Some things are better 'as a service' - The Spot by NetApp Blog

Some things are better as a service. As broke college students in 2004, my future wife and I decided to invest in a pair of electric hair clippers. The plan was that she'd cut my hair to save money and after just two DIY haircuts we'd break even. Due to the results of the first haircut (as shown in this 100% awful photo), that 2^nd DIY haircut never happened, and we didn't break even. Nearly 20 years later I've given up attempting to look cool on a motorcycle and I pay a professional to cut my hair.

DIY remote desktops are appealing to many people but, like DIY haircuts, your desired results and expected ROI may never be realized. Even with a 3rd-party deployment, management and optimization platform, it is still you doing it yourself. As a product manager for Spot PC, I'm constantly researching DaaS & remote desktop tools for the MSP space. What I've been finding recently reminds me of my well-intentioned but ill-advised 2004 haircut. Lots of tools, guides, and documentation on how you can do it yourself. Unsurprisingly, I don't think that's good enough for your clients. Instead a mature, fully baked, turnkey DaaS option is a must.

As an MSP, delivering a secure, efficient working environment for your clients is the ultimate deliverable. DaaS is one way to get there, but it is important to remember that the value is that end result. In my analogy, that deliverable is the haircut, but when I research this space, all I see are clippers, scissors, and a Flowbee (Google it). Sure, you can get tools to automate deployment, optimize spending and simplify administration for remote desktops. But at the end of the day, you're still the one holding that tool trying to build an affordable, secure, and scalable service. Do you have the time and experience to do it right? What about the people and process to document, support, and enhance your DIY desktop service? The security experts to defend, evolve and secure it? Even if you do, how much will you have to invest to get it right?

When we designed Spot PC, we set out to make our deliverable the same as yours. That way, we've aligned our business with yours, our incentives with yours and we are with you from start to finish. We deliver an affordable, fast, and secure desktop your users can use. We include tools to make it easy for you to customize their environment. In my haircut analogy, you don't need to know how to give yourself the right cut, you just need to tell us what kind of cut you'd like (mullet?) and our service is built to give it to you.

The Spot PC service manages the whole stack, from the dedicated Azure Subscription we create to the security tools and policies we apply, it's all handled. Because we know every user is different, we make customizing and deploying images a breeze with no other tools or training required. We take on the risk of variable costs and our Azure-certified support team is there for when things get hairy (sorry for the pun).

Here's the wild thing: in most cases, our complete solution, with a flat fee and wrap-around services, costs LESS than buying the tools and the raw Azure resources of a DIY strategy. Not to mention the cost of your time to DIY and the risk that you do the Azure equivalent of cutting one side too short. If you talk to our team and compare the economics of Spot PC, you won't regret it.

I still have those hair clippers, and in mid-2020 the covid-19 pandemic gave me the chance to realize the ROI on that investment after all. I'd love to share a photo of that disaster of a haircut, but I was wearing a hat in all my photos from that time. I did find pictures of the equally awful haircut I gave my 4-year-old, but I won't publicly embarrass him just yet, I think I'll save it for his senior yearbook. In the meantime, check out Spot PC and see how much value we can deliver together.

We're actively qualifying and onboarding new MSP partners, to get involved please ping me on Twitter (@tobyvanroojen) or check out our product page to schedule a demo.