What is hvd device?

Hosted Virtual Desktops (HVDs) are deployed as individual virtual machines on a centralized server and accessed via portable devices through the internet. They have gained wide acceptance for providing a user experience similar to that of a conventional PC, with a significantly lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Considering the upfront costs of acquiring hardware and ongoing maintenance and up-gradation costs, the TCO of a single conventional PC can amount to thousands of dollars each year.

A hosted virtual desktop, or HVD, is a complete desktop environment running as a virtual machine that leverages the compute and storage of a cloud-based server. An HVD is implemented by leveraging virtualization software from vendors, such as Microsoft, VMware and Amazon. Business applications and data are stored on the IT infrastructure of the service provider instead of on local PCs or the company’s internal network. Users can access the applications and data exactly like they would a physical PC at their office desks. After logging into a hosted virtual desktop via a personal device, the user’s personal data and business applications and data become completely separate, ensuring better security. Organizations’ security policies are also applicable on virtualized desktops.

Different service providers offer their own virtual desktops, management consoles, services and support, known as a hosted virtual desktop (HVD) or Desktop as a Service (DaaS). With the responsibilities of security, storage, backups and updates shifting to the service providers, businesses can free up their staff to focus on other business-critical tasks.

Companies had been using traditional desktops for about three decades before the proliferation of mobile devices and the consequential growth of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) industry and flexible work environments. The modern workplace requires companies to manage multiple devices per user and enable access to business applications anytime, anywhere. HVDs can overcome the challenges of the modern workplace and facilitate mobile workforces while optimizing cost-efficiency and employee productivity.

Some key benefits of using HVDs are lower costs, easier maintenance, smoother user experience, better security and reliability, and enhanced flexibility for remote work. Let’s explore these in more detail.

The most significant benefit of HVD over conventional PCs is perhaps the lower upfront and operational costs. By giving remote access to applications and storage hosted on the servers of a cloud service provider, organizations save huge capital expenditure (CapEx) costs associated with acquiring and upgrading hardware resources. Employees can access their virtual desktops easily via thin clients or personal portable devices. Companies can deploy new HVDs as needed and remove them when they are no longer required instead of buying hardware for occasional use. HVD implementations follow a pay-per-use pricing model, which allows companies to pay only for the virtual desktops that are in use.

There’s considerably less hardware to maintain and upgrade when desktops are hosted offsite. Your HVD provider is responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the cloud-based IT infrastructure. All software security updates and patches need to be installed just once on the central server instead of upgrading multiple individual devices. HVDs can also reduce the number of IT staff required for hardware upkeep.

For employees, a hosted virtual desktop behaves exactly like a traditional PC with an added benefit of a consistent desktop experience across multiple endpoint devices. Each user can customize a virtual desktop’s themes and applications just as a traditional desktop. All user preferences and settings are stored, and users can start working from exactly where they left off in the previous session, regardless of the device or their physical location.

With HVD deployments, the provider is responsible for storing and backing up data. This feature is critical in the event of a natural catastrophe or hardware failure. The service provider is also responsible for securely delivering the virtual desktop, its business applications and data to the endpoint device. Implementing access control policies and installing authentication and authorization controls is much more convenient if the data is stored at a centralized location instead of individual computers. Hosted virtual desktop provides maximum data security in BYOD environments by separating personal and business-related environments. Data is not stored on individual devices, so even if an employee loses a personal device, the data remains well-protected in the cloud-based servers.

Cloud technologies are one of the key enablers of flexible and remote work environments. With hosted virtual desktops, the workplace is no longer confined to a physical desk in an office. An HVD implementation enables employees to securely access their work desktops, along with all applications, data and settings, anytime, anywhere, from any device, simply through an internet connection. It eliminates the need to use VPNs for remotely accessing business applications and resources. It promotes employee satisfaction and ensures business continuity even during uncertain circumstances.

HVD and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) are both desktop virtualization approaches for delivering remote access to a desktop OS installed on a centralized server. The main difference lies in the location and ownership of the IT infrastructure. The end users see HVD as a user interface that connects to applications and stores data on the cloud provider’s infrastructure. Employees can access all applications and data as if they are using their local machines running on the organization’s internal network. The organization does not actually procure, manage and secure the IT infrastructure on-premises. The service providers are responsible for managing and maintaining IT infrastructures, along with ensuring high availability and security.

VDI is another desktop virtualization technique that enables companies to host desktop operating systems (OSs) on a centralized server that’s located on-premises, unlike the cloud-based servers of an HVD implementation. For a VDI implementation, organizations need to own the IT infrastructure for hosting virtual machines. It provides better control and visibility, but the responsibility of managing, maintaining and securing the datacenter lies with the organization itself.

Two of the most popular HVD service providers are Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) WorkSpaces is Amazon’s fully managed, multi-tenant Desktop as a Service (DaaS) offering. Amazon is one of the most established HVD service providers, enabling IT administrators to provision as many Windows or Linux-based desktops as required within minutes. With virtually endless scalability and monthly or hourly pay-per-use pricing models, AWS WorkSpaces helps organizations meet their business requirements seamlessly, even for temporary or contract-based employees. The overall expense is much less than an on-premises VDI solution. With WorkSpaces, each user within an organization is allocated one-to-one, dedicated resources.

On the other hand, Azure Windows Virtual Desktop is Microsoft’s DaaS offering that is basically a fully managed HVD solution, but it also allows multi-session Windows 10 and Office ProPlus. In less than a year, Windows Virtual Desktop has enjoyed rapid adoption and has become a strong contender among HVD service providers. Organizations that rely mainly on Windows servers can access Windows Virtual Desktop with a small uplift in Windows 365 licensing costs. In fact, Microsoft has included access to Windows Virtual Desktop in most business-level licenses, including Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Windows 10 Enterprise E3/E5. Additionally, Azure Windows Virtual Desktop offers one-to-many resources, allowing organizations to assign a single host to multiple users. This reduces the cost per user significantly. For users that require high resources for their jobs, Windows Virtual Desktop enables provisioning dedicated resources, allowing greater flexibility and resource optimization.

Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS) already provided robust support for Microsoft Azure VDI deployments and comes with prebuilt templates and configuration wizards for configuring Azure VDI securely and optimally. Now, it also integrates with Microsoft’s latest virtualized desktop offering, Windows Virtual Desktop. Parallels RAS provides a centralized console for quick and simple Windows Virtual Desktop deployments and ease of management. Organizations can integrate Parallels RAS with Windows Virtual Desktop to enrich and extend capabilities, enhance data security and deliver a unified single solution to employees.

Download your 30-day trial of Parallels RAS to deliver Windows Virtual Desktop applications on Azure!

References:

Wikipedia – Hosted Desktop

Wikipedia – Desktop Virtualization

Techopedia

Microsoft Azure

AWS Workspaces

The users can use cloud-hosted virtual desktop, also known as Hosted Virtual Desktop (HVD) as a user-interface for the application and data stored on the remote IT infrastructure provided by the cloud service provider.

The users use individual desktop instances created on a Virtual Machine (VM) running on the cloud service provider’s servers. However, HVD makes users access the cloud-based applications and data just like the software installed on local computers and running on the corporate network. Many enterprises nowadays leverage HVD based on a specific cloud service delivery model – Desktop as a Service (DaaS).

DaaS enables users to access their desktops remotely and efficiently on portable devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets. It also enables businesses to make employees access the application and data stored in the cloud seamlessly without building and managing on-premise IT infrastructure. The cloud service providers take care of managing, upgrading, and securing the IT infrastructure, along with increasing application availability and data security.

On the other hand, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a variation of the client-server computing model. The desktop virtualization technique hosts the desktop operating system on a centralized server located in the data center. Hence, the desktop operating system runs in a data center and is managed by the local IT team itself. This is the main difference between the Hosted Virtual Desktop and VDI.

Both VDI and HVD enable users to access the applications and data just like the computing resources stored on their local computers.

On the one hand, HVD requires users to access their desktops as virtual machines running on the cloud service provider’s servers. On the other hand, VDI requires enterprises to host the desktop operating systems on remote servers located inside the data center and manage them.

Enterprises can use both HVD and VDI to enable employees to access their desktop and use the applications installed on their desktops remotely and seamlessly. Both desktop virtualization approaches allow users to access their desktops on a variety of devices. The users have the option to access their desktops using both computers and mobile devices.

HVD enables enterprises to make employees access their desktops remotely using DaaS cloud service delivery model. Hence, the users need to access the desktop instances over the Internet just like other web applications. However, VDI can be deployed in the local as well as remote infrastructure.

HVD enables businesses to make employees use desktops hosted in the cloud. Hence, the businesses can enable employees to access the data and application stored in the cloud without building, managing, and upgrading on-premise IT infrastructure. In this way, HVD helps enterprises to reduce both upfront and operational cost.

Contrastingly, VDI requires businesses to host the desktop operating system on a server located in the data center. The approach requires businesses to incur additional expensed to set up, manage, and upgrade the on-premise IT infrastructure.

HVD enables multiple users to access a single cloud-based environment. Hence, it becomes easier for businesses to customize and scale the environment without considering the resources required by specific users.

VDI, on the other hand, requires businesses to allocate storage, memory, and CPU to create the VDI environment. The business needs to customize and extend the environment according to the precise needs of individual employees. However, the employees still have the option to access a centrally-hosted desktop or a shared virtual machine.

HVD helps businesses to save money by using user interfaces hosted on a remote IT infrastructure provided, managed, and upgraded by the cloud service provider. The cloud-based technologies even enable employees to access their desktops from anywhere using their mobile devices.

At the same time, with VDI, as the actual computing does not take place on your computers or mobile devices but remote servers, it becomes easier for businesses to use obsolete devices such as VDI clients. The businesses can further take advantage of VDI to work with remote workers and enable workers to use their mobile devices.

Each of these two desktop virtualization approaches has its shortcomings. When a business opts for the HVD model, it needs to address issues related to control and visibility. Also, it needs to enhance remote desktop performance by prioritizing the DaaS traffic over the public internet.

A hosted virtual desktop (HVD) is a full, thick-client user environment, which is run as a virtual machine (VM) on a server and accessed remotely.