Which is why we love G2. If you’re not familiar with it, G2 is the world’s largest platform for direct reviews, where IT decision-makers share their reviews of the technologies they use with their peers. Then, based on those customer reviews, G2 issues quarterly reports that rank the best vendors in any given category. When you decide to participate in G2, you’re really putting yourself out there, because you have no control over what your customers will say and what they’ll share with their peers. Which is exactly what makes it so valuable for people who are evaluating solutions and looking for advice.

Just this week, G2 announced their Fall 2022 reports – including the reports for the VDI and DaaS markets (the two categories that Cameyo is included in). And we could not be more honored to share that, based on our customers’ reviews, Cameyo has been recognized as a “High Performer” in both the Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) categories of the G2 Fall 2022 reports while also receiving several “best of” recognitions in those categories, including Best Estimated ROI. 

The fact that G2’s ratings and reports are based on the real-life reviews and experiences of actual customers makes these recognitions so much more meaningful to us, because everything we do, we do with the goal of delighting and empowering our customers. To have so many of our customers take the time to share their reviews of Cameyo with their peers, and to be ranked so highly – especially compared to many of the larger, legacy providers – is an absolute honor.

Based on our customer reviews, Cameyo received the following recognitions in the G2 Fall 2022 reports:

• High Performer in the G2 Grid® Report for DaaS
• High Performer in the G2 Grid® Report for VDI
• Best Estimated ROI
• Users Most Likely to Recommend
• Easiest to Do Business With
• Best Meets Requirements

Especially now, when two of the oldest VDI and DaaS providers are being acquired and their futures are uncertain, many organizations are looking for alternatives. And the first place most IT decision makers turn for advice is to their peers in the industry, to learn from their experiences. So these G2 Fall 2022 reports for the VDI and DaaS categories are more relevant than ever. We can’t thank our customers enough for being so vocal about their experiences with Cameyo, and for ranking us so highly. 

If you’d like to see for yourself why so many of your peers have switched from legacy VDI and DaaS providers to Cameyo, and why they review & rank us so highly, we’d love to walk you through a quick demo, or if you’re not ready to talk and just want to test drive Cameyo for yourself, you can get started with a free trial here.  

The post The Reviews Are In: See Why Cameyo Just Shot Up the Charts on G2 appeared first on Cameyo.

However, even companies that appreciate these trends might be at a loss when it comes to cost-effectively addressing them in a way that enables anytime/anywhere productivity. 

For example, you’re no doubt well aware that cloud solutions are essential for dynamic work environments, remote work and online collaboration. But how can you cost-effectively provide your end-users with high-performance tools to support their individual workloads under those conditions? More importantly, how can you do it in a way that’s not only cost-effective but also less complex from an IT deployment & management perspective?

And perhaps even more importantly, how can you avoid the common security pitfalls that are leading to massive spikes in successful ransomware attacks?

Texas-based Community Hospital Corporation (CHC), one of the United States’ top providers of healthcare consulting and management services, is one of thousands of organizations globally who have turned to cloud desktops to address these issues. CHC selected Cameyo‘s virtual app delivery (VAD)-enabled cloud desktop solution, yielding exceptional results in terms of reduced cost and complexity. 

CHC wanted to streamline its infrastructure across more than 20 hospitals nationwide. Yet the company still wanted to provide customized workspaces for its end users in order to enhance the user experience and make its outstanding patient care even better. As CHC was already familiar with desktop virtualization through virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), the company initially saw VDI as the default method of getting Windows apps into the hands of its distributed staff.

What is a virtual desktop?

Many companies—from small businesses to global Fortune 500 enterprises—follow that same line of thought. VDI has been around for decades, so in many cases, organizations can default to this legacy approach due to it’s familiarity.

VDI is a pre-cloud technology that’s built around providing complete desktop environments, usually some form of Microsoft Windows, to remote endpoints. The way it works in most use cases is that virtual machines (VMs) are hosted on a centralized on-premises data center server. End-users connect to these VMs through a complex server-based authentication mechanism that typically involves Microsoft Active Directory. That then allows those users to interact with a familiar desktop environment on their local machine—even though the actual computing is being performed on the host server.

Simply accessing virtual desktops has traditionally been a stumbling block for users as well as IT. Most VDI solutions require dedicated software clients—interactive viewer windows, so to speak—that don’t work with every endpoint device. Users are also often expected to connect to the virtual desktop infrastructure via virtual private networks (VPNs), which introduce major security risks. This leads to IT diverting more and more resources to providing technical support, locking down firewalls, assisting with basic connectivity and maintaining the VMs.

That was certainly CHC’s experience with virtual desktop solutions.

“[W]e did what most people probably do – we started with all of the biggest players. We spent almost four years evaluating VMware, Citrix and Nutanix. But it became clear, time and time again, that none of those solutions were feasible from either a cost or complexity perspective. Many of our facilities only have one or two IT personnel, and it typically takes 10 or more people to manage a VDI deployment full time,” said Brian Stopinski, Corporate IT Operations Director, CHC.

“So it doesn’t matter that these were the solutions that were in the upper right of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant – they simply were not an option for us.”

What is a cloud desktop?

The term cloud desktop has been applied as a catch-all to many remote desktop and desktop virtualization solutions that have incorporated a cloud computing framework. Sometimes dubbed desktop-as-a-service (DaaS), a fair number of these are just legacy virtual desktop infrastructure in disguise: VDI with a backend cloud infrastructure and SaaS-style pricing. The longstanding complexity and limitations are still there, even if they now happen to leverage popular cloud services.

But true cloud desktop solutions encompass a technology that departs from VDI and represents an evolution in virtualization solutions: virtual app delivery (VAD).

Cameyo was an early pioneer of VAD technology as a more cost-effective, flexible and secure response to conventional Windows virtual desktops. Unlike legacy desktop virtualization approaches, we saw that a user’s desktop environment didn’t have to be tied to a specific operating system (Windows) or even a universal set of apps. It could change to suit individual or group workflows. It could take full advantage of cloud infrastructure for on-demand responsiveness. And it could neatly solve the issues presented by VPNs and remote desktop protocol (RDP) vulnerabilities to provide an incredible—and incredibly secure—user experience.

While VAD may have emerged as a cloud-native alternative to VDI and DaaS, just how much of an alternative it offers can sometimes be overlooked. That was certainly the case for CHC. At the beginning, at least.

“When I first started my conversation with Cameyo, my mentality was that we had to deliver full Windows desktops. It’s simply the byproduct of 25 years of experience with Windows desktops, and I think a lot of people are still stuck in the same mentality that I was,” said Stopinski. 

“We were still in the mindset that we needed to deliver a full Windows desktop to give our people access to their apps. So at first, I completely discounted Cameyo and didn’t think it would work for us. But we decided to do an evaluation based on Google’s recommendation.”

Cameyo’s engineering team showed Stopinksi and his team at CHC how they could spin up the exact cloud desktop environment they were looking for. And what’s more, they did it in just 45 minutes.

FAQs about Cameyo’s digital workspace solution

How is Cameyo different from a virtual desktop?

Fundamentally, VAD and VDI are both digital workspace solutions with a shared goal: empowering users to stay productive in any environment. But Cameyo moves beyond classic desktop virtualization in many important respects, with cost-effectiveness, security, and flexibility being the biggest factors. By design Cameyo bolsters zero-trust computing policies while being far more user friendly for end users of all technical backgrounds. And it can reduce your costs by up to 85% compared to traditional Windows OS-based virtual desktops.

What devices is Cameyo compatible with?

It’s easy to forget that one big promise of the public cloud was device agnosticism. Unfortunately, old habits die hard, and some solution providers have clung to software clients that only work with a handful of operating systems.

Cameyo, by contrast, works on any device that can run an HTML5-capable web browser like Chrome. That means Mac and Linux computers, iOS (e.g., iPad, iPhone) and Android mobile devices, Chromebooks and even PCs with aging CPUs can access the full desktop versions of Windows software—on demand and in real-time—without those applications being installed locally on the device.

Is Cameyo more cost-effective than VDI?

Without a doubt.19% of Cameyo customers report an immediate ROI due to a reduction in cost compared to their previous VDI/DaaS solutions, while 61% report ROI in less than 3 months, and 91% experience ROI in less than a year.  

Then there’s the cost savings that comes from reduced complexity. As a true cloud desktop, Cameyo doesn’t come laden with all the legacy baggage of VDI. With Cameyo, you’re delivering apps, not operating systems, which means less time spent on technical support, increased user productivity and minimal to no infrastructure footprint. In Stopinski’s words: “In our initial evaluation, I was shocked by how small the footprint was of Cameyo’s solution. All of the servers, load balancers, and other infrastructure you have to manage with Windows desktops – we didn’t have to deal with any of that with Cameyo.”

And by helping to mitigate ransomware attacks through features like HTTPS encryption and non-persistent sessions, Cameyo can also spare your organization from the expensive and disruptive aftermath of disaster recovery.

Does Cameyo require extra training and certifications?

No. Compared to VDI, which often requires a dedicated technical support team with bespoke VDI training and certifications, Cameyo has been deployed in hundreds of environments across all industries by non-specialists—and usually in a matter of hours. It doesn’t take any special skills to get Cameyo up and running or optimize it for your particular use case.

Which cloud service providers does Cameyo support?

Cameyo is all about flexibility and customization. While our fully-hosted solution is available in your choice of Google Cloud (default) or Microsoft Azure, we also offer a BYOC (bring your own cloud) option. You can also self-host Cameyo in any cloud of your choice, as well as hybrid and on-premises environments. 

What kind of user experience can we expect with Cameyo?

Virtual app delivery through Cameyo provides your end-users with a Windows-independent cloud desktop on any device, no matter where they happen to be. Whether they’re working from home or in a dynamic hoteling workplace, accessing the full desktop version of their apps is as straightforward as clicking a Cameyo PWA-enabled app icon in their taskbar (which launches the app in its own window, even though it’s not installed locally) or accessing the apps in the browser just like SaaS apps. Your users literally have nothing new to learn – they simply use their apps as they normally would, no matter what device they are on. And all of this ease of use is underpinned by Cameyo’s uncompromising security features.

Move beyond Windows-based virtual desktops

The idea of a cloud-native, cost-effective and user-optimized cloud desktop experience with industry-leading security and ease of use might sound like an IT wish list, but CHC was pleased to discover that Cameyo was a proven virtualization solution that checked all the boxes. The biggest hurdle was thinking beyond traditional VDI and realizing the benefits of a Windows OS-independent cloud desktop.

“The reality is, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. We thought we needed to deliver a Windows desktop in order to give everyone access to all their apps, including Windows apps, on any device,” said Stopinski.

“With Cameyo, I finally realized that the user doesn’t need to see the Windows OS. As an organization, we always ask ‘What is the value add?’ whenever we’re evaluating something new. So I applied that question to something old – Windows desktops – and it became obvious that the added value was zero.”

If you’d like to know more about CHC’s experience with Cameyo, you can read the full case study here. On the other hand, if you’re eager to leave behind the cost, complexity and security risks of legacy VDI solutions, be sure to sign up for your free trial of Cameyo today or request a demo from one of our engineers.

The post Cloud Desktops – Reducing the Cost of Virtual Desktops While Enhancing Security & User Experience appeared first on Cameyo.

So, what is NPS? 

Before we go any further, let’s talk about what NPS scores actually mean. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the most common metric used in customer experience programs. NPS measures the loyalty that customers have to a particular company. First developed in 2003 by Bain and Company, NPS is now used by millions of businesses to measure and track how their customers perceive them based on one simple question:

How likely is it that you would recommend [Organization X/Product Y/Service Z] to a friend or colleague?

Respondents then give a rating between 0 (not at all likely) and 10 (extremely likely) and customers then fall into one of 3 categories based on their response:

• Promoters rate the company with a score of 9 or 10 and are loyal and enthusiastic customers.
• Passives give the company a rating of 7 or 8. They are satisfied with your service but not happy enough to be considered promoters.
• Detractors respond with a score of 0 to 6. These are unhappy customers who are unlikely to buy from you again, and may even discourage others from buying from you.

Why does this matter to you?

Imagine that you’ve asked a friend about their experience at a restaurant. If they told you: “Well, technically they provided us with food, and that food didn’t make us sick, so I’d give it a 5 out of 10” – I’m guessing you wouldn’t visit that restaurant (unless you’re way more adventurous than me). And you certainly wouldn’t call your friend a fan (or promoter) of that restaurant based on that feedback. They didn’t say anything negative, per se, but it’s also clear that they weren’t endorsing the restaurant. 

A company’s NPS score helps simplify that evaluation of people’s true feelings for their products and services. It clearly delineates who is a truly enthusiastic supporter & promoter of a company, who was merely “satisfied”, and those who would not recommend a company. So, what is a good NPS score? 

The following chart from Retently helps illustrate the value of different NPS scores. 

A “great” NPS score is anything over 30. And an “excellent” NPS score is anything 70 or above. 

Cameyo’s NPS Score is 70

In a June 2021 survey of Cameyo customers, our NPS score came out to an “excellent” score of 70. The average score given to Cameyo by each customer respondent was 9.2 out of 10. 

How does this compare to our particular industry average, you may ask?

The average NPS score for B2B Software & SaaS companies is 30. Cameyo’s NPS score of 70 is over double the industry average score. And better yet, Cameyo has zero “detractors.” None of the customers who responded to the NPS survey identified themselves as unhappy. 

Let us show you why

The point of sharing these scores and stats with you is simply to let you know that your peers can attest to their satisfaction with Cameyo and the role we play in helping them to enable simple, secure, and cost-effective remote & hybrid work for all of their people. And if you want a deeper dive of WHY these customers love Cameyo, please check out the dozens of case studies we have published here. Many of the customers in these case studies speak openly about how they either previously evaluated or used products from our larger competitors like Citrix, VMware, and Nutanix and clearly outline why they chose Cameyo instead. Even large Fortune 500 companies like Sanmina enthusiastically promote their use of Cameyo (see the full Sanmina case study here). We’re eternally grateful for the level of support and enthusiasm our customers have for Cameyo. 

If your organization is looking for a way to give everyone simple and ultra-secure access to all of the apps they need to be productive from anywhere, Cameyo can help. We’d love to show you how with a personalized demo, which you can request here. Or if you’d prefer to take Cameyo for a test drive yourself, you can get started with your free trial here (no credit card required). And we’re always happy to put you in touch with some of our passionate customers as references, too. 

The post Why You Should Care About NPS Scores When Evaluating Hybrid Work Solutions appeared first on Cameyo.

However, when looking at properly designing and deploying many well-known enterprise remote work solutions, these can take weeks if not longer to successfully deploy.  Cameyo, on the other hand, enables you to effectively deploy a digital workspace for all of your people in minutes, not days and weeks. 

I know what you’re thinking – is this really possible?  What does the actual deployment process look like and exactly how long does it take to go from setting up the solution to publishing access to your first application? 

Let’s find out.

Setting the Stage

In the following demonstration of just how quickly your organization can provision Cameyo and begin delivering your business applications to your remote users, we are going to run through all the steps required to install the Cameyo software on a server, configure Cameyo, and then install software that will be published to end users.

To begin with, let’s level set for a moment.  Cameyo gives you a variety of options when it comes to deployment. First, you can utilize the Fully-Hosted version of Cameyo, which enables you to choose between having Cameyo fully-hosted in either Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or Microsoft Azure. You can also Self-Host Cameyo in any other cloud you prefer (AWS, Oracle Cloud, IBM Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, etc.). Or you can Self-Host Cameyo on-premises.

Utilizing the Fully-Hosted version of Cameyo on GCP or Azure would save you many of the steps outlined below since you would not be setting up your own server. But for the purpose of this article, we are walking through a self-hosted Cameyo deployment, which means we are providing the server infrastructure for running the installation of Cameyo.

There are really four global components you will need to have in place for the installation of Cameyo and the publishing of your applications:

• Cameyo account – You will need to have a Cameyo account for provisioning your Cameyo servers and applications as well as to interact with your on-premises server for app deployment. You can get started in minutes with a free trial here – https://cameyo.com/free-trial/
• The server infrastructure – Can be a single Cameyo server, or a cluster of Cameyo servers for high-availability and load sharing.  For most, in your virtual environment, a new Windows Server virtual machine can easily be deployed from a template in a matter of minutes.  This is the process that has been used in this demonstration of a self-hosted provisioning of Cameyo.   
• Network considerations – Cameyo greatly simplifies the architecture when compared to traditional remote connectivity or application publishing in traditional RDS environments.  It allows you to define an ingress port that is used to establish connectivity from the Cameyo portal inwards for connectivity to your internal Cameyo server.  You will need to ensure you have this ingress port defined and allowed it in your firewall for external access. 
• Software – You will need to have the software installation available for installing on your Cameyo server.  Once installed, the software is then published for access by remote end users.

In a lab environment, we have the liberty of controlling all aspects of the infrastructure, so there is no coordination required between teams.  The coordination required and involvement from different teams (virtualization, networking, etc.) may vary across organizations, however, the process to provision a Cameyo account, a Windows Server 2019 virtual machine (from template), firewall configuration, and obtaining software in the lab environment took about 1 hour. 

Let’s now time the various steps to go from installing the Cameyo software to publishing our first app.  We will first start the timer on how long it takes to download the Cameyo installation and copy to the server. 

Cameyo download and copying the installation to the server – 5 minutes, 40 seconds

The first step here after logging into the Cameyo portal is choosing to Add a new server under the Servers dashboard.

Beginning the process to add a server

Choose the type of installation you want to perform.  Here we are choosing the self-hosted option.

Choose the installation option

This will take you to the download page for downloading the self-hosted software installation.  One of the great things about the Cameyo installation is its small footprint.  The download package for the self-hosted installation package is 1.56 MB.  So, the installation is not gigabytes, but megabytes.  In today’s world of large and very complex remote solutions, that is very impressive.

Download the Cameyo self-hosted installation

Next, copy the installation to your Cameyo server if you downloaded on an administrative workstation. 

The Cameyo installation is copied over to the Cameyo server.

Total time taken in this stage – 5 minutes, 40 seconds.

Installing Cameyo on the server – 2 minutes, 38 seconds

Now that we have the installation of Cameyo copied over to the server, let’s see how long it takes to install Cameyo on the server.  First, we will click Install to begin the installation of Cameyo on the server.  One of the nice things about the installation is that it handles all the various components that are needed outside of the Cameyo installation.  This includes configuring the Remote Desktop Services configuration.

Beginning the Cameyo installation

Next, verify you want to proceed with the installation.

Verify the installation of Cameyo

After only a short while, the software installation completes and you will be asked to provide a few key pieces of information to finalize the configuration of your new Cameyo server.  This includes the following:

• Login email – your email associated with the Cameyo account
• Password
• Universal host name
• Externally-accessible http port (HTML5)
• Externally-accessible RDP port (optional)
• Internal host name (optional)

The relatively few configuration parameters are literally all you need to configure the Cameyo installation.

Setup and validate the server connection

Once you have tested the connection, click the Activate button to activate the installation.  Once the server has been activated, you will need to reboot the server.

Server is activated and ready to reboot

Total time taken in this stage – 2 minutes, 38 seconds plus reboot time.

Deploying an application in Cameyo – 2 minutes, 3 seconds

Now for the important part – deploying applications.  Presenting applications efficiently and easily to end users is what Cameyo is all about.  Let’s take a look at just how simple it is to deploy an application on the Cameyo server and present this to the end user through a web browser. 

The first thing you want to do is login to the Cameyo portal, choose Servers.  Then choose Action for the server you want to install the app, then Connect as admin.  This will launch a secure session to your Cameyo server as an administrator so you can install applications which will be presented to end users as published apps.

Connect to your Cameyo server as admin

Once you login to the Cameyo server, you will be presented with the Your App into HMTL5 in 3 steps dialog box.  The three steps are:

1. Download or drag & drop the software installer from your computer
2. Install your software and configure it
3. When done, select the executables to publish in the assistant window

Ready to install the application you want to present to an end user

Once you login to the Cameyo server using the admin connection, you can either download and install new software directly from the server, or you can drag and drop a software installer from an admin workstation to the Cameyo admin session browser window.  As a test, we have downloaded a Paint.NET installer from Ninite.  After the download finishes, the installer is launched and the software is installed.

Installing Paint.NET on the Cameyo server

Once the installation of the software is complete, Cameyo will show the app available for publishing.  When you publish an app, you are telling Cameyo that you want this application to be presented to users in the Cameyo portal.  This process is extremely simple and only involves placing a “check” next to the app in the Publish your apps box. 

Selecting to publish an app to Cameyo

After you select an app to publish and click Apply, Cameyo will publish the app.  You should see the “success” dialog box.

The application is successfully published to Cameyo

Now that the application is published, this means we can “play” the application from the Cameyo portal.  The link for the application can also be directly sent to an end user who can launch the application directly from a web browser as soon as the application is published. 

Published application as viewed in Cameyo portal

Below, we have launched the application from the simple hyperlink available from the Cameyo portal.  As you can see, we have full access to the Paint.NET application, right from a web browser. 

Accessing the Paint.NET application from a web browser

Total time taken to install and publish the Paint.NET application to Cameyo – 2 minutes, 38 seconds.  Keep in mind, the amount of time it takes to install the application will depend on the size and complexity of the individual application.  However, the process to provide access to a large, business-critical app for hundreds or thousands of remote employees is the same process as demonstrated here. 

Summary of times:

• 5 minutes 40 seconds – Download Cameyo and copy installer to the server
• 2 minutes 38 seconds – Installing Cameyo server
• 2 minutes 3 seconds – Publishing a small footprint application

Total process time (from downloading Cameyo to publishing an app):  10 minutes 21 seconds

A Note about security

You may think that a solution this simple to use might mean that it’s an easy target for an attacker.  However, Cameyo was built with intrinsic security in mind.  Every aspect of the solution was designed with a major focus on security so you can focus on the secure delivery of your applications to users anywhere, on any device. Cameyo’s founder & CTO, Eyal Dotan, has a deep history in security – he was the creator of one of the industry’s first Host Intrusion Prevention Systems (HIPS) and holds 12 security patents – so designing security into the core of the platform has been a priority since day one. And it shows. 

Even though you define an ingress port for Cameyo server communication, Cameyo uses a proprietary technology called Port Shield that defends servers against cyberattacks by keeping RDP and HTTP ports closed at all times until there is an authenticated session.  Only the source IP of each authenticated session is allowed to access the specified ports on the Cameyo server.  In this way, Cameyo protects you from not only brute force attacks, but also attacks from known or discovered vulnerabilities.

Wrapping Up

Finding remote work solutions that are simple AND secure can be a challenge.  Most enterprise solutions that effectively allow remote employees to be empowered with the tools and applications they need to remain productive can take literally weeks or longer to deploy correctly. 

However, Cameyo is a truly unique solution that encapsulates everything you want in a remote work solution, including features, scalability, simplicity, and security.  As shown, you can literally go from installing Cameyo to publishing your first app in about ten minutes.  You simply will not find another remote work solution that provides the scale of features in a secure platform like Cameyo. 

Want to try it out for yourself? You can with a Free Trial here.

The post Can You Really Deploy Cameyo in Minutes? appeared first on Cameyo.

But to clarify – that doesn’t mean that other approaches to Digital Workspaces are “bad”, or any less valid. If there are people in your organization that truly need a full virtual desktop, then utilizing a VDI product like Citrix or a Desktop as a Service (DaaS) service like VMware makes sense. 

Often, though, it turns out that what your people really need is the ability to simply and securely access all of their business-critical applications. If that’s the case in your organization, then a virtual application delivery approach to Digital Workspaces (like Cameyo) could be the right fit for you. (It’s also worth noting that it doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition – you could use virtual desktops for the small percentage of power users who need them, then utilize Cameyo to provide virtual access to apps for the rest of your users, helping to reduce complexity and cost.) 

As an example, today we posted a new case study highlighting the experience of Baldwinsville Central School District and how they came to deploy Cameyo Digital Workspace for enabling distance learning. 

Baldwinsville has a 1:1 program, so every student has a Chromebook. But there were still a handful of applications that every student needed to utilize for their coursework – from Adobe’s Creative Suite to Microsoft Office and more – that they were not able to access on Chromebooks.

“We had hoped that [our current] DaaS solution would solve that for us, but to be honest, it just never worked the way we needed it to,” said Jim Froio, LAN Support Technician at Baldwinsville Central School District. “For our students, the application performance was poor, which creates a frustrating user experience. And from an IT perspective, the complexity is just through the roof. So it wasn’t a good experience for anyone involved.”

“Ultimately, we realized that a virtual desktop approach simply wasn’t a good fit for us. We knew there had to be a simpler, more cost-effective alternative – so it was time to make a switch,” said Cerio.

Cerio and Froio realized they had an opportunity to right-size their approach to desktop virtualization and instead focus on providing a seamless digital workspace that gave their students access to all of the apps they needed, on any device. Which is when they turned to Cameyo.

“Cameyo’s digital workspace solution enables us to give students access to the full desktop version of all the applications they need, on their Chromebooks, securely through the browser,” said Froio. “And Cameyo’s cloud-native approach dramatically simplified our environment both from a deployment and an ongoing management perspective.”

Right from the beginning, Baldwinsville began recognizing the benefits of Cameyo’s simple, secure, and cost-effective approach to delivering digital workspaces. Key benefits they’ve experienced thus far include:

• Reduced Cost – “In just the first year, and talking about licensing fees alone, Cameyo is saving us $50,000 compared to [our previous DaaS provider],” said Cerio.

• User Experience – “Our students get to use the full desktop version of the software that they’re already used to, without having to learn anything new. It simply opens up in a browser tab instead of being locally installed on the device. And the application performance with Cameyo is nearly the same as if it were installed locally – it’s a fantastic user experience for our students,” said Cerio.

• Reduced Complexity & Management Time – “Cameyo has been a game-changer for me. It was incredibly easy to deploy and get up and running – a matter of days instead of the weeks it took to deploy our previous DaaS solution. And the ongoing management is so simple. With [our previous DaaS solution], there were just so many pieces to manage. You had load balancers, gateways, license servers, and more – and that was all before you could even bring the first virtual machine online. With Cameyo, all of that complexity is gone,” said Froio.
• Security – “I can’t tell you how refreshing it is that Cameyo has multiple layers of security truly baked in at the foundation, as opposed to it being something extra we have to pay for. And the Cameyo Port Shield technology is amazing. It gives me peace of mind to know that all of our RDP ports are constantly protected in the background,” said Cerio.

Baldwinsville notes that saving $50,000 in the first year alone is just the beginning of the ROI they’ll see from Cameyo. 

“Another piece of the ROI equation is how Cameyo enables us to invest solely in Chromebooks moving forward, instead of also needing to purchase PCs so that students could also access the needed Windows apps,” said Cerio. “We added 1,400 Chromebooks this year as a result.”

“There’s also the time savings aspect to consider. Cameyo has reduced the amount of time required for ongoing management by at least 50% already compared to VMware,” said Froio. 

“And the amount of time spent managing infrastructure wasn’t just reduced, it was nearly eliminated,” said Cerio. “I spent at least 80 hours a year managing infrastructure with VMware. With Cameyo that has been reduced to almost nothing.”   

“Cameyo not only saved us a ton of money compared to [our DaaS provider], but it is incredibly easy to manage, and is more secure. This works better than anything we’ve ever had, and Cameyo is now going to play a key role in our long-term plans for moving everything to the cloud,” said Cerio.

In the case of Baldwinsville, they decided to make a full switch from virtual desktops to virtual application delivery. That may or may not be the right approach for your organization, and perhaps some of your people do still need full virtual desktop access. But even in that situation, taking stock of the number of people in your organization who simply need secure access to applications on any device and utilizing a virtual app-focused Digital Workspace like Cameyo will help reduce the cost and complexity of serving those users. 

You can get started with a free trial of Cameyo today and be up and running in minutes with your first published app. And if you’d like to discuss which approach is best for you – virtual desktops, virtual apps, or a hybrid approach – our team is always ready to discuss and help suggest the right mix of solutions for your needs. 

The post Virtual Desktops or Virtual Apps? A Case Study appeared first on Cameyo.

Hands down the most rewarding part of this job is being able to help organizations overcome seemingly insurmountable issues so that they can continue to serve their customers/constituents. And while we’ve seen this type of situation across many industries – from financial services to the energy sector and everything in between – perhaps the greatest sense of urgency we’ve seen has come from education institutions, where schools and districts have had to rapidly shift their focus from having students in class to enabling widespread distance learning.

For many school districts, the initial plan was to start the new school year with students in the classroom. But when COVID-19 cases began to spike again, most needed to shift gears quickly, leaving them in a very difficult position when it comes to ensuring that all of their students have access to all of the educational applications they need to continue learning from home.

To illustrate this need – in just the last 30 days, 34 school districts (serving hundreds of thousands of students) have deployed Cameyo to help enable their distance learning programs. 

The problem these school districts all face is that their students still need access to critical Windows applications – everything from AutoCAD to Adobe Creative Suite to Microsoft Office – even when they’re distance learning. But many students don’t have a Windows PC at home.

Cameyo enables these school districts to give all of their students simple & secure access to all of the software they need to learn, no matter what device they’re using. And Cameyo’s digital workspace platform can be deployed in hours instead of weeks, all while dramatically reducing cost and complexity compared to virtual desktops. 

We asked a few of these new districts to share why they selected Cameyo and how this has helped them deliver a better remote education experience for their students, and here’s what they shared:

Providing a Cost-Effective Alternative to DaaS

“We had been using VMware, but the cost was prohibitive, especially for widespread remote learning. We needed a cost-effective alternative that would enable us to provide all of our students with access to all of the apps they need – including legacy Windows apps – from their Chromebooks. Cameyo not only saved us a ton of money compared to VMware, but it is incredibly easy to manage, and is more secure. This works better than anything we’ve ever had, and Cameyo is now going to play a key role in our long-term plans for moving everything to the cloud,” said John Cerio, Network Administrator at Baldwinsville Central School District. 

Eliminating the Learning Curve for Distance Learning

“COVID-19 has forced school districts to deliver instruction differently. For Staunton City Schools, this meant we needed a realistic plan to deliver Windows applications to students using Chromebooks at home. Cameyo has delivered every step of the way, and our students are now successfully accessing all of their applications from home – simply and securely – with Cameyo! The setup and deployment of Cameyo was quick, and the user experience for students is excellent. Students still get access to the full desktop version of the software they’re used to, just running in a browser, so there’s no learning curve. Also, Cameyo’s support team was great throughout the process – they have continued to follow through for us and didn’t abandon us after the deployment went live,” said Tom Lundquist, Director of Technology at Staunton City Schools.

Extending the Value of 1:1 Programs with Access to All Apps

“As the San Diego Unified School District entered into plans for online learning to begin the 2020-2021 school year, the College, Career and Technical Education department was committed to finding a solution to continue to provide students with access to the industry-standard software they need for their courses. The district moved to a 1:1 device strategy to provide all students with a device for online learning, which included Chromebooks. Cameyo provided the solution we needed to make the critical software available to students on any device through the browser, and Cameyo’s ease of use and cost-effectiveness have been critical to our ability to enable these distance-learning efforts,” said Sarah Vielma, Director of College, Career, and Technical Education at San Diego Unified School District.

Does Your District Need Help?

If you find yourself in a similar situation and your school and/or district is working to provide simple, secure, and cost-effective access to critical applications on any device to enable remote learning, we’re here to help! You can get started in minutes with your free trial here, and our Cameyo for Education team will be in touch quickly to help get you up and running. And as Tom from Staunton mentioned above – our support team is in it with you for the long haul (and beyond), so we’ll have your back every step of the way. 

The post 34 School Districts Adopt Cameyo in 30 Days for Distance Learning appeared first on Cameyo.

It’s more important than ever to ensure that students have access to all of the critical applications they need for their coursework, on any device, no matter where they are. 

Enter Signpost. Signpost is essentially the Netflix for academic software, providing students and schools access to a library of over 900 software titles on a simple annual subscription basis. And when Signpost needed to enable distance learning by ensuring its 350,000 subscribers had access to all of those applications on any device – without the need to download and install software – they turned to Cameyo. 

Which is why we’re excited to announce today that Signpost has partnered with Cameyo to enable the delivery of all of its educational software titles within their own instance of Microsoft Azure.

Signpost is an incredibly strategic partner, and their model is changing the game when it comes to access to expensive academic software. As a result, Signpost has been rapidly expanding throughout Europe, with over 350,000 education subscribers today and an expectation to grow to 1 million subscribers within 2 years. When it needed to make it’s software titles available from anywhere and on any device, Signpost realized it needed an alternative to the cost and complexity of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). 

“With the sudden shift to distance learning, we needed to ensure seamless access to all of our software titles so that our users wouldn’t miss a beat,” said Pieter Barremaecker, Co-Founder & CIO of Signpost. “The amount of servers that would be required to deliver this much software to this many students would be outrageously expensive with a legacy VDI solution.”

The Shift to Cloud-Native Digital Workspaces

“It’s Signpost’s role to help ensure that students can continue to be productive from anywhere, regardless of what device they have in front of them,” said Barremaecker. “But we also need to make it easy for schools to enable this, even in a mixed environment of devices, and to help them do so securely.” 

Signpost’s partnership with Cameyo helps eliminate that complexity while providing a seamless user experience compared to the desktop version of the software titles delivered.

“Cameyo’s built-for-the-cloud approach to Digital Workspaces eliminates not only the upfront cost of servers and other infrastructure required by VDI, but it also removes all of the ongoing complexity and cost associated with VDI,” said Barremaecker. “And the fact that we can leverage the full power of the Cameyo platform from within our own instance of Microsoft Azure gives us the flexibility we need to continue our rapid expansion.”

Streamlining App Delivery for a Better User Experience

One of the key benefits that Signpost provides to customers is the ability to access hundreds of education software titles through a single subscription. With Cameyo, Signpost eliminates the need for students to download or install anything on their device. Students can simply access any application in the Signpost library with the click of a button, from any HTML5 web browser. 

“Simplicity is key, and with Cameyo our subscribers get instant access to the software they need without ever having to worry about downloads, installations, or software versions,” said Barremaecker. “With Cameyo, our subscribers get to access the full desktop version of the software they’re used to, without that software needing to be installed. There’s absolutely nothing new for users to learn.”

The post Enabling Distance Learning for 350,000 Students appeared first on Cameyo.

Yet, today, many “Free Trials” require the potential customer to download and install a demo version of the software, which results in a large percentage of interested parties never actually completing a trial. 

This common issue was exactly what EasyPower was facing with its software demo process. 

EasyPower provides software tools for intelligently designing, analyzing, and monitoring electrical power systems. The EasyPower product suite delivers a full lineup of powerful Windows®-based software tools for electrical system design, and with the fastest processing speeds on the market, it delivers instantaneous, accurate results to help companies make more intelligent decisions. But, like most software providers, EasyPower needed to make it easier for potential customers to experience their suite.

Opportunities Lost to Complexity

“Previously, customers would come to our site, fill out a form, and then someone from our team would have to reach out with a link and a code to give them access to a demo version of our software,” said Stan Spencer, Director of Sales at EasyPower. “But we found that a lot of people had issues installing the software – or simply didn’t have time to, and gave up – so we were missing out on opportunities. Nothing’s worse than having a customer come to your site, show interest, and then to lose them just because the process is too complex.”

Where Citrix and Microsoft Couldn’t Deliver

When providing prospects with access to demo software, it’s not just a matter of how simple it is to access, but also what the user experience will be.

“When we first started looking at solutions for giving people remote access to our demo software, we considered Citrix – but that would have actually increased the amount that our prospects would need to install and made the experience more difficult. That was a deal-breaker,” said Spencer.

The next stop on EasyPower’s search for a solution was Microsoft Azure with an RDP deployment, which EasyPower thought would help simplify the process. 

“Azure and RDP was less clunky than Citrix, but it still required people to download and install before accessing the demo software. Plus, when we’d send a prospect the Azure link, we only had 10 slots for demos at any given time, which was a big limitation. Also, even though Windows has RDP, the user still needed admin rights in order to run the RDP client, which was yet another barrier.”

“As you can see – Azure and RDP simply wasn’t a viable option for us, either,” said Spencer.

Removing the Barriers 

EasyPower needed a solution that would enable them to give everyone instant access to their demo software, on any device. That’s when they discovered Cameyo’s virtual application delivery platform which enables companies to deliver the full desktop version of their software to any device, from the browser, without the software being installed on the end user’s device. 

“With Cameyo, there’s absolutely nothing to install. We went from a process where we would send a prospect a code to download the demo within a day or two, to giving everyone instant access. It really couldn’t be simpler,” said Spencer.

The Results

“We’ve been using Cameyo for two years now, and we now do 100 percent of our trials through Cameyo,” said Spencer.

To see the rest of the results EasyPower was able to achieve with Cameyo – including a 400% increase in trial conversions – check out the full case study here.

The post How EasyPower Increased Software Trials by 400% appeared first on Cameyo.

Take ProSolutions, for example. ProSolutions is a leading provider of all-inclusive spa & salon management software, with over 1,200 establishments relying on their solution each day. When ProSolutions saw a host of new competitors spinning up simplified web-based versions of their software, they knew they needed to adopt web-enable their application to stay competitive. 

“We received a quote that told us it would cost between $3-5 million to redevelop our platform for the web, and it would take 12-18 months,” said Mark Wiggins, COO at ProSolutions. “And in the end, it would likely only have had around 80% feature parity with our existing version. There was no way we were going to pay millions of dollars, only to provide our customers with less functionality than they were used to.”

[Read the full ProSolutions case study HERE]

And this is a remarkably common scenario. As organizations expect the ability to access all of their business-critical apps from the browser, SaaS has become the preferred software delivery model. And for tens of thousands of ISVs who currently only offer a desktop version of their software, they face a seemingly insurmountable challenge – either spend millions of dollars to web-enable their software, or risk losing both existing customers and prospects. 

Luckily, Cameyo provides an easy way to web-enable and SaaSify your applications within hours – not months or years – and with absolutely zero development cost. 

Deliver Your Software as a Service with Virtual Application Delivery

Cameyo’s virtual application delivery platform makes it incredibly simple for any ISV to SaaSify their applications. By publishing your apps via Cameyo, you can immediately provide all of your customers access to the full desktop version of your existing software, on any device, from the browser. The benefits of using virtual application delivery to web-enable your applications include:

• Zero redevelopment costs
• Web-enable your software in minutes/hours, not months/years
• There is nothing new for your users to learn – they get the same exact user experience they have with your desktop software today, but from the browser
• Expanded reach for your Windows software, as customers can now utilize your apps on Chromebook, Mac, mobile devices, etc. 

In addition to eliminating the cost and complexity of redevelopment and providing a superior user experience, Cameyo also enables you to increase the free trials you generate for your apps while lowering sales costs. 

Optimizing the Free Trial Process by Eliminating Downloads and Installs

For most ISVs, their websites are their primary source of leads, with the goal of driving site visitors to sign up for and begin a free trial. But as many ISVs experience, there is a large drop off between the number of people who sign up for a free trial and the people who actually start trialing the product. 

One of the biggest reasons that people who indicate interest in a free trial don’t begin those free trials is because they drop off once they’re asked to download an .exe and install the trial version of the software. Maybe they didn’t have time, or perhaps they downloaded it but experienced an issue during the install. Either way, they didn’t get to experience your solution – which means you missed out on a sale.

Immediate Access with Virtual Application Delivery

Thankfully, there is a better way. With Cameyo you can give your prospects immediate access to the full desktop version of your application, from the browser. Our virtual application delivery platform delivers your Windows-based applications to potential customers without any download or install required, simplifying the process and getting people directly into the free trial.

How much can this really improve the free trial conversion? Take a look at this case study where ClockOn, a leading HR software provider in Australia, automated their entire free trial process with Cameyo to provide immediate access to their software on any device. The result? ClockOn experienced a 166% increase in Free Trial completions, and a massive 700% increase in engagement during those trials. You can read the full case study here. 

But hey, wouldn’t it be better to see this instant free trial experience yourself? Go ahead and start a free trial with Cameyo here, and see for yourself how you can be up and running in minutes.

The post How to SaaSify Your Apps – Moving to the Cloud with Cameyo appeared first on Cameyo.

1. Couldn’t get it to work properly
2. Couldn’t handle the ongoing management complexity
3. Couldn’t afford the afford the high cost in the long run

Take Ur&Penn, a large Swedish retail chain with 126 stores, for example. Ur&Penn was making a transition to Chromebooks, and they needed a solution for delivering all of their legacy Windows applications to those Chromebooks as well. Ur&Penn was already working with Nutanix on something else, so they decided to give Nutanix’s Xi Frameproduct a shot. But they ran into two key issues.

“First, we realized quickly that Xi Frame’s architecture requires one server for each and every user. So right away, this became an incredibly costly solution,” said Emir Saffar, CIO at Ur&Penn. “But more importantly, the Xi Frame product for on-premise simply didn’t work as advertised.”

“I told them – ‘How dare you charge money for such a solution? Nothing is working as expected. You should be ashamed, it still feels like a beta version’,” said Saffar.

Ur&Penn brought in a technician to try and fix the deployment – but the technician couldn’t get it working either. The technician then told Ur&Penn that they had previously worked for Citrix, and recommended that they try Citrix XenApp instead. So they began down the path of deploying Citrix.

“Citrix was even more complex to set up than Xi Frame, so we had to hire an outside engineer to come set everything up, which just added more expense,” said Saffar. “Everything was difficult. Citrix required setting up a Golden Image, there were a ton of issues with roaming profiles, and more.”

It took the outside engineer several weeks to configure and deploy everything, and even once it was deployed, Ur&Penn found that things still weren’t working in a way that provided a satisfactory user experience.

“Our users were always having issues logging in, and the only solution was to repeatedly delete and re-set their profiles multiple times,” said Saffar. “So, even though it was technically deployed, it wasn’t really ‘working’.”

After months of trying to deploy Xi Frame and then Citrix XenApp, Ur&Penn realized they needed to replace Citrix. That’s when they turned to Cameyo.

“Unlike Nutanix Xi Frame and Citrix XenApp, there is no complicated infrastructure to deploy and manage. Not only were we up and running with Cameyo in less than three hours, but we can also deploy new apps almost instantly. We never have to re-image or deal with a Golden Image. Cameyo could not be easier,” said Saffar.

“Right off the bat, Cameyo doesn’t require any complex infrastructure and you don’t need to hire a third-party engineer to set it up – so that’s a huge cost savings rights there. Also, since Cameyo is able to support dozens of users per instance instead of an architecture that requires one server for every user, that provides dramatic savings as well.”

Check out the complete case study here to get the details of why this retail chain replaced Citrix with Cameyo, and see whether or not Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery platform is right for you, too. Or go ahead and start a free trial of Cameyo here.

The post Retail Chain Replaces Citrix with Cameyo appeared first on Cameyo.