focus.
Prevent these issues by developing a comprehensive training program covering basic usage and common troubleshooting. Ongoing training can also keep employees informed about new features and best practices.
Disregarding existing infrastructure
While it might be tempting to completely overhaul your IT system for DaaS, this is often unnecessary and costly. Many companies can adapt their existing hardware and network infrastructure to support DaaS.
Collaborate with your DaaS provider to examine your existing infrastructure and determine what can be reused and what needs to be upgraded. By leveraging your current investments, you can save money and speed up your DaaS implementation.
Dodging these prevalent DaaS mistakes is critical for an effective implementation. Through thoughtful planning, choosing the right provider, and prioritizing user experience, you can enjoy the numerous benefits of DaaS while minimizing risks.
Learn all you need to know about DaaS and successful DaaS implementation by speaking with a Liberty Center One expert. Contact us today.