The Cloud – For those who want it NOW!

It has been almost 12 weeks since I’ve been working at Hosted Network and with my three month work anniversary looming, I thought it would be the perfect time to post my very first blog!

Having come from a graphic design background I had very little knowledge about cloud desktops, and like many of you out there, thought “cloud” had something to do with Apple’s iCloud- in fact I am fairly certain I mentioned it in my job interview! Nevertheless, the Hosted Network team decided to take me under their wing; perhaps it was because I clearly needed to learn a thing or two about what a cloud hosted desktop has to offer.

On my very first day I was assigned a My Hosted Network account, and had noticed that every person in the office used the cloud hosted desktop as well. To be honest it was a nice surprise. Working in sales for almost 10 years, it was good to see that a company believed in the solution so much they actually used it themselves.

As each week passed I gained more and more insight into how virtual desktops benefit business, but one of the greatest advantages for me personally, was the fact that I could access my work desktop from ANY device with internet connectivity. This was incredibly ideal for me being a “Mac” girl.

Gone are the days where I had to do “U-y” back to the office because I had forgotten to save a file, or wait for the next day to update a sales lead on our CRM. No more lugging my laptop from place to place, or carrying a USB stick or Hard Drive in the deep dark jungle known as my hand bag.

The ability to connect to my entire Windows Desktop from my Macbook means that I can work from home and on the road, with all my files and applications accessible on demand. While I do recommend rest breaks in between work, logging into my corporate desktop on my iPhone and tablet has become second nature to me- it is like I never left the office!

For those of you wondering if graphic intensive programs such as Adobe Photoshop or InDesign can be used with My Hosted Network, the truth is that any application that can be installed on Windows, can be installed onto the system. However, we strongly do not recommend it.

My Hosted Network is a premium business grade solution designed for office enterprise environments using programs such as Office, Outlook and MYOB etc. As a system that is streamed from the internet, it hasn’t been designed for applications that require a lot of computer processing and graphic capabilities. As such, If it were to run on the system, the experience and functionality of the program would be degraded.

While it appears to be an area of concern, never fear! There are ways around this should you need to use these type of applications. Programs such as Adobe Creative Suite or AutoCAD can be easily installed on your local computer and can be run using your local machine.

It is difficult to pinpoint the best feature of a Desktop as a Service (DaaS) system such as My Hosted Network. For many businesses it is the benefit of being able to cap their IT spend and not having to worry about surprise bills at the end of the month.

For me, the flexibility and convenience of connecting to my desktop from any of my mobile devices at anytime; whether I am at work or even at a family function- is one of the cloud’s strongest features. The fact that I can still access my creative programs whilst taking advantage of a cloud hosted desktop, is an added bonus!