A hosted virtual desktop (HVD) is a desktop interface created as a virtual machine on a cloud provider's server. HVD is deployed using virtualization software and enables remote access to the desktop interface. The service provider takes care of the management, storage, security, backup, and redundancy to ensure HVD's high availability.
By storing data and applications on a cloud server, the total cost of ownership is significantly lower than hosting the data locally. One of the drawbacks of HVD is that users do not have the same level of control as with the in-house infrastructure.