As much of the workforce trades in desktop PCs for more portable devices, one group of people remains chained to a desk. Professionals tasked with manipulating graphics-heavy content are still required to purchase high-end PCs with specialized graphics cards to handle the workload.

In a world where cloud hosting is rapidly becoming the norm, many businesses are crafting plans for moving operations to the cloud. Even those who don’t have set plans are in the early stages of considering which devices can be replaced. Instead of leaving developers, graphic designers, and CAD designers out of the equation, a new option is emerging for businesses.

Graphics as a Service

One platform that is emerging as a big contender in the cloud computing game is Graphics as a Service (GaaS). Rather than confining a person’s work to the workstation, cloud providers are now offering the ability to contract with cloud providers to shift that performance to the cloud.

With GaaS, a provider puts the performance in a user’s web browser, allowing such operations as CAD and graphic design to be conducted in a web browser. This opens up businesses to let employees do their work on the same mobile devices others in the organization are doing.

Early Providers

While many providers are working diligently behind the scenes to make GaaS a reality, some vendors are standing out. Amazon Web Services recently launched G2, an instance specifically geared toward businesses that require graphic design capabilities. Web browser Mozilla also announced it is working on a way to make a web browser the way consumers perform high-end graphic design work and gaming.

With multiple technology providers working together, consumers will soon be able to put an end to the days of purchasing high-end PCs to meet their needs. The cloud will allow consumers to use their tablets and basic PCs for all of their needs.