Cloud Based Desktops

Based on interview of Anurag Agrawal, CEO, Novatium Solutions by Anil Chopra

Cloud based desktops are nothing new, and have been around for years now, with the likes of eyeOS.org, glideOS, etc. But most of them offer you desktop access through a web browser, so that it can be accessed from any device, and from anywhere. Though this approach has many advantages, like accessibility from anywhere, etc, there are several drawbacks as well-security of data passing over the Internet, speed/connectivity issues, limitations in the number and types of applications that can be installed, etc. Plus of course, nothing beats the comfort of having your own physical desktop in front of you. Unfortunately, managing a fleet of desktops is also a challenge, especially for SMEs, who may not have the technical expertise or the budgets to do so. Keeping these two things in mind, Novatium Solutions, a company incubated out of IIT, Chennai under the guidance of renowned Prof Jhunjhunwala, has come up with an interesting solution. It's a mix of the physical and the Cloud based desktops, or shall we say, a hybrid Cloud based desktop. We interacted with the company's CEO for India Operations to understand this new concept.

The hybrid Cloud desktop

Before introducing the hybrid Cloud based desktop, Novatium did a dipstick survey of Indian SMEs and found that they don't have very high tech appreciation, and are more open to taking a readymade solution that's easy to manage, scale, etc. Nobody wants to buy a server, licenses, etc and then manage them. Keeping this in mind, Novatium introduced its Cloud based desktop.

The core of Novatium's solution is a managed desktop, which comes with a Linux based OS, Internet connectivity, subscription to Novatium's Cloud, & managed desktop services. It's not very different from Google's Chromebook, as per Anurag. The desktop has an image residing in the BIOS, and is managed through Cloud. This makes it an appealing proposition for telecom operators, for, it brings in managed services, and advertising on the platform through BIOS.

The company has developed multiple engines, wherein a SME can manage its own users through the Cloud, and do tasks like create, delete, and define users who will use which apps, among other things. All this is done through a user friendly interface. The solution is not a pure client/server architecture in the Cloud. Rather, it's an intelligent, Atom-based machine at the front end, which is thin, but can also do a lot of local computing. This is made available in various configurations, e.g. with or without hard disk, with Linux OS only, or in a dual-boot with both Linux and Windows, etc. The company also offers OpenOffice and an email client locally for basic productivity.

Tackling security issues

With applications running from the Cloud, it's only natural for the users to worry about the security of their data. To this, the company CEO quoted examples like the Japan earthquake, wherein all those who had their data hosted in the data center, had no problems. So not only do you get security, but you also get your data accessible from anywhere.

This argument may not be sufficient for the SME customer, especially when you hear of cases like AWS Cloud going down, Sony PlayStation network getting hacked, etc. But according to Anurag, it's a matter of evolution. As users start using more devices to access the Internet, they'll start using services like Dropbox which store their data in the Cloud and make them accessible from anywhere. This will reduce the need for storing everything locally.

It's an important area, and a big one, where credibility will build over time. Plus of course, users will also gradually learn to understand where to store their personal data or submit their credit card info, etc. Another major plus of Novatium's hybrid desktop is that it reduces malware threats on your machine, because all apps reside in a read-only area, which are also backed up on a server. If the server detects a change in file size even by a few kb, the server will reload a new image to the desktop. So while the Linux OS being provided by Novatium is itself secure, the apps loaded on it also get launched from a read-only area.

SLAs and uptime guarantees

Novatium solutions is being promoted by Ericsson, and as part of the deal. The company has signed a formal agreement with Ericsson on uptime, through which it offers 99.7% uptime on their servers for all apps for the desktop to work. So when the user logs into Novatium, he gets his desktop with all his apps. There are also third party people who do server monitoring, reporting apps that have high latency, etc, for the company, which the company terms as L4 support.

The go-to-market approach

The whole premise for bringing out this hybrid desktop was to bring computing to the masses. For this, the company is trying two go-to-market approaches. One is a direct approach, whereby the company will promote the Novatium brand by setting up its own infrastructure and selling it as a retail product. The company has already set up shop in Lucknow & Chennai. Second approach is through the telecom operators.

Pricing model

There are three components in the pricing -cost of the base unit and its annual maintenance, subscription to Novatium's Cloud, and bandwidth. So when you take the desktop through a telco, you get a single package, which includes the Novatium device, its maintenance/AMC, subscription to Novatium's Cloud, bandwidth for 1 year, all bundled together with an embedded 3G module. For all this, you just pay Rs 18,500 as one-time cost for the whole year, which includes one year's access into Novatium's servers, and a 1 GB cap on the bandwidth for one year. Then, you pay Rs 4K for next two years for bandwidth/maintenance, etc. Thus, the TCO works out to around 26K for the device for three years.

The company is also trying to provide Cloud based apps for different sectors like BPOs and healthcare. Plus, the company also offers a lot of other apps in the Cloud, like ZohoBooks, which is equivalent to Tally accounting.

Availability

The company is providing a packaged interface for its partners, who can create a client and do complete invoicing for them, attach apps, allot various plans, do billing, maintain their own records, etc. Read the review of Novatium Navigator in the Reviews section of this issue.