Although Lockton is the world’s largest privately owned insurance brokerage firm, clients most frequently describe the insurance broker as team members who make their businesses better. Energy, innovation and deep expertise fuel Lockton’s focus on solving its clients’ problems and achieving real results.

It is this spirit of innovation that led Lockton to recently embark on the deployment of Citrix Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) at its headquarters in the Country Club Plaza area of Kansas City, MO., and local office locations across the United States and around the globe.

Lockton was about a quarter of the way through its Cirrus VDI deployment when one of its thin client manufacturers changed some of the key features on the model the insurance broker was using, without warning. This presented a number of challenges that Lockton’s IT team was unable to overcome during a critical stage in the VDI roll-out.

Around the same time Lockton was experiencing issues with the thin client manufacturer, they participated in a charity golf tournament in Kansas City that was hosted by IGEL Platinum Partner Choice Solutions and sponsored by IGEL. Following the golf tournament, Lockton tested the IGEL Universal Desktop (UD2-LX) and the IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS) management console. The insurer realized immediately that the superior design and secure infrastructure management capabilities would make it possible for them to easily manage their entire network of thin clients in the U.S. from the company’s headquarters in Kansas City, and this was a key selling point.

To date, with the help of Choice Solutions, Lockton has deployed 1,200 IGEL UD2-LX thin clients and expected that number to increase to 1,800 by the end of 2017. Lockton also has a small number of licenses for the IGEL Universal Desktop Converter software which they are leveraging to turn hardware from other thin client manufacturers into IGEL-powered endpoints. Additionally, the insurer is using the IGEL UD Pocket to deliver the IGEL desktop to employees using legacy thin client hardware.

Welcome to this free eBook on Office 365 and Microsoft 365 brought to you by Altaro Software. We’re going to show you how to get the most out of these powerful cloud packages and improve your business. This book follows an informal reference format providing an overview of the most powerful applications of each platform’s feature set in addition to links directing to supporting information and further reading if you want to dig further into a specific topic. The intended audience for this book is administrators and IT staff who are either preparing to migrate to Office/Microsoft 365 or who have already migrated and who need to get the lay of the land. If you’re a developer looking to create applications and services on top of the Microsoft 365 platform, this book is not for you. If you’re a business decision-maker, rather than a technical implementer, this book will give you a good introduction to what you can expect when your organization has been migrated to the cloud and ways you can adopt various services in Microsoft 365 to improve the efficiency of your business.

THE BASICS

We’ll cover the differences (and why one might be more appropriate for you than the other) in more detail later but to start off let’s just clarify what each software package encompasses in a nutshell. Office 365 (from now on referred to as O365) 7 is an email collaboration and a host of other services provided as a Software as a Service (SaaS) whereas Microsoft 365 (M365) is Office 365 plus Azure Active Directory Premium, Intune – cloud-based management of devices and security and Windows 10 Enterprise. Both are per user-based subscription services that require no (or very little) infrastructure deployments on-premises.

Metallic is a new SaaS backup and recovery solution based on Commvault's data protection software suite, proven in the marketplace for more than 20 years. It is designed specifically for the needs of medium-scale enterprises but is architected to grow with them based on data growth, user growth, or other requirements. Metallic initially offers either monthly or annual subscriptions through reseller partners; it will be available through cloud service providers and managed service providers over time. The initial workload use cases for Metallic include virtual machine (VM), SQL Server, file server, MS Office 365, and endpoint device recovery support; the company expects to add more use cases and supported workloads as the solution evolves.

Metallic is designed to offer flexibility as one of the service's hallmarks. Aspects of this include:

• On-demand infrastructure: Metallic manages the cloud-based infrastructure components and software for the backup environment, though the customer will still manage any of its own on- premise infrastructure. This environment will support on-premise, cloud, and hybrid workloads. IT organizations are relieved of the daily task of managing the infrastructure components and do not have to worry about upgrades, OS or firmware updates and the like, for the cloud infrastructure, so people can repurpose that time saved toward other activities.

• Metallic offers preconfigured plans designed to have users up and running in approximately 15 minutes, eliminating the need for a proof-of-concept test. These preconfigured systems have Commvault best practices built into the design, or organizations can configure their own.

• Partner-delivered services: Metallic plans to go to market with resellers that can offer a range of services on top of the basic solution's capabilities. These services will vary by provider and will give users a variety of choices when selecting a provider to match the services offered with the organization's needs.

• "Bring your own storage": Among the flexible options of Metallic, including VM and file or SQL database use cases, users can deploy their own storage, either on-premise or in the cloud, while utilizing the backup/recovery services of Metallic. The company refers to this option as "SaaS Plus."

• The different types of data you need to backup up in Microsoft Teams
• 6 key reasons why it is important to backup Microsoft Teams
• Why native backup capabilities of Office 365 are not enough
  

Managing Windows user profiles can be a complex and challenging process. Better profile management is usually sought by organizations looking to reduce Windows login times, accommodate applications that do not adhere to best practice application data storage, and to give users the flexibility to login to any Windows Operating System (OS) and have their profile follow them.

Note that additional profile challenges and solutions are covered in a related ProfileUnity whitepaper entitled “User Profile and Environment Management with ProfileUnity.” To efficiently manage the complex challenges of today’s diverse Windows profile environments, Liquidware ProfileUnity exclusively features two user profile technologies that can be used together or separately depending on the use case. These include:

1. ProfileDisk™, a virtual disk based profile that delivers the entire profile as a layer from an attached user VHD or VMDK, and

2. Profile Portability, a file and registry based profile solution that restores files at login, post login, or based on environment triggers.

In this white paper from BitTitan, we outline the top approaches to planning and preparing for your Office 365 tenant migration including:

• Assessing the Source environment and mapping dependencies
• Determining what needs to be migrated
• Planning the cutover
• Handling scale and complexity through automation with MigrationWiz

The popular workstream collaboration application from Microsoft is quickly gaining users amidst the ongoing shift to Office 365. As adoption continues to grow, so too does the need to migrate Teams instances as part of the broader tenant-to-tenant migration scenario.

In this white paper from BitTitan, we outline the top pre- and post-migration considerations necessary to ensure a successful project for this new workload.

There are many solutions on the market that can make remote work easier and more accessible so staff can continue to be productive, regardless of their location. But not all are created equal. A solution should be able to be deployed quickly, ensure the security of confidential data and be easy for both admins and employees to use.

That’s where virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions come into play.

The benefits of using VDI—rapid deployment, inherent security and simplified management—make a compelling case for its suitability as the technology to adapt to today’s new normal and prepare for future disruptions.

Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) is a VDI solution that enables organizations of all sizes to effortlessly deliver applications and virtual desktops to any endpoint device at any time. What’s more, its simple infrastructure makes it easy to implement, manage and scale, while its affordable price point keeps costs down.

Download this white paper today to understand how a VDI solution like Parallels RAS can boost your remote workforce.

Remote work looks vastly different than it did just one year ago.  In March 2020, tens of millions of workers around the world shifted to working from an office to working from home due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. We set off to find out how organizations were adjusting to remote work, specifically how desktop virtualization usage has contributed to or influenced that adjustment.

Download the report and learn:

• What role remote desktops play in supporting remote workers
• Tips from your peers to make the remote work transition easier
• The benefits of adopting a remote workforce
• Lessons learned from IT decision makers in shifting employees home