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| Cloudtop: Google's virtual desktop gadget |
Google offers Cloudtop Virtual Office that employees can use to access internal software. This is a useful solution for companies looking to maintain productivity in their home businesses amid the spread of the Coronavirus.
However, when a cloud client requests Google to provide a virtual desktop solution, the company pushes for a third-party solution.
Google's approach contrasts starkly with market leaders Amazon and Microsoft, both of which have their own virtual desktop services, and their use has increased slightly during the pandemic.
For many companies migrating to remote work on a large scale for the first time, relying on a cloud provider to manage the infrastructure is much easier than relying on an administrator to administer a local server or send a computer by email. Send mail to a new employee.
After Zoom saw an increase in the number of new customers during the pandemic, the video calling platform company requested more than 1,000 virtual desktop computers from Amazon WorkSpaces for help desk employees.
AWS said in May: Oil and gas operator TC Energy has subscribed to Amazon WorkSpaces so employees can work safely from home.
This boom is so important to Microsoft that the CEO mentioned it when discussing the company's quarterly results in April.
“As organizations publish virtual desktops and secure remote work applications on Azure, use of Windows Virtual Desktop has tripled this quarter,” he said.
Google Cloudtop was first made available to employees in 2017 with the aim of helping employees create programs, interact with internal systems, and communicate via IRC.
The service offers both useful Linux and Windows desktops for source code testing.
Google published a research paper on its virtual office program in 2018. Over 25% of employees use virtual offices.
Google has also moved the software to its public cloud instead of the company's infrastructure to improve user experience and reduce total cost of ownership.
A Google spokesperson said: The company recognizes the growing demand for virtual desktops that users can work on remotely, but currently has no plans to deploy Cloudtop as a cloud service.
Instead, the company is prioritizing third-party products in the virtual desktop market.
The spokesperson added: By promoting products to partners, customers can extend the technology used in the data center to the public cloud, and customers are not limited to our services.