Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is as old as virtualization technology. VMware announced VDI alliance way back in 2006. While IaaS, PaaS and SaaS became synonymous with cloud, it took a long time for desktops to show up there. VDI has always been confined to the data center or at most to an MSP-owned infrastructure. But that seems to be changing fast with Amazon, VMware, Citrix and Microsoft battling it out to win the Desktop as a Service or DaaS war.

It all started with AWS announcing Amazon WorkSpaces at its annual re:Invent conference last year. Although it has a long way to go in terms of feature set, Amazon should be credited for bringing desktops to the public cloud. Having strengthened the end-user computing group with the new leadership team, VMware was quick to announce Horizon DaaS on its vCHS platform a week before the general availability of Amazon WorkSpaces…