Wipro Unveils Desktop-as-a-Service System at Citrix Synergy Conference

At the Citrix Synergy conference on Oct. 6 in Berlin, global IT provider Wipro Technologies announced its Wipro desktop-as-a-service system for vertical markets such as health care, education, manufacturing and banking. 

The DAAS product incorporates Citrix's XenDesktop virtualization platform and delivery technology along with Microsoft's VDI Premium suite of infrastructure and management software, which allows users to stream, virtualize and manage remote software from their PC. 

According to Deepak Jain, Wipro's senior vice president and global head of technology infrastructure services, the goal of the DAAS product is to "simplify the implementation and management of virtual desktops for various industry verticals," he wrote in a statement. Customers want both virtual desktop and virtualized applications with a low operating expense, Jain said. 

The settings on the DAAS application meet specific performance and security requirements of customers in various vertical industries. The DAAS can be hosted, local, physical or virtual, the company reports. 

With the Citrix HDX high-definition technology built into DAAS, customers can view the application on a PC, Mac, thin client, tablet or smartphone. 

In addition to XenDesktop, the product incorporates Citrix FlexCast delivery technology to provide multiple types of virtual desktops.

The combination of the Citrix XenDesktop and Microsoft VDI Premium suite could make the DAAS platform appeal to organizations because of its low cost, modularity and scalability, Sumit Dhawan, Citrix vice president of XenDesktop product marketing, suggested in a statement.

"This new service broadly addresses the needs of different users via multiple types of virtual desktops, such as session-based shared desktops for task workers, VDI desktops for power users, or streamed desktops for lab environments," Dhawan said in a statement.

David McCann, general manager, of Server and Cloud Platform marketing at Microsoft, noted that the DAAS software is simpler and more effective than other platforms and provides flexibility on work location.

"Employees want options in where and how they work, while IT still needs to enforce compliance and cost containment," McCann said in a statement. "Our work with Wipro can help customers build on existing investments with comprehensive management to mitigate risks and control costs, while still equipping employees to be more productive from anywhere."

DAAS is now available in beta and will be released officially in the first quarter of 2011. It will be available at the company's data centers or remotely.