SafariDekstops is built upon Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) technology that was released into General Availability in 2019 in the Microsoft Azure cloud. This technology has enabled partners like us develop a Desktop as a Service offering that equips people with a Windows 10 virtual desktop designed for and integrated with Microsoft 365 tools and services such as Office 365 pro plus applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive and Outlook and Microsoft’s online services such as sharepoint, OneDrive, Exchange Online and Microsoft Teams.
A new way to work
Since the release of WVD, in a short amount of time, the world has had to change how it approaches work. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the whole world suddenly had to adopt a remote workforce approach – if it was possible to work from home, it suddenly became necessary to work from home. Many companies threw together rough solutions using a mix of VPN technologies and laptops, or remote access programs such as Log Me in or teamviewer, whatever it took to get through quarantine. But here we are now, in a world with a new view of remote work. What should your company or organization do for a long term solution to a remote workforce?
Honestly there is a lot of options, but I’m going to talk you through what a SafariDesktops solution would look like in meeting your long term remote work force goals.
The Microsoft Cloud
To start, you have to understand the power of the cloud. A cloud platform like Microsoft Azure, is simply a network of high quality, incredibly secure, data centers operated and maintained by Microsoft throughout the globe. Through something known as virtualization, you are able to create virtual computers, networks, and applications for your organization to use.
With the cloud you can create in minutes what would often take hours, or if you didn’t have the hardware on hand, would sometimes take days or weeks. This allows you to grow your environment almost instantly. As your business or organization grows, your virtual infrastructure (servers, networks, and desktops) can easily grow right along with it. It is this cloud technology that enabled our virtual desktops to meet your remote workforce needs.
Cloud Desktop Solution
With that in mind, lets go back to talking about a virtual desktop solution. Imagine a virtual windows 10 desktop in the cloud, where it is able to securely connect to all the business applications and services in your network required for people to do their jobs. You can instantly assign a new person a Desktop with all the applications they need, a desktop that can be accessed on practically any device from anywhere with an internet connection.
A New Hire
Now lets imagine you have a new hire, named Beth. Instead of ordering a laptop or desktop, installing your company/organization image and applications and setting email and office on it, you can instead, simply assign a virtual desktop to her. Using the same username and password that she will use for her email, she can remotely access her new work desktop from her home computer or tablet or mobile phone.
Or say she has a Samsung galaxy phone, she can plug an HDMI cable into her phone to hook it up to a monitor and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and use Samsung DEX to access her virtual desktop in a full desktop experience.
Corporate device
What if she doesn’t have her own device? Then your company can provide a ‘thin client’ like Dell Wyse or even just a low cost device such as a chrome book or android tablet or some other laptop or desktop type device with very little computing resources of its own (and thus relatively inexpensive) that can be used to access the virtual desktop.
Instant results
In an instant you have enabled Beth to be able to work from anywhere without having to compromise on the security of your network or data. From a management perspective that Desktop still lives internally on your network and you have full control over its configuration and setup and all its data is secure.
Acquisitions
Now imagine you’re company has acquired another business with 2 offices with 50 people in each office. With a virtual desktop solution like SafariDesktops, after creating their Active Directory and office 365 accounts all those acquired users can be instantly assigned a virtual desktop, giving them a corporate joined desktop on your network they can use right away – whether it be from the office or from home or while traveling – from anywhere. No massive order of devices, no massive refresh effort, no massive security holes while waiting for your acquired users to come into compliance with your organization’s device and network security policies. Weeks to months worth of work can all be reduced to mere hours.
More Benefits
The benefits go on. Thin client dies? No corporate data loss, they can just hop onto a different device to access their virtual desktop. Their personal laptop gets stolen – no corporate security concerns or data loss as all their work related data was on the virtual desktop – and again the person can hop right onto a different device and continue working where they left off. Because a virtual desktop is exactly that – virtualized on cloud resources, you don’t need to worry about hardware upgrades and assets becoming out of date, no more hardware refreshes. What about users who need to do graphic intensive work like the marketing department? SafariDesktops has a power+ sized virtual desktop that is GPU enabled and ideal for graphic intensive workloads.
Microsoft Integrated
Our virtual desktops use a specialized version of Windows 10 designed for increased efficiency with Microsoft Office applications and file sync solutions like OneDrive to increase your experienced performance and increase your productivity.
Managed and Supported
With SafariDesktops you don’t have to be concerned about virtual desktop support and management of a sudden growth in workforce like in a major acquisition or new establishment. Safari Micro managed services maintains and monitors the virtual desktops, making sure they are up to date and working efficiently, providing the consistency and performance users can rely on – managing the technology behind those virtual desktops so you don’t have to. And if issues do arise, Safari Micro is there to support and resolve those issues.
Whatever your needs are, a virtual desktop solution like SafariDesktops is worth serious consideration for your long term remote workforce solution. Reach out to us today to start a conversation on how SafariDesktops can be used to benefit your business or organization. You can even try it out for free right now: safaridesktops.com/try
