One of the coolest recent innovations in technology is represented by remote desktop services. A remote desktop is a computer that you can access from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. First, you click on an icon on your desktop, and after logging in, you are presented with the desktop of your remote computer. From there, you are able to access whatever programs are available on that computer.
While cloud services and synchronised logins make it possible to switch between different computers with minimum fuss, even this is not quite the same as remote desktop services (otherwise known as a hosted desktop). From any computer in any location anywhere in the world, you are able to login into your remote desktop computer and resume whatever work you were carrying on with it. Everything that was saved will remain saved, everything that was installed will remain installed, and so on. Multiple people can use the same computer (though not simultaneously) which makes collaborative processes easy, and it can also be useful when advisers like accountants or bookkeepers need access to certain programs and files which would not be practical to host on the cloud. Such services are usually provided by hosted desktop providers.
You can either have an actual computer that you connect to remotely, or you can solicit hosted desktop providers to run one for you. In the latter case, you then don’t have to worry about having your remote desktop computer on all the time, the internet connected, etc. What you decide to do with your hosted desktop beyond that point is up to you, but there are a wide variety of collaborative options that you can take advantage of.
It’s hard to imagine that the internet was virtually non-existent only twenty years ago. Was what once the exclusive domain of university professors and socially inept high schoolers has become mainstream, as people have increasingly figured out amazing, useful and creative ways to use the internet. Remote desktop services remain one of the most curious and practical innovations yet.
