LANDesk^® Service Desk Implementation: SaaS, On-Premise, Hybrid

SaaS, On-Premise, Hybrid—You Decide

When it comes to implementing your service desk, no single software delivery model fits all. Yet regardless of which model you choose—Software as a Service (SaaS), On-Premise or Hybrid— LANDesk^® Service Desk can do it all. The key is that your service desk experience be consistent no matter which path you pursue.

Of course, each delivery mechanism comes with its own advantages, disadvantages and conflicting concerns. For example, cost concerns are a primary driver for choosing a SaaS option. However, organizations that operate in industries with strict legislation and compliance requirements should consider such issues as security and the handling, location and redundancy of data when making a decision. By the same token, for those organizations that want to use their in-house IT resources for other projects, the SaaS advantages of managed upgrades and changes are worth serious consideration. It’s important to look beyond the financial returns to the underlying benefits of each model and evaluate what makes the most sense for your organization.

The Advantages of LANDesk^® Service Desk as a Service

• No capital investment in LANDesk^® Service Desk as a Service; you subscribe to a service rather than take ownership of a license
• A simple, predictable subscription pricing model that controls on-going management costs while providing flexibility in how you consume the service
• Lower cost of IT operations; no infrastructure or software maintenance costs
• Faster provisioning and ease of managing multi-site service desks
• Flexibility to use as a test environment as well as live
• Functional, out-of-the-box standard service desk implementation with a rich client starting point, enabling the phased adoption of 14 ITIL processes
• Customer cloud dashboard eases administration; use it to view service status or make requests for changes and reports to your LANDesk Cloud Care team, freeing IT staff from non-strategic issues
• Retain the ability to configure your instance of LANDesk Service Desk as a Service (preserved through upgrades) and to partition your database for use by different divisions
• Easy access from anywhere for service desk staff and web portal access for end-user customers
• Managed backups and upgrades deliver new functionality regularly
• Receive information about cloud performance
• Strong integration capabilities with on-premise applications and data sources
• Solid integration with other LANDesk products
• Leverage the LANDesk management automation platform to orchestrate other tools and technologies with LANDesk Service Desk as a Service

The Advantages of the LANDesk Service Desk On-Premise Option

• Provides the benefits of a rich client starting point, enabling the phased adoption of 14 ITIL processes
• All aspects of the implementation such as performance, availability and maintenance windows are under your control
• Easiest integration with other services or data
• Full QA, staging and test development are under your control as well
• With a perpetual license model, the fixed cost of LANDesk Service Desk licenses are known over time and ownership is retained
• Offers a potentially lower cost of ownership over time
• Assumed lower data security concerns as data is located onsite
• Complete database accessibility is retained, such as the ability to reach raw data when required
• Security is under the complete control of your own security policies
• Change process created by your IT staff is under your control

The Option of the Hybrid Model

While the benefits of the hybrid model vary from one organization to another, this option opens numerous possibilities to run applications where they fit in the corporate infrastructure. One such scenario is using LANDesk Service Desk as a Service and federating on-premise data sources to a CMDB in the cloud. Another example is having a service desk SaaS implementation in the cloud linked to an on-premise service desk implementation for business-critical activities. In these instances you can leverage the LANDesk management automation platform to orchestrate all of your on-premise tools and technologies that talk to the service desk in the cloud.

Whether you’re dealing with service management processes or other matters, every business operates differently. You need to consider your own requirements when choosing your path. For example, where the security of data handled by the service desk is paramount, consider the on-premise model. Where the service desk is a non-critical system, consider SaaS and the cloud. In instances where the service desk operates most efficiently as a service but still needs to pull data from various sources such as Active Directory (AD), databases, Excel spreadsheets and accounting systems, consider a hybrid solution.

Choose What Makes Sense

In the end, which service desk delivery approach is best—SaaS or on-premise? The answer could be either, neither and both. Determine what makes the most sense for your organization from a business, security and technical perspective and strike the appropriate balance based on your needs.

The key to making a smart decision is having a thorough understanding of your organization’s infrastructure and your current requirements in terms of technology and growth plans. And since organizations don’t stay static, your requirements may change over time. You should have the flexibility to transition between delivery models.

No matter which service desk delivery option you choose, choose LANDesk.