Improving Desktop as a Service in OpenStack

Nowadays, in the Cloud computing panorama, users access their Virtual Machines (VMs) using SSH or web-based remote desktop clients. In this context, OpenStack is one of the major open-source solutions for creating and managing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Cloud providers. Typically, OpenStack tenants graphically control their VMs using noVNC, i.e., the default web-based remote desktop client integrated in its web dashboard. Unfortunately, up to now, considering noVNC, the video update response time is not so good and the audio redirection has not been supported yet. In this paper, we discuss how can be possible to improve the Desktop as a Service (DaaS) in OpenStack Clouds by integrating alternative solutions based on both the Remote Frame Buffer (RFB) protocol and the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Experiments highlight, from an objective point of view, the behaviour of different solutions, providing useful hints to software architects and developers.