A Digital Workspace as a Service

Two important factors driving the cloud desktop phenomenon — The BYOD trend and the migration of enterprise workloads to the cloud.

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). The local devices act only as a window to the remote experience, Lowe’s data is secured on a cloud infrastructure and not saved on the users devices, and is there by not subjected to viruses, theft or other security threats.

Cloud based enterprise apps are still based on a client/server architecture, which demands a thick client running on a desktop to access the server. With desktops living closer to the servers in the secured cloud, this helps IT deliver a better experience without compromising performance or security.

Other honorable mentions include:

• Timely employee request fulfillment, before they turn to non-corporate solutions and inadvertently place the organization at risk.
• Agile Model that calls for an increased development activity, that demands instant access to desktop and app resources.

The Evolution

2006 A Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) story

• Centrally hosted in a DC, executed and managed in-house (i.e., hardware, software, licensing and deployment)
• Latency was minimal and it gave complete control to IT, that required the IT to have a full contingent of staff to handle all possible failures
• While the value was apparent, the complexity and cost have acted as deterrents

2012 Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) story

• Hosted and managed by a 3rd party cloud provider
• Predictable pay-as-you-grow consumption and billing model
• Desktop, apps, and data reside at the cloud service provider on an architecture that is secure and redundant by design

Before I get to 2016 and the new heights scaled by Tech Mahindra, here are some of the benefits of embracing a hosted desktop.

Employee Benefits:

• No longer tethered to a traditional desktop or laptop, BYOD enables greater productivity to remote and temporary staff, and enhances UX on devices they are already comfortable using
• Move fast and fail fast with access to desktop resources when they need them
• No more cumbersome VPN connections that impair access and lengthen login time

Business Benefits:

• Agility to quickly adapt to new opportunities, with favorable economics
• It can more easily integrate, consolidate and deliver services and apps when and where they are needed, without having to directly touch every endpoint
• Reduce CAPEX and OPEX, while at the same time streamlining IT maintenance and Infrastructure management

IT & Security Benefits:

• Helps meet security policy requirements and compliance standards by using protocols to compress, encrypt, and encode data even when on transit and data no longer resides on local devices
• Enables the creation of developer-style environments, granting quick and secure access to end-user environments for seamless development and testing, without impeding user productivity
• Manages applications centrally with the ability to securely package, instantaneously deploy, while supporting secure access from multiple device types

(WaaS) NxT from Tech Mahindra

(Workspace-as-a-Service, the Queen-B of DaaS. Youtube Introduction Video)

The next generation digital platform features:

• Easy Plug and Play configured persona driven workspaces.
• Self-learning End User Analytics engine and Visualization to predict end user behavior leading to resource optimization.
• Enhanced Multi-Tiered and Context Aware Security per user’s device, identity, network, storage and app usage.
• Built on Cloud Pod Architecture provides high availability and scale out for global access.
• Self-heal and self-configure features with a built in Automation Engine.
• Integrated Ops and Service Management that helps pin-point and avoid service outages, self-service IT store, monitoring, profile management, in-built metering & charge-back, performance management.
• Built in Cloudburst capability for scalability and disaster recovery.

Integrated services with a flexibility of choosing the adoption model:

• WaaS NxT: A browser based follow-me workspace that allows an enterprise desktop, mobile workspace, & an offline mode based on user needs.
• Enterprise Mobility Management-as-a-Service: A comprehensive suite for mobile device, mobile application, mobile security and mobile lifecycle management.
• Messaging and Collaboration-as-a-Service: Ubiquitous collaboration solutions that provides unified and secured access to data, audio and video services across multiple devices, across the enterprise, that integrates with other private and public cloud based services like Office 365, Google Mail etc.
• Application-as-a-Service: This new model of application delivery does away with application packaging overheads and mitigates the onus of virtualizing all applications. Amongst other benefits this cutting edge service offers centrally managed application lifecycle, support for all legacy and off the shelf applications and a simple version control with rollback on application updates.
• Data on the Go: Call it an enterprise own version of Drop Box, a virtual appliance that delivers File Sharing and Synchronization solution from an organization’s own datacentre’s compliant to all IT policies.
• Backup-as-a-Service: Protects and governs data across platforms and devices. It enhances the end user experience, creating a local backup for fast recovery and sending de-duped files to the cloud for retention.

Wrapping up with quantification of further benefits with WaaS NxT:

• Centralized management of entire desktop infrastructure
• Cost reduction of upto 40% over 5 years through reduced support fleet and increased end user productivity.
• Year-on-year TCO benefits on account of lower upfront capex for infrastructure
• Multi-tiered security architecture and HIPAA compliant
• 99.95% service availability and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 20–60 minutes
• Enabling the company to seamlessly integrate its recent acquisitions
• Business continuity through resilient design-zero impact during disasters, zero severity 1 ticket during last two years of engagement
• Robust architecture with flexibility to integrate/on-board WaaS NxT distinct Services