“The world’s biggest work-from-home experiment has been triggered by coronavirus” is a CNN headline released in mid-February 2020. The virus outbreak is driving homeworking in all impacted countries today. Many businesses – and governments – are demanding employees and citizens to work from home in an attempt to slow down and contain the virus outbreak, as well as assure business continuity. Over the past week, I have encountered cases where contractors are not allowed on-site, where employees were working in alternating weeks at home and the office, or where entire departments are asked to work from home.
With this reality in mind, how can Awingu help your business?
Awingu makes applications, desktops and files shares available remotely in HTML5 via any browser. It enables users to securely login via a browser from anywhere, and from whatever device (managed or not). The #1 reason for companies to adopt Awingu is to enable remote and homeworking easily and securely.
From an architecture perspective: Awingu is a virtual appliance that is added on top of your existing back-end: AD, application servers, desktops, file servers, … As Awingu talks in standard protocols to your back-end (RDP, LDAP, WebDAV, CIFS, …), there is no need to change anything on that side. Awingu can just be added as an aggregator and a front-end. This works for Server-based Computing platforms (i.e. Windows Server-based RDS platforms), as well as for remote access to individual user Windows desktops (no RDS licenses are needed in this case). Furthermore, given that Awingu works on the RDP level, it will work on any version of Windows and and version of Windows Server (e.g. XP, 7, 10, WS2008, WS2016, etc – so you won’t have to worry about your 16bit and 32bit applications as explained here). That’s why most customers are technically up-and-running in one to two days.
Awingu doesn’t ‘just’ enable mobile working. It adds security in a Zero Trust philosophy, collaboration capabilities, and keeps a focus on UX. We’ll highlight some capabilities here:
Awingu is a lot more secure than VPN or ‘open RDP’ access (read all about our “open RDP study” here):
- No local data: everything runs inside the browser
- Built-in Multi-Factor Authentication
- Built-in SSL Encryption
- Granular usage controls enable for example to prevent printing, Copy/Paste, downloading, …
- Full usage audit built-in
Rich user experience and collaboration:
- Work from multiple screens
- Single Sign-On, also with external identity providers
- Awingu virtual printer for BYOD users (if rights given to user)
- Share large files from the Awingu workspace
- Blend SaaS tools such as Microsoft Office 365 and Google GSuite with legacy platforms
Typical scenario’s for homeworking
We’ve listed some typical customers questions, and explain how Awingu can offer a solution.
Question 1. Can we enable homeworking for employees that don’t have a company laptop?
Not all your employees are equipped with a laptop? No problem, they can use their personal computer or tablet and access your IT assets via their browser. They don’t need to install any agents or software on their personal devices, which significantly limits support calls and privacy concerns.
Question 2. Can we enable homeworking without Server-Based Computing platform?
No problem. Remote workers can connect via the browser on their personal computer (or company laptop) into their desktop which is running in the office. You will not require any additional VDA licensing if you remotely connect from a Windows device to your primary desktop/laptop that is connected to the company network (learn more about how RDS & VDI licensing works here). However, unlike a plain and open RDP access, Awingu will add layers of security on top of the RDP access to protect your IT assets to the maximum.
Want to find out more and see Awingu in action? Reach out to us!
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