Extrasys Hosted Desktop is a service designed to let businesses outsource their desktop environment as a managed service, thereby cutting the cost of employee access to Windows applications. As such, the service is more likely to appeal to small-to-medium enterprises rather than larger organisations that already have a well-staffed IT department.

Available now, the Extrasys service lets businesses provide employees with a hosted Windows XP desktop each, which is accessed securely via a browser. The remote desktops can be provisioned with common applications such as Microsoft Office 2003 and Outlook, while Extrasys said it can also host turnkey applications for customers for an extra fee.

Moving some or all users to an Extrasys desktop could ease the burden on IT departments by reducing the need to manage the local physical client systems so closely. However, it is likely to make a firm more dependent on the reliability of its network connection with the outside world. To address this, Extrasys said it intends to also offer network provisioning in future through its parent company, Bailey Teswaine.

We tested the Extrasys Desktop using a sample account provided by the firm, and found the experience little different from using a local Windows PC. As this is essentially a thin client session, users will not find it suitable for graphics-heavy applications such as those using video. However, we found no problems with performance, even when using a domestic broadband connection to access the remote desktop.

We were able to create, edit and save Office documents on the remote system as normal. We were also able to copy files between the remote desktop and local drives, including USB storage devices connected to the local system.

This enables documents to be uploaded to the Extrasys desktop, or copied for backup purposes, if necessary. Workgroups can also be configured with a shared folder, accessible by all users in the group, which serves the same purpose as a network share on a local network.

The advantage of the remote desktop is that it can be accessed from anywhere just as easily as from the corporate site. This can make business continuity planning easier, since staff can be moved to any available site with internet access if their office is rendered temporarily inaccessible. It also lets workers with a broadband connection work securely from home.

To access their desktop, users must go to the Extrasys web site and login. This requires a username and password, but for greater security users are also required to key in a one-time passcode generated by a Secure Computing SafeWord token provided by Extrasys. The token, which can be fitted to a key ring, generates a six-character passcode and displays it on its small LCD screen whenever a button on the device is pressed.

Once logged in, a page is displayed showing the resources that users have access to. Extrasys can host individual applications as well as entire Windows desktops. Users then click “connect” to begin a desktop session.

For our tests, we accessed the remote desktop using both a Windows PC and a thin client terminal running Windows XP Embedded (XPE). The thin client had the advantage of a built-in Citrix ICA client – the preferred method for linking with the remote desktop – but clients can be downloaded from the Extrasys web site for various platforms, including current and old versions of Windows, Mac OS, Linux and even Symbian OS. A Java client can also be downloaded on demand if required.

The first time a particular system is used to access the Extrasys Desktop, a dialogue box appears asking for permission to access local client files. This determines whether users can map local drives to the remote desktop, enabling them to move files from a USB Flash drive onto their Extrasys account, for example. Companies can also specify whether or not employees are allowed to connect local drives in this way.

Any printers installed on the local client system are automatically connected to the remote desktop, so that users can print just as they would normally.

Extrasys said that it has several datacentres across the UK that provide redundancy for each other as well as keeping latency as low as possible. All user data is backed up, and if a customer decides to end their contract, all files and data are returned to them before being removed from the Extrasys environment.