Last Thursday, October 22, our webinar “Resilient companies: the fastest, most productive and safest solution to implement remote work” took place , an event where more than 200 companies had the opportunity to join us and enjoy a presentation led by Jordi Fernández, Cloud Solutions Manager, and Alex Imbernon, Head of Cybersecurity.
The event was divided into two parts, a first where it was exposed what is the path that a company should take to become resilient and a second where we were able to attend a practical demo to see what the proposed solution consists of.
The challenges of the resilient company
In the first part of the event, our colleague Jordi Fernández started from the concept of resilience for the company, defined as the capacity that organizations have to continue being competitive without being affected by external factors , and how to achieve this the need arises to enable efficient teleworking and sure.
To do this, he first looked at the implications of conventional options, such as VPN connections or classic remote desktop infrastructures, and how they impact at the IT level due to their complex maintenance and the limitation of the sizing of the infrastructure, at the level of the performance of users for the poor experience it offers and a general business level for the great security risk that it entails.
Introducing Windows Virtual Desktop
He then introduced us to Windows Virtual Desktop, Microsoft’s latest virtual desktop solution that allows us to connect to a Windows 10 desktop from anywhere and on any device , with an experience identical to if you were using Windows 10 installed on your own computer.
Jordi ended his presentation by explaining the benefits that Windows Virtual Destop offers for companies, dividing it into five main points:
- Productivity for users , because thanks to an outstanding user experience, you work from anywhere with the same comfort as doing it in the office.
- Security and control , because the information is protected in Azure and therefore does not compromise the company due to possible breaches, kidnappings or information leaks.
- Savings in infrastructures and licenses , because the infrastructure is dimensioned according to the needs of each moment. So you are only paying for what you use.
- Simplicity for IT , because you no longer have to manage the infrastructure as in conventional solutions. IT simply manages it as if they were physical corporate teams, in a unified way.
- As a consequence of the above, resilience for the company . Having these options ready to deploy as they are needed allows the organization to be prepared for contingencies of any kind.
Demo | Windows Virtual Desktop
In the second part of the event Alex Imbernon made a live demo showing the experience and capabilities of the service that Jordi had previously commented on.
To do this, he started by running the Windows Virtual Desktop application for Windows and, after two-factor authentication, accessed his desktop. From here we could see the demo divided into two blocks.
Operation of the environment at the level of user productivity.
In this first block, Alex taught the productivity level experience that Windows Virtual Desktop offers. To do this, we were able to see live how, when starting applications such as OneDrive or Outlook, the information is ready and preloaded in advance, without having to wait for a data synchronization.
Another advantage that he showed us within this productivity block is a live call through Teams. Thanks to the optimization for Windows Virtual Desktop, the audio and video synchronization is perfect and without any latencies. As it should be, if we didn’t take into account that everything is running on a remote machine.
Security applied to the environment
During the second block he focused on showing how, with proper configuration and deployment, Windows Virtual Desktop offers protection at all levels.
- Identity level . Through passwordless systems and multi-factor authentication.
- Information and data level . We saw how the system does not allow you to copy files between the virtual desktop and the computer from which you connect and how it protects information labeled as sensitive, such as bank accounts or credit cards.
- Device level . He showed the Azure dashboard where to apply compliance and configuration policies and where IT enables the applications that each user needs. In addition, we could see the Defender ATP panel in a scenario in which it warned of several vulnerabilities, which tells us which applications we should update.
In the last part of the event, Alex closed the Windows Virtual Desktop application from his PC and switched to a Mac, from where he connected to the environment through a web browser, in this case Safari. Once authenticated, again with multifactor, the desktop was shown in the browser with the same applications loaded that it had left in its previous session.
Of course, the event ended up giving voice to the attendees through a question and answer space.
In summary
In less than an hour we were able to enjoy a very practical event, where we discovered the importance of deploying remote work to ensure that our company remains productive regardless of external factors, the disadvantages of conventional options to enable it and how Windows Virtual Destkop is the solution that allows you to do it in a simple, efficient, safe way and, in addition, with cost savings .
We remind you that those of you who are already Softeng customers have the complete video available on your Minerva portal .
If you want to know more about Windows Virtual Desktop, here is a post where we explain it in depth.