04/05/2010

7global enters IT hosted desktop market

Liverpool, 4th May 2010: 7global today announced the launch of its Hosted Desktop On Demand^TM service. Based on secure Citrix technology, Hosted Desktop On Demand^TM allows users to access day to day applications such as Microsoft Office Professional 2007, company documents, files and other data, which are held in a highly secure data centre, from the cloud using a pay-as-you-go utility model.

Chris Bithell, 7global’s Managing Director, said: “I am delighted to announce 7global’s entry into the hosted desktop market. Having delivered bespoke IT desktop solutions for 10 years to a large number of our enterprise clients, we are looking forward to providing a similar first class service tailored to smaller and medium sized organisations.”

Bithell continued: “Industry analysts report that hosted desktop virtualisation is becoming increasingly attractive to organisations that have tasked themselves with desktop TCO reductions. The Gartner Group estimates that about 15 percent of professional desktop PCs will migrate to hosted desktop virtualisation by 2014 and our new service offering will enable 7global to have a significant involvement in this rapidly developing market. Adding this service to our other cloud based Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings ensures real choice in a rapidly changing IT landscape”

As standard, all users have access to Windows desktop, Microsoft Office Professional and Outlook / Exchange email as well as 'My Documents' and company shared data. Other company wide applications, such as accounting and CRM, can also be delivered by utilising additional dedicated or virtual servers, to deliver a truly bespoke solution to all users within an organisation.

The benefits of Hosted Desktop On Demand^TM include:

• Flexibility - work anywhere, removing traditional work place and “lights on” tasks.
• Value - no new hardware, capital expenditure or big up front costs. The service is delivered on a monthly subscription.
• Simplicity - works just like a standard desktop computer; no retraining needed.
• Security - enterprise class security, no local data, secure browser login, restricted access.
• Scalability - from one user, scaling up to thousands.
• Availability - hosted in highly secure data centres, ensuring 24 x 7 high availability and automated back-up.

Additionally, a number of “green” attributes come as standard with the adoption of Hosted Desktop on Demand™. These include:

• Re-utilisation of existing hardware that may not be capable of supporting the latest version of applications.
• Reduced power consumption through using thin client devices instead of traditional desktop PCs.
• Reduced power consumption through using a multi-tenanted centralised system instead of onsite servers and the associated cooling.
• Reduced power consumption through flexible employee working and the associated office environment requirements.
Reduced employee travel through flexible working.