The Changing Face of Remote Working…and Management
We are all consumers or product users in some shape or form. In this role we have high expectations. If we are attending a webinar, we expect the sound, video and software to work perfectly. When we are watching Netflix, sending emails, using Whatsapp or listening to music on Spotify, we expect everything to work seamlessly. Anything less than perfect and we feel short-changed. Yet, when we are challenged with facing a new world of remote working or enabling our teams to work remotely, that same expectation isn’t there.
From an IT perspective, many organisations are quick to settle for ‘just good enough’.
There are a lot of aging legacy applications and back-office equipment in place. Often there are questionable technology strategies. What’s best for our team and what’ll make our employees most effective isn’t considered and different components are rolled out on an ad-hoc basis. This has led to fragmentation of end-point solutions where there are different solutions for security, file-sharing and collaboration. This situation has been exacerbated by the sudden need to go from 0 or 20% remote access to 100% almost overnight. For many companies the solution was to send out more laptops, buy more VPN licenses or add extra storage. This was again done with little or no strategic thinking. The primary goal was to get remote access up and running, again settling for ‘just good enough’.
Limitations of This Attitude – What Hasn’t Been Considered
Many organisations have been focused on keeping the lights on and setting up employees to work remotely by any means possible. While doing this, they’ve failed to look at the bigger picture.
· Is your remote working solution challenging for your end users? You are trying to recreate the office environment. If the connection process is cumbersome, the equipment below par and general performance different to what they’re used to, then remote working won’t be as effective.
· Is your IT security adapting to remote workers? In-house, your security protocols might have worked fine. However, in remote environments there are increased risks. Not adapting to them could leave your company data in a more vulnerable position.
· How has your remote environment scaled? Many companies might’ve thought they had a VPN solution that could scale easily. However, in reality, when the entire workforce is asked to work remotely at once, this has huge effects on performance.
The Solution – Windows Virtual Desktop
Windows Virtual Desktop is the best virtual desktop experience, delivered by Azure. It is a comprehensive desktop and app virtualisation service running in the cloud. It’s the only virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that delivers simplified management, multi-session Windows 10, optimisations for Office 365 ProPlus, and support for Remote Desktop Services (RDS) environments.
· Windows Virtual Desktop is the only solution that delivers a true Windows 10 solution. This is crucial as this is what the end-users are typically used to. They are used to the level of performance and how the applications work. This ensures perfect continuity when remote working.
· Optimised for Office365 applications. Again, this addresses issues around user profiles, connectivity and engaging with OneDrive.
· Migrate Windows Server (RDS) desktops and apps to Azure. This is extremely useful if you have already invested in a remote desktop solution. You can use your applications in conjunction with Windows Desktop.
· Deploy and scale in minutes. With Windows Virtual Desktop you can quickly virtualise and deploy modern and legacy desktop apps to the cloud in minutes with unified management in the Azure portal.
How Windows Virtual Desktop Addresses the Challenges of Remote Working
Windows Virtual Desktop is the ideal solution for remote access teams. In many ways it is also the perfect digital workplace transformation tool for companies that are having to deploy remote solutions as a result of Covid-19. WVD effortlessly addresses some of the challenges that we mentioned earlier in the article.
1. With WVD you can eliminate your VPNs and the legacy VPN processes that goes with it such as having to use pre-shared keys and double authentication. This significantly improves the connection process, creating a much more succinct user experience.
2. Providing your workforce with a familiar experience. We mentioned earlier how effective remote working is about recreating the office environment. With WVD you are doing just that as users are on a desktop they are familiar with.
3. All data and applications are available anytime and anywhere. Users are no longer limited by certain legacy applications being available
4. Security is built in, not added on. We spoke previously about how some organisations were adding solutions on an adhoc basis, leading to a fragmentation of end-point solutions. Here however, security is part of the product.
ActionPoint recently held a webinar on Windows Virtual Desktop and remote working. In it, we took a deep dive into how VPD addresses specific business needs, we looked under the hood into how it all works and provided a short demo. If your organisation is interested in learning more about WPN, you can check out the recording here.
For more information on how to upgrade your IT mobility strategy visit https://actionpoint.ie/it-mobility/
