RosettaCloud™ Virtual Desktops
Any machine, in a browser
Send the screen,
not the data.
A workstation with the software and the data already on it, opened in a browser from anywhere. The person gets a machine far beyond what they are carrying, and nothing has to be copied to their device to make it work.
What it changes
Heavy software, any device
The work runs on a machine chosen for the work. What the person is holding only has to run a browser.
The data does not travel
Nothing is downloaded to work on it. The desktop can be unreachable from the internet entirely.
Ready the moment they open it
The operating system, the software and the licences are already there, identical for everyone who launches one.
Nothing to install, ever
No client, no agent, no configuration on somebody else’s laptop, and no support call about a version mismatch.
A whole desktop,
or just the one thing they need
Giving someone a desktop when they need one program gives them everything else as well. You can hand over the application on its own instead, and it opens straight into the work.
The desktop
For work that moves between tools and wants a file manager and a terminal alongside them.
Just the application
For a single licensed package, a controlled workflow, or anyone who should not be browsing a filesystem to find their job.
It comes up connected
Most of the time between having a desktop and using one goes on the work between the pieces. That part is done for you, identically on every cloud.
Storage is already mounted
Attach the storage a desktop needs and it is there at its path when the desktop comes up. Nobody edits a mount table, copies data in, or explains to the next person where the files went.
There are no keys to hand out
Cloud keys are held by the platform, not by the people using it. Nobody is emailed a private key, nobody stores one on a laptop, and there is nothing to rotate or to leak.
Certificates are issued and attached
A service that should be reachable over HTTPS comes up that way, without a certificate request, a renewal reminder, or an expiry nobody noticed until it broke.
It has a name, not an address
DNS records are created on the domains you have mapped, so people reach the desktop by a name that means something and keeps working when the machine behind it changes.
And you can share it while it is running
A live desktop is shared with a colleague, a group or a whole organisation the way a document is. They get access to the thing itself, not a copy of it and not a rebuild of it, and that access ends when the share does.
See how sharing works →Idle desktops
are the whole problem
Remote desktops are usually bought per seat and paid for whether or not anyone signs in. These are machines, and machines can be switched off.
It suspends itself
An unused desktop stops with the session intact and resumes where it was, so being careful costs nobody their work.
It can expire
Give a desktop a lifespan for a project, a trial or a contract, and it goes when that ends rather than when somebody remembers.
It runs at your rates
In your own cloud account, at the prices you already pay, with spare capacity available for the work that tolerates it.
One desktop, or one each
The same description serves a single specialist workstation and a group who each need their own.
The specialist workstation
Simulation, rendering, imaging and analysis on a machine nobody was going to be issued as a laptop.
The outside contributor
A contractor, a partner or an auditor works next to the data instead of receiving a copy of it.
A group at once
Everyone draws an identical desktop from the same description, whether that is a team, a department or a group brought in for a fixed period.
Common questions
What is a virtual desktop?
A machine running in your cloud account, used through a web browser. The software and the data stay on the machine and only the screen travels, so the device someone is working from needs nothing installed and does not need to be capable of the work.
What size of machine can sit behind a desktop?
Anything the cloud offers, from a small instance to a multi-GPU workstation, with as much disk as the software needs. There is no fixed catalogue of sizes to choose from and no limit on how large the image is.
Can people work on data that is not allowed to leave?
That is one of the better reasons to use one. The desktop can be unreachable from the internet and the data has nowhere to go, so someone outside your organisation can work on it without a copy ever being made.
What does a desktop cost when nobody is using it?
Nothing, if you let it stop. An idle desktop suspends itself with the session intact and picks up where it left off, so the gap between Friday and Monday is not billed and nobody loses work by being careful.