Desktone announced a new program that helps enterprises evaluate the benefits of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) without building the environment themselves. The new Desktone Desktops as a Service (DaaS) Pilot will be available beginning October 1, 2008.

"Many organizations want to adopt VDI for its cost and flexibility benefits but are holding off because of its tremendous complexity and the financial commitment required to build and support the infrastructure," said Les Yetton, Desktone's senior vice president of sales, marketing and business development. "With our new Desktone DaaS Pilot, they can quickly see how consuming VDI as a hosted service would eliminate these obstacles, and experience exactly how DaaS could work in their environment and help their business."

The Desktone DaaS Pilot lets enterprises utilize the Desktone Virtual-D Platform, the only solution that integrates all enabling VDI technologies into a single, automated self-service platform. Because the Virtual-D Platform is designed along two tiers (enterprise and service provider), it lets enterprises maintain ownership and control over their Windows OS images, applications and all relating licensing while outsourcing the physical data center infrastructure powering their virtual desktops to service providers. This dramatically reduces desktop TCO and transforms virtual desktop infrastructure costs from CAPEX to OPEX.

With the Desktone DaaS Pilot, enterprises use their own images and applications in a proof-of-concept that includes up to 50 virtual desktops. Desktone uses its proven DaaS best practices to jump-start the pilot, enabling customers to quickly ramp up. The physical infrastructure for this 30-day pilot is hosted by HP Flexible Computing Services, one of Desktone's service provider partners.