More demands are being put on IT departments to reduce costs, respond faster with new services, and improve operational efficiency. Innovative new technology is emerging to address these challenges using the Software as a Service (SaaS) approach of streaming the operating system (OS) and applications to client systems. Streaming refers to downloading software for temporary local execution. In this scenario the OS and application software are managed from a centralized server and provided on-demand. Users obtain a clean, consistent, current build each time they log in. With streaming, there is no requirement for a hard drive on the client system. Local execution and caching preserves user experience comparable to traditionally installed applications.