Server-Based Desktops

Throughout this report, a user’s “desktop” is a collection of applications such as Microsoft Office installed on an OS, such as Windows or Windows Server, and the user-specific data stored for the OS and applications. With local desktops, the OS and applications run on a user’s local computer or device, such as a laptop or a tablet computer. With a server-based desktop, the OS and applications run on an infrastructure that includes servers in a data center, and the user connects to this desktop across a network from her local computer.

Organizations typically deploy server-based desktops to reduce the costs of PC management, support a variety of different computing devices, including tablets and smartphones that do not run the Windows OS, and increase security, because the organization’s data does not leave the data center where the server-based desktop is running on centrally managed and secured servers.

There are two generic architectures for server-based desktops:

• VM-based desktops,