By Alex Hunter

January 3, 2018
Last updated on January 13, 2022

  0

Cloud Opportunities Maximized for MSPs Using VDI Solutions

While the cloud continues to impact large sections of the economic landscape, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) feel the effects. Along with other industries, MSPs have had to realign their business strategies, moving from reliance on traditional software licenses to SaaS models. The cloud model provides more flexibility to MSPs, allowing them to deliver software applications to clients while optimizing costs and revenues. In particular, cloud opportunities for MSPs become more viable when implemented with streamlined, effective application delivery solutions.

The State of the MSP Market

• MarketsandMarkets reports that the global Managed Services market size is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.9% during the forecast period, to reach USD 354.8 billion by 2026 from USD 242.9 billion in 2021.
• Garter predicts worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services will increase from $242.6B in 2019 to $692.1B in 2025, attaining a 16.1% CAGR.

Cloud Opportunities: Why VDI is an Excellent Solution for MSPs

MSPs are under constant pressure to deliver new and innovative services to customers. However, IT budgets at customers’ companies aren’t always conducive to providing improved service. In the context of shrinking IT budgets, MSPs must deliver multiple software services to a range of customers in the most efficient way and at the most advantageous price.

Furthermore, MSPs face various technical challenges when providing remote IT services to customers’ mobile-enabled networks. These challenges may include scaling up resources and supporting applications on multiple platforms and operating systems. Additionally, monitoring resource usage, a crucial metric for billing and invoicing systems, can present a challenge. Finally, MSPs should provide 99.9% downtime along with efficient remote support.

As a result, MSPs often implement a VDI solution to help tackle the challenges they encounter and improve the service they provide. A powerful virtualization solution that enables MSPs to host resources and remotely publish them to client devices centrally is critical to success. This is why MSPs are aggressively moving toward application and virtual desktop solutions to make the most of cloud opportunities.

MSP Challenges

MSP customers are often teams that include different platforms, operating systems, devices, and time zones. Not only should MSPs offer applications for versatile platforms and devices, but they must also ensure that a consistent user experience is delivered across all devices.

MSPs have to deploy a powerful virtualization tool to optimize resources and improve revenues. However, the leading VDI providers, such as VMware and Citrix, come with a prohibitive price tag. Using these obvious VDI solutions can significantly decrease MSP margins. Furthermore, these solutions come with various components and add-ons; installing and configuring all these components requires technical expertise and significant time and effort.

Why Parallels RAS is an Ideal Option for MSPs

Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS) allows MSPs to maximize cloud opportunities with the most beneficial prices and margins. Parallels RAS is a VDI solution comparable to Citrix and VMware in capability, but it’s streamlined and offered in a single affordable package. This comprehensive virtualization solution is conceived to be the easiest, most straightforward way to deploy and use application delivery over a wide area network.

All the major components, such as load balancing and device redirection, come auto-configured by default. MSPs can monitor and manage the entire VDI system from a single, remotely accessible control panel using this single tool. MSPs can easily track resource usage and automatically create billing invoices with an intuitive dashboard and reporting features.

Another advantage of Parallels RAS is its support for all browsers, hypervisors, and devices. Whether iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, Mac, or Chromebook, Parallels RAS allows clients to publish and use Windows desktop applications on any remote device. This means MSPs can inexpensively provide services to a diversified audience and tap new markets that offer more cloud opportunities.

Parallels RAS allows MSPs to use existing legacy infrastructure or cloud services such as AWS and Microsoft Azure. No matter the infrastructure, with Parallels RAS, MSPs can take a positive step toward simplifying IT management. Data integrity, backup, and security for applications over the remote network are easily managed with centrally hosted resources. Whether an MSP wants to offer Desktop as a Service (DaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS), Parallels RAS is a one-stop VDI solution that provides all necessary virtualization features in a single package—at the best price available.

Want to start taking advantage of cloud opportunities? Join the Parallels Partner Program.