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Virtual Desktop Pricing Demystified/The Truth
If you've received a VDI renewal bill recently, you've probably noticed the rising costs. Reports of renewal bills doubling year over year are not uncommon. With the pressure of these exponentially rising costs and tight IT budgets, many IT leaders find themselves juggling the tricky task of needing to invest in innovation but still being constrained by financial constraints.
The good news is that there are modern alternatives to virtual desktop solutions. To understand how this new enterprise technology can help ease the pain of being stuck in an expensive VDI cycle, we first need to dig into the two most common virtual desktop pricing models.
What is Desktop Virtualization?
Desktop virtualization is a technology that allows a virtual computing environment to be hosted remotely and accessed remotely over a network. Virtual desktops behave like traditional endpoints, providing users with access to applications and other resources. Virtual desktops are primarily used to centralize management and access control of desktop environments within an organization. Virtual desktops provide granular control over application provisioning, access control, and security settings.
Virtual Desktop Pricing Options
Some of the most well-known virtual desktop providers include Citrix, VMware, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft Azure. Yes, the pricing model varies depending on factors such as the number of users, the computing resources required, and where the solution is hosted.
Self-hosted
Many organizations choose to host their virtualization infrastructure in their own data centers. In this model, the costs of server infrastructure, hosting, and maintenance become the customer's responsibility. Virtualization vendors typically license their solutions based on the total number of users or servers.
The advantage of self-hosting is that you have complete control over your environment and network resources, and costs are generally fixed and predictable for the term of your contract.
The downside to this approach is the significant capital costs and ongoing maintenance required to build and host a virtualized infrastructure. For organizations with fluctuating usage demands or sudden user growth, efficiently scaling a virtualized environment can be a challenge. And as mentioned above, this model is vulnerable to unexpected price increases from virtualization vendors.
Cloud-hosted
A newer model for virtualization is cloud hosting or Desktop as a Service (DaaS). Like other cloud subscription models, it is typically offered with a variable cost structure based on actual usage. All infrastructure and hosting costs are borne by the vendor, making it a capital-light option.
This model is ideal for businesses with fluctuating needs or organizations with rapidly growing user populations. Dynamic pricing allows resource usage to scale up or down depending on business demand. This can be a positive as organizations do not have to pay for idle infrastructure, but it requires careful monitoring and planning for fluctuating subscription fees.
In this model, diligent and continuous monitoring of usage is crucial to understand the cost impact of running services, as virtual desktop costs can vary significantly due to changes in resource consumption, so optimizing virtual desktop configurations based on usage is key to accurate budgeting and avoiding unexpected expenses.
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Virtual Desktop Pricing Options |
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Self-hosted |
Cloud-hosted |
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Cost Structure |
Fixed |
Dynamic, pay-per-use |
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price |
Number of users or servers and the cost of hosting and maintaining the infrastructure |
Variable costs based on actual virtual desktop usage, configuration and resource usage |
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Ideal for businesses that: |
They prefer complete end-to-end control and predictable usage patterns. |
Usage needs are fluctuating or the number of users is increasing rapidly |
Virtual Desktop Alternatives
A modern alternative to traditional virtual desktops are enterprise browsers. These purpose-built browsers are designed specifically for the enterprise. They provide secure and simple access to cloud applications and internal resources, and are a lightweight and often more cost-effective solution compared to a full virtual desktop infrastructure.
What is an enterprise browser?
An enterprise browser is a purpose-built web browser designed for the specific needs of the enterprise, with built-in security, policy management, productivity tools and integration capabilities.
Unlike consumer browsers, which require additional layers of technology for security and IT policies, enterprise browsers give IT departments the tools to control and secure everything that passes through the browser.
Virtual Desktops and Enterprise Browsers
An enterprise browser is not a virtual desktop, but its usage is very similar: now that most applications are accessed through the browser, the enterprise browser provides a more direct platform for managing access and security.
Virtual desktops replicate a complete computing environment on a remote server, giving users access to an entire operating system and its applications from any device, but they often result in a poor user experience with slow response times and sluggish display, especially over low bandwidth connections.
Enterprise browsers are specifically designed to securely access web applications and other resources within an enterprise framework (policy), without the overhead of managing a full desktop environment. This provides a smooth and familiar user experience, increasing productivity with minimal disruption. And because it is a browser, there is almost zero learning curve for end users.
Businesses may choose enterprise browsers over virtual desktops due to their simplicity, cost-effectiveness, inherently secure design, and superior user experience. Enterprise browsers are ideal for businesses that make heavy use of web applications and SaaS, have a majority of their employees working remotely, have adopted a BYOD strategy, and work extensively with third-party contractors.
Pricing
Enterprise browser and virtual desktop pricing models reflect different scopes and technology requirements.
Enterprise browsers tend to be cost-effective due to the simplified infrastructure and focused features required. These browsers are designed to optimize and secure web access without the overhead associated with virtualization infrastructure.
Enterprise browser pricing typically involves a subscription-based model, allowing the feature set to scale with the number of users required. This approach reduces upfront costs and aligns ongoing costs more directly with actual usage, making enterprise browsers an economically attractive choice for organizations that rely heavily on web-based and SaaS applications.
Whether you currently self-host your VDI or subscribe to cloud-hosted virtual desktops, an enterprise browser can significantly reduce the costs associated with virtual desktops.
Because the fixed costs associated with VDI, including hardware, software licenses and maintenance, can be significant, an enterprise browser streamlines operations by reducing or eliminating these overhead costs. By consolidating and centralizing browser management and security, enterprises can defer or avoid costly upgrades and expansions of their VDI infrastructure.
Cloud-hosted VDI plans offer smaller but more immediate savings as their dynamic plans are typically usage-based, with costs varying based on actual usage. Enterprise browsers reduce the need for large virtual desktop environments by directly managing and securing web applications. This efficiency reduces the number of resources consumed, resulting in immediate cost savings with usage-based virtualization pricing.
Island's approach to enterprise browsers
Island 's enterprise browser offers a compelling alternative to virtual desktops by providing strong built-in protection against common web threats, advanced data control capabilities and streamlined management tools that are easy for IT teams to deploy and maintain.
No traffic going through Points of Presence (POPs). No server maintenance. No frustrated end users. At a fraction of the cost. All built into a Chromium-based browser that end users can deploy and use with no training. Island simplifies management and provides a smoother, faster and more secure user experience.
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Revolutionize the way your business works more securely and effectively with the enterprise browser.
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