A few weeks ago, Workspot and ESG released a new survey that looked at VDI, DaaS and cloud desktops. It was filled with great findings and information. So to learn more about Workspot and how cloud desktops can help with business continuity and security, VMblog reached out to Michele Borovac, Chief Marketing Officer at Workspot.
VMblog: What is the solution that Workspot provides?
Michele Borovac: Workspot is a turnkey SaaS platform that allows IT to deliver
low latency Windows 10 cloud desktops into any Microsoft Azure region globally.
Our solution can be deployed in days, and IT admins can manage their entire
desktop infrastructure from a single console. IT organizations are freed from
the cost and complexity of on-prem infrastructure, as Workspot takes on the
responsibility for the desktop SLA. End users can access their Workspot cloud
desktop from anywhere, on any device; because their desktop is typically less
than 50 milliseconds away, they get exceptional performance. Lastly, Workspot
offers flat rate pricing that includes the cost of Azure compute, Go-Live
deployment services, and ongoing support, so customers also gain budget
predictability.
VMblog: How is Workspot approaching business continuity for its
customers?
Borovac: Business continuity is built-in with Workspot. When
centralizing desktop infrastructure in the cloud, users gain full productivity
from wherever they are, even without access to their desk in the office. Many
of our customers use Workspot to address specific use cases, like supporting
remote software developers or providing secure access for contractors. When the
pandemic hit, our customers were able to ensure their employees were safe at
home by simply expanding their Workspot deployment to support additional users
- often in a matter of hours.
VMblog: Can
you share an example of how an organization is using cloud desktops for biz
continuity?
Borovac: We recently hosted a
Town
Hall webinar to talk with three of our customers to share how they have
helped their businesses adapt to remote work. IT leaders from each of the
companies discussed how quickly they were able to transition, and
interestingly, they saw an
increase in productivity with people working
from home. We now see that what started as execution of business continuity
planning has become the new normal for many of our customers. Remote work is
proving effective, and will impact future technology decisions, as well as
practical concerns around real estate and office configurations.
VMblog: What are the issues that can result from relying on VPN?
Borovac: For most organizations, VPNs were leveraged to provide
access to applications and data for about 5% of workers who were traveling or
working remotely. When that that percentage jumped to 100%, VPNs quickly became
a bottleneck, requiring IT to acquire more equipment and field hundreds of
calls from end users unhappy with performance. VPNs also have a negative impact
for users who need access to SaaS applications, where traffic must funnel
through the corporate datacenter before coming back out to the cloud. The
technology was not designed for easy scalability and is not an optimal solution
to support long term remote work.
VMblog: What happens to your desktop if Azure goes down?
Borovac: Luckily, Azure has been incredibly stable, but Workspot is
the only cloud desktop company that can handle the small risk of instability.
Workspot not only offers backup/restore capabilities to address common issues
like user error or viruses, but also unique multi-region resiliency. Workspot
can maintain a backup of each user's desktop in another cloud region, so if
their primary region goes down, they can quickly switch to their backup and
continue working.
VMblog: What makes cloud desktops more secure than physical
desktops?
Borovac: Centralizing your desktop infrastructure offers many
security advantages. Most CIOs have realized that Azure can better defend against
security breaches than their in-house datacenters, so you gain Azure's built-in
security. Second, Workspot can work with the tools you use already to
distribute software updates and security patches, like InTune or SCCM. Updating
a centralized image is vastly easier than tracking whether each endpoint is up
to date, and a single unpatched PC can create vulnerability for an entire
organization. Workspot's secure client can run on any endpoint - it simply
provides a view into users' desktops in the cloud, so data never resides on
their devices. Because Workspot is a turnkey service, we also maintain a
Network Operations Center that provides a big data feed, including user login
attempts, locations, and more. Companies can leverage this data or export it to
data analytics tools like Splunk for valuable security insights.
VMblog: How long does it take to launch from initial
implementation?
Borovac: Unlike legacy on-prem VDI solutions, which can require
months of configuration and ongoing tuning before the first desktop is even
available, Workspot desktops can be deployed in days and require no
infrastructure investment or VDI expertise. Workspot's customer success team
helps optimize the platform for each customer's unique Windows 10 image,
applications and MFA, and security stack. Once this configuration is created,
additional desktops can be spun up in minutes, anywhere in the world.
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