Desktone, Inc., the pioneer of cloud-hosted Desktops as a Service, today unveiled the industry’s first virtual Windows desktop available now on Chromebooks. The company is enabling the Desktone Cloud, a virtual desktop in the cloud service, to run within Google Chrome. With this announcement, Desktone addresses a significant Chromebook limitation by enabling business users to move to Chromebooks while still having complete access to their Windows desktop and non-web-based enterprise applications—without having to build a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

“There is a lot of excitement about Chromebooks and the cloud, but if companies can’t provide employees with easy access to their existing business applications, it will be difficult to leverage. Some have suggested deploying VDI to get around the Windows access issue, however spending the time and money required to build and support VDI defeats the purpose of using Chromebooks and moving to the cloud in the first place,” said Peter McKay, CEO of Desktone. “We’re giving companies an easy, affordable way to use both the Google OS and Windows. With Windows essentially available inside of Chrome, businesses get the best of both worlds.”

“Businesses that are intrigued by Chromebooks now have a way to move forward without sacrificing their ability to be productive with Windows applications. By pairing the Desktone Cloud with Google Chrome, Desktone is helping make Chromebooks more attractive and feasible for business use,” said Andy Wood, analyst, The Virtualization Practice.

With the Desktone Cloud—a subscription-based VDI-in-the-cloud service—businesses provide their users with access to a complete virtual Windows desktop starting at just $1/desktop/day, without having to build and manage complex onsite VDI. Employees can be up and running on the service in minutes. By accessing the Desktone Cloud via the Chromebook, they can seamlessly shift to Windows in the cloud whenever needed. As a result, businesses of all sizes can leverage Chrome and Windows and take advantage of a cloud-based strategy without having to invest and build a new VDI environment.

Now users won’t have to give up using the business applications they are used to. The Desktone Cloud can comfortably stream applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop. Enterprise customers can also use Chromebooks with SAP, Oracle or other Microsoft applications. This means that organizations don’t have to repurchase or rewrite existing applications when moving to Chromebooks, and they can offer Chromebooks to a wider range of employees.

Availability

The Desktone Cloud running via Chrome is available immediately. Click here to see a demo.

To learn more about the solution, attend the free webinar, “Move to Google Chromebooks Without Giving Up Windows and Enterprise Applications” on July 12 at 2pm ET. Click here to register for the webinar.

About Desktone

Desktone is changing the way people buy and manage desktops. Desktone pioneered the concept of cloud-hosted Desktops as a Service (DaaS), the easiest and most affordable way to deploy hosted virtual desktops. The Desktone Cloud, Desktone’s DaaS offering, provides all of the benefits of virtualized desktops without any of the hassles. By delivering virtual desktops in the cloud, Desktone enables enterprises to rapidly provision desktops to users connected on any device, anywhere, without the upfront costs and complexity of traditional desktop virtualization—transforming desktops from a CAPEX to OPEX item. Founded in 2007, Desktone is funded by Highland Capital and Softbank and is headquartered in Boston, MA. For more information, visit www.desktone.com.