Is a hosted desktop still the right setup for an advice firm?

Frequently not any more. Hosted desktops became the default in advice years ago for good reasons that have largely been overtaken. Managed local machines running cloud platforms are usually faster, often cheaper, and now just as controllable, which is a combination that did not exist when most of these arrangements were set up.

The original case was sound. Advice software ran better centrally, client data stayed off laptops that nobody was managing, and a single environment was easier to control than a fleet of individual machines. In an era before mainstream device management and before advice platforms moved to the cloud, a hosted desktop solved several problems at once and was a reasonable choice.

Three things changed. Advice platforms and the surrounding software increasingly run in the browser or as cloud services, so the reason to centralise the desktop weakens. Device management matured, so a local laptop can now be encrypted, patched, configured and wiped remotely, which closes the security gap that justified keeping data off it. And the cost model shifted, because a hosted desktop carries a recurring per-user fee indefinitely while a managed local machine is a periodic hardware purchase.

Meanwhile the daily experience of many hosted desktops has deteriorated rather than improved. They feel slow, particularly with several applications open, which is exactly how advisers work. Printing is awkward. Screen sharing in a client meeting is worse. Working from a location with mediocre connectivity ranges from frustrating to impossible. None of that appears on a cost comparison and all of it is felt every day by the people doing the work.

Mansell Financial Services is the concrete case. A five-person Barossa Valley practice, authorised representative of AMP and Akumin, running on a hosted remote desktop that lagged. We re-architected around where the practice actually is: fast managed local computers, every device under Microsoft Intune, legacy antivirus replaced with ThreatLocker for Essential Eight, and a recurring monthly server cost removed. The advisers got a faster working day and the firm got better control, which is the combination that makes this worth revisiting.

That said, hosted desktops are not always wrong, and the honest cases for keeping one are real. A line-of-business application that only runs on a Windows desktop and that your licensee requires is a genuine reason. Very strict licensee mandates about where data may reside sometimes point that way. And firms with high staff turnover or many contractors sometimes prefer the simplicity of provisioning a session rather than a device. Those are legitimate, and they should be actual reasons rather than inherited defaults.

The way to decide is to test rather than argue. Time a few real tasks on the current setup, opening a client file, moving between the advice platform and documents, preparing a statement of advice, and compare that against a properly configured managed machine. Advisers know immediately which is better, and the exercise converts an infrastructure debate into an observation. Then compare total cost over three years, including the recurring hosting fee against the hardware and management cost.

Whichever way it lands, the security requirements are the same and should not be used as the deciding argument without examination. Managed and encrypted devices, multi-factor authentication, patched systems, controlled access and evidence you can show a licensee are required in both models. The question is not which is safer in the abstract; it is which delivers those controls while being pleasant to work on.

Two practical notes if you move. Plan the transition around your firm's calendar rather than the provider's, and keep the hosted environment available until the new arrangement has run a full cycle including a reporting period. And confirm your licensee's requirements in writing first, because retrofitting a setup to meet a standard you discovered afterwards is the most expensive way to do this.

One transition detail matters more in this sector than most: plan around your reporting and review cycles rather than the calendar. Advice firms have periods where client reviews cluster and periods where they do not, and moving the environment everyone works in during the busy one converts a manageable project into a memorable one.

The honest caveat is that a hosted desktop is not the problem in every slow firm, and moving off one will not fix a saturated internet connection or machines that are five years old. Diagnose before deciding, because the answer is sometimes that the arrangement is fine and something else is the bottleneck. If you want yours assessed honestly, call 1800 456 567.