DaaS Provider Selection Criteria: 15 Questions IT Leaders Should Ask

Organizations underestimate VDI costs by 20-40%, according to Wikibon research. Your £50,000 DaaS implementation budget will hit £70,000 once you account for data migration fees, bandwidth costs, and "premium features" excluded from advertised pricing.

Then there's vendor lock-in. Research shows that 71% of organizations cite lock-in risks as a barrier to cloud adoption (Flexera 2023 State of the Cloud Report)-and for good reason.

Moving between DaaS providers involves significant effort and costs. You're married to your initial choice whether it serves you well or not.

The question areas below protect against expensive mistakes that could limit your organization's flexibility for the next five years. The DaaS market is growing at 19.4% annually and projected to reach £57.83 billion by 2035. Providers are multiplying rapidly, but their capabilities vary dramatically.

DaaS Vendor Evaluation: What Technical Capabilities Matter?

Focus your DaaS vendor evaluation on three technical areas that directly impact business continuity: multi-cloud flexibility, disaster recovery capability, and performance guarantees.

Providers operating across Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud give you negotiating use and exit options. Ask which cloud platforms they support. A provider like FlexxDesktop that operates across Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud gives you options. HSBC's multi-cloud strategy using both AWS and Google Cloud demonstrates this approach in practice. HSBC reduced reliance on a single vendor whilst making their business more resilient. Single-cloud providers create dependency from day one.

Question 1: Which cloud platforms does your DaaS solution support?

Disaster recovery SLA commitments determine whether you lose hours or days during failures. Generic assurances about "enterprise-grade backup" mean nothing without SLA-backed commitments. Specifically ask: What's your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO)? Where are backup data centres located geographically? How often are backups performed?

Question 2: What are your guaranteed RTO and RPO metrics?

Question 3: Where are your backup data centres located geographically?

Question 4: How often are backups performed?

Performance guarantees need specific metrics, not vague promises. Request the following specifics:

• Round-Trip Time (RTT): What latency can you expect from your primary office locations? 50ms RTT or below is acceptable for knowledge workers; 30ms or less for graphics-intensive applications.
• Uptime commitments: 99.9% uptime sounds good but allows 43 minutes of downtime monthly. Can your business tolerate that?
• Resolution times: What's the guaranteed response time for critical incidents affecting all users?

Question 5: What latency can you guarantee from our primary office locations?

Question 6: What uptime percentage do you commit to in your SLA?

Question 7: What are your guaranteed response times for critical incidents?

Endpoint management capabilities-how the provider handles device compatibility, security policies, and application delivery across your workforce's varied hardware-directly impact user productivity. Endpoint management determines whether your users experience smooth access or constant technical friction.

What Should DaaS Really Cost?

The advertised price rarely reflects what you'll pay. DaaS solutions cost between £30 and £100 per user monthly-a 233% price range, according to Forrester-before you consider extras.

Start by understanding the base pricing model. Ask: What's included in your quoted per-user price? Does it include storage and bandwidth, or are these metered separately?

How many applications can each user access? What specification does the base tier provide-CPU cores, RAM, storage?

Question 8: What exactly is included in your quoted per-user price?

Data migration fees can equal months of service costs. Question the provider about migration support: What do you charge for data migration from our current infrastructure? Do you provide migration tools or is this a professional services engagement?

Will you extract our data at contract end, and at what cost? Under the EU Data Act provisions effective from September 2025, providers must offer easier and more affordable data extraction-but "affordable" remains subjective.

Question 9: What do you charge for data migration and extraction?

Licensing complexities create unexpected costs. Many providers advertise attractive per-user pricing, then hit you with Microsoft licensing requirements.

Ask explicitly: Are Windows licenses included? What about Microsoft 365? Do we need separate CALs (Client Access Licenses)? Software licensing for DaaS can be especially expensive for enterprises with many users or unique software requirements.

Question 10: Are Windows and Microsoft 365 licenses included in your pricing?

Bandwidth costs accumulate invisibly. Some providers meter bandwidth consumption and charge accordingly. A 500-person organization with moderate usage can easily generate 20-30TB of monthly traffic.

At £0.10 per GB, that's an additional £2,000-£3,000 monthly not reflected in the advertised per-user price.

Premium feature charges often include necessities. Multi-factor authentication, advanced monitoring, automated backups, and dedicated support are frequently "premium" features.

List your non-negotiable requirements and ask: Which of these capabilities require additional payment?

Question 11: Which security and monitoring features require additional payment?

IDC research shows organizations migrating from traditional on-premises VDI to DaaS typically see a 30-50% TCO reduction over five years-but only when they've accurately accounted for all costs upfront. Hidden costs in existing infrastructure often remain invisible until comparison forces detailed accounting.

How Do You Evaluate DaaS Support Structure?

Support quality varies dramatically between providers. When your entire workforce depends on internet-delivered desktops, downtime is immediately business-critical.

Geographic coverage determines whether you get help when you need it. Ask about UK and European time zone coverage specifically.

A provider with UK-based support means communicating with someone in your own time zone during your working hours. Outsourced support centers operating from different continents create delays when you're troubleshooting at 9am GMT and they're at reduced staffing levels.

Escalation procedures reveal organizational competence. Request details: What's your escalation path for critical incidents? At what point do senior engineers or architects get involved?

Can we speak directly with technical teams or must we go through first-line support? How do you define incident severity levels?

Guaranteed response times must appear in the SLA. Ask for specific commitments: What's your response time for Severity 1 incidents (complete service outage)? For Severity 2 (degraded performance affecting multiple users)?

What happens if you miss these targets-is there compensation or just apologies?

Question 12: What are your guaranteed response times for critical incidents?

In-house versus outsourced support affects solution quality. Providers using their own employees for support typically resolve issues faster because they understand the platform's architecture intimately.

Third-party support centers working from scripts cannot troubleshoot complex multi-cloud environments well. Question whether support staff are direct employees and what technical certifications they hold.

Data Sovereignty and Compliance in DaaS Vendor Evaluation

With GDPR, the UK Data Act 2025 (which received Royal Assent in June 2025), and the EU Data Act now in effect, compliance questions are non-negotiable.

Data residency determines legal jurisdiction. Ask explicitly: Where is our data physically stored? Which data centers will host our workloads? Can we specify UK-only or EU-only storage?

Some providers replicate data across continents for resilience, potentially creating compliance issues if your data suddenly resides in jurisdictions with different privacy laws.

Question 13: Where is our data physically stored and can we specify UK-only or EU-only locations?

Regulatory compliance requires current certifications. Request evidence of ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications.

For financial services, ask about compliance with DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act). For organizations handling health data, inquire about healthcare-specific certifications. Generic statements about "enterprise security" are insufficient-you need documented proof.

Data portability determines your exit options. The EU Data Act requires easier data extraction from September 2025, but implementation varies.

Ask: What format can you export our data in? How long does extraction take? Are there charges for data portability? Can we test the export process before contract end?

Subprocessors create compliance complexity. Few DaaS providers operate entirely independently-most use cloud infrastructure from Microsoft, Amazon, or Google.

Question who has access to your data: What subprocessors do you use? Where are they located? Do you have GDPR-compliant Data Processing Agreements with them?

Providers like Flexxible that are purpose-built for GDPR, NIS2, and DORA compliance can demonstrate clear data governance and specific controls for UK and European regulatory requirements.

What Contract Terms Protect Your DaaS Investment?

With 71% of organizations citing lock-in as a cloud adoption barrier (Flexera 2023 State of the Cloud Report), contract terms deserve scrutiny before you sign anything.

Contract length between one and three years balances pricing discounts against flexibility risk. Ask: What are your standard contract terms? Can we start with a shorter commitment period? What are the costs for breaking the contract early?

Three-year contracts might offer better pricing, but they also trap you if the provider underdelivers or your requirements change.

Exit terms in DaaS contracts determine migration costs when switching providers. Question the specifics: What notice period is required for termination? What happens to our data post-contract? Do you provide migration support to competitors?

Some providers make data extraction technically possible but deliberately slow or expensive, creating friction that keeps dissatisfied customers trapped.

Question 14: What are your contract terms and exit requirements?

Data extraction processes need testing. Don't accept promises about data portability-request a demonstration during the proof of concept phase.

Ask: Can we perform a test data extraction during our trial period? What's the largest dataset you've successfully migrated out for a client?

Price protection prevents runaway costs. Inquire about price increases: Are prices fixed for the contract term? If variable, what's the maximum annual increase? What triggers price changes?

Some contracts allow providers to increase prices whenever underlying cloud costs rise, passing all risk to you.

Service credits provide some protection. Ask what compensation exists for SLA violations: What percentage of monthly fees do we receive as credit for different levels of underperformance? Are credits automatic or must we request them?

Credits don't recover lost productivity, but they demonstrate the provider has financial skin in the game.

Provider Stability and Roadmap

In a market growing 19.4% annually, provider viability varies. You're buying current capabilities and betting on their ability to evolve with your needs over 3-5 years.

Financial stability matters. Ask about company backing: Are you venture-funded, private equity owned, or publicly traded? What's your annual revenue growth trajectory? How many customers do you serve?

A provider struggling financially may cut corners on infrastructure investment or support quality. Gartner Magic Quadrant recognition provides independent validation of market position and viability.

Product roadmap alignment reveals strategic fit. Question their development priorities: What major features are planned for the next 18 months? How do you gather customer input for roadmap planning? Do you have a customer advisory board?

A provider focused on enterprise features when you need SMB simplicity creates misalignment that worsens over time.

Customer retention rates signal satisfaction. Request specific data: What's your annual customer retention rate? What's the primary reason customers leave? Can you share case studies from organizations similar to ours?

Providers with high churn rates have underlying problems with service delivery, support, or pricing.

Question 15: What is your customer retention rate and can you provide references from similar organizations?

References from similar organizations provide reality checks. Ask for customer references matching your profile: Can we speak with three current customers in our industry and size range? May we contact customers who've been with you for 2+ years?

Recent converts provide enthusiasm; long-term customers reveal what the relationship looks like after the honeymoon period ends.

Investment in emerging technologies shows innovation capacity. Inquire about their development focus: How are you incorporating AI into management and monitoring? What's your approach to digital employee experience improvement? How do you handle emerging security threats?

Providers coasting on current technology will fall behind as workforce requirements evolve.

Understanding what makes DaaS implementations successful helps evaluate whether a provider's approach aligns with proven best practices.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the right approach to DaaS vendor evaluation?

Three to five providers gives you meaningful comparison without creating analysis paralysis. Include at least one Gartner-recognized provider as a benchmark, one specialist provider for your industry if available, and one or two emerging players who may offer competitive pricing.

More than five evaluations rarely changes the ultimate decision but significantly extends your selection timeline.

Should we prioritize price or performance in our selection?

Performance within your budget constraints. The cheapest option typically costs more long-term through hidden fees, poor support, and productivity losses from downtime or slow response times.

Calculate total cost of ownership including support burden on your IT team, potential downtime costs, and migration expenses if you need to switch providers. A provider costing £10 more per user monthly but delivering 99.95% uptime versus 99.5% saves you money if downtime costs exceed £500 per hour.

What's a realistic timeline for DaaS vendor selection and implementation?

Expect 3-4 months for proper evaluation and selection: four weeks for requirements gathering and RFP development, four weeks for proposal review and initial demonstrations, two weeks for proof of concept with finalists, and two weeks for contract negotiation.

Implementation adds another 6-12 weeks depending on organization size-100 users can migrate in 6-8 weeks whilst 1,000+ users require phased rollouts over 10-12 weeks. Rushing selection to save a month creates years of problems.

Do we need a proof of concept before committing?

Yes, for any commitment over one year or 50 users. A proper POC tests technical capabilities with your applications, validates performance from your office locations, confirms support responsiveness, and reveals integration challenges before you're contractually committed.

Request a 30-day POC with 10-20 pilot users representing different roles and application requirements. Test the worst-case scenarios: simultaneous logins Monday morning, large file transfers, graphics-intensive applications, and support response during a simulated critical incident.

How do we compare DaaS costs to our current VDI infrastructure?

Calculate your true VDI total cost of ownership including hardware refresh cycles (typically every 4-5 years), data center space and power, IT staff time for maintenance and support, software licensing, backup infrastructure, and disaster recovery capabilities.

Most organizations find their on-premises VDI costs £75-150 per user monthly when fully accounted. DaaS pricing of £50-80 per user represents genuine savings whilst eliminating capital expenditure and reducing IT overhead.

However, factor in the 20-40% underestimation tendency-build a 25% contingency into your DaaS budget for costs that aren't immediately obvious.

The right DaaS provider becomes a strategic partner enabling your hybrid workforce strategy for years. The wrong one creates technical debt, budget overruns, and painful exit processes. Proper DaaS vendor evaluation using these fifteen questions helps ensure you choose wisely.