the hosted desktop what is it?...
A hosted desktop is a virtualised equivalent of a standard Windows desktop PC. The essential difference is that instead of the user's operating system, data and programs being located on the PC in their office or home, they are stored within the infrastructure of a data centre. The end-user connects remotely, by the Internet, to this virtual desktop, hosted in the data centre, in order to use their computer.
the hosted desktop overview
A hosted desktop looks, feels and behaves exactly like a regular desktop PC, however, the data, files and applications are all hosted within our UK data centre, on a fully redundant, high availability, network. The hosted desktop can be accessed from anywhere in the world using a standard, internet-enabled, desktop PC or laptop, or, for maximum efficiency, using an economical, slimmed-down computer known as a "thin client".
A hosted server, whether for Microsoft Exchange or databases or files is essentially the same concept of OS, data and applications being run remotely in a data centre and accessed via the Internet.
Put the hosted desktops and servers together and you have a virtual infrastructure for your company.
how do I use a hosted desktop?
There are two methods to access your virtual hosted desktop. Firstly, by simply opening a web browser and logging on to your hosted desktop, or secondly, you simply launch the GoCloud connection application which will log you automatically on to your hosted desktop.
how does the hosted desktop work?
GoCloud's virtualisation technology, from Citrix, utilises a cluster of extremely powerful, high-end servers and Storage Area Network in our UK data centres to create the virtual infrastructure of the customer, both the hosted desktops and the hosted servers.
Our cluster of servers provide both the processing power and the memory while the SAN provides the data and file storage for the virtual infrastructure of our customers. Our central system is set-up with rules and configurations that determine what resources each hosted desktop should have available to it, and what files and information they should be able to access.
When an end-user logs onto their remotely hosted desktop, GoCloud's virtualisation technology creates their hosted desktop from scratch each time - from settings that have been previously configured so that any customisations made to their desktop are recreated each time. Therefore, although the PC's desktop may be a remote, virtual, hosted desktop, to the end user it will feel very much like it is "their" computer. Nonetheless, because the desktop has in reality just been created, the performance will not be degraded by the build-up of system files over time that affect most 'real-world' Windows users.
