A Tale of Two Desktops

Microsoft, eager to provide an integrated workspace on Microsoft Azure to help enable hybrid and remote work, has perplexed its users by offering two distinct products named Azure Virtual Desktop.

1. Azure Virtual Desktop Classic (AVD Classic): Operating outside the Azure Cloud and detached from the Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), this version with a separate management GUI isn’t aligned with typical Azure virtual machines (VMs). It is not part of the Azure Portal and isn’t addressable with the Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Microsoft’s main deployment and management service for its cloud.
2. Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD): Fully integrated with Microsoft Azure, this version can run Windows Server-based operating systems and is more adapted to multi-session workloads. This used to be called Windows Virtual Desktops (WVD), for those keeping track.

Then, there’s also Windows 365 Cloud PCs, another virtual desktop infrastructure/remote desktop offering from Microsoft that aimed to provide virtual access to desktop apps. While this solution majorly operates on AVD, its endpoint-focused experience contrasts with AVD’s more rigid, enterprise-centric design.

Decoding the Decision

Why retire AVD Classic? This move aligns with Microsoft’s attempts to create a more unified operating system experience. It represents what Microsoft sees as a step forward in terms of streamlined workloads and improved scalability for remote desktop services (RDS).

But Wait, Aren’t Virtual Desktops Dying?

Understanding Virtual Desktops (VDI)

Over three decades ago, VDI transformed the landscape of organizational desktop computing. At its core, VDI virtualizes the entire Windows-based desktop environment, encapsulating the operating system, applications, and user configurations. The remote access capabilities mean that users could now retrieve their familiar desktop environment from anywhere.

However, VDI introduced several challenges:

1. Resource Intensiveness: Hosting and maintaining virtual machines for every user, typically within on-premises data centers, demands vast computational resources, escalating both capital and operational costs.
2. Complexity: The setup, management, and regular maintenance of VDI demand specialized skills, with IT teams shouldering responsibilities for every virtual desktop.
3. Scalability Limitations: Adapting VDI infrastructure to changing demands or unanticipated spikes in remote usage can be both cumbersome and expensive.

The Move to Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

In light of VDI’s limitations, DaaS emerged as the next logical evolution. Marrying Windows virtual desktop solutions with cloud capabilities, DaaS seemed to promise enhanced flexibility and scalability.

Benefits of DaaS:

• Scalability: DaaS supports rapid scaling to meet changing workforce demands without heavy infrastructure investment.
• Cost Savings: By shifting infrastructure responsibility to third-party providers, DaaS models enable a reduction in capital expenditures.
• Accessibility: With an internet connection, DaaS ensures users can access their desktops from virtually anywhere.

However, DaaS isn’t without its legacy challenges:

1. Resource Utilization: Just like VDI, DaaS necessitates full virtual desktop instances for every user, leading to similar resource inefficiencies.
2. Operating System Dependency: DaaS often ties users to specific operating systems, undermining application accessibility across different platforms.

Rethinking the Virtual Desktop: The Rise of Virtual App Delivery (VAD)

Amidst the cloud migration trend and growing demand for more efficient, user-centric solutions that provide a better desktop experience, the traditional virtual desktop paradigm itself is undergoing a seismic shift. The focus is now on providing all employees with access to business applications without the constraints of the underlying operating system. Enter Virtual App Delivery (VAD) technologies like Cameyo.

VAD advantages:

1. Application-Centric Approach: Instead of entire desktops, VAD solutions, like Cameyo, emphasize individual application delivery, optimizing resource usage.
2. Platform Agnosticism: VAD ensures application accessibility across multiple platforms, freeing organizations from OS dependencies.
3. Simplicity and Efficiency: Compared to VDI or DaaS, VAD offers quicker setup and deployment. Cameyo’s VAD can be hosted anywhere – be it cloud, hybrid, or on-premises settings.
4. Cost-Effectiveness: VAD’s app-focused virtualization offers a more cost-efficient alternative to full virtual desktops, all while providing a high-performance solution with optimization for a better end-user experience.

Reasons for the surge in VAD adoption include agility, cost savings, enhanced user experience, and simplified management.

How Companies are Ditching the Desktop

Hundreds of enterprises have made the switch from virtual desktops to Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery solution, and more are making the same strategic decision everyday. Here are a few use cases as examples:

Village Hotels

“Our strategy as a business was to reduce cost and complexity while increasing our flexibility and productivity. We couldn’t justify making a sizable six-figure investment in refreshing the underlying infrastructure needed to run Citrix, which would have dramatically increased the complexity of our environment rather than streamlining it,” said Dan Morley, Head of IT Infrastructure and Service at Village Hotels.

“We chose Cameyo over Citrix and Azure Virtual Desktop for one key reason – Citrix and AVD were far too complex, pure and simple. And it’s not just the initial complexity of deployment, it’s also the ongoing management. We needed something that could be deployed quickly, and something that wouldn’t require tons of resources to manage moving forward. That was Cameyo,” said Morley. 

“It was a breath of fresh air to see how easy it was to deploy apps to ChromeOS via Cameyo, and to see how simple it is to manage long-term,” said Morley.

Community Hospital Corp. (CHC)

“After years of frustration and realizing that none of the traditional virtual desktop providers would work for us, we gave up on the idea. Until one day, we started talking to the Google Cloud team, and they introduced us to Cameyo,” said Brian Stopinski, Corporate IT Operations Director, CHC.

“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,” said Stopinksi. “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.”

“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. 

“It wasn’t until I saw Cameyo in action that it fully clicked that I did not need to present the entire Windows desktop. I realized that the desktop brings a lot of inherent baggage with it. There’s unnecessary stuff the user doesn’t need which actually complicates their workflow. There’s all this white noise on the Windows desktop that doesn’t make them more productive.” 

“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.” 

“In fact, the real value add is the elimination of the Windows desktop, because I don’t have to deal with all the complexity and all of the security concerns that Windows desktops bring. I can also deliver a lower cost solution because I don’t have to license Windows OS, I don’t have to license a Windows Terminal Server, I don’t have to support all of that infrastructure just to deliver the Windows desktop,” said Stopinski. 

In Conclusion

Navigating the myriad of virtual desktop solutions from Azure Virtual Desktop’s shifting landscape to emerging technologies and advancements like Cameyo’s VAD can be tricky. But it doesn’t have to be! Here at Cameyo, we’re here to help you every step of the way – or, if you want to test it out before talking to anyone first, we’ve got you covered there, too.

To see for yourself how Cameyo can help your organization access all of your apps – including Windows, Linux, SaaS, and internal webs apps – on any device while eliminating virtual desktops, you can start a free trial to test it yourself or schedule a demo and we’ll give you a personal walkthrough and show you case studies that are relevant to your business. 

The post Confused by Azure Virtual Desktop Changes? Here’s Your Guide appeared first on Cameyo.

We know – it’s a tall order. We’ve been there ourselves. Luckily within the past few years, several cloud-native technologies have converged to enable this perfect storm of cost reduction, productivity, and security. 

Specifically, we’re talking about the combination of enterprise ChromeOS devices, Virtual App Delivery (VAD), and zero trust security.

Before we dig into the details, let’s kick things off with a Fortune 500 example of the impact of the convergence of these technologies by taking a look at Sanmina, the integrated manufacturing services leader.

“A key piece of our decision to move to Chrome Enterprise was its incredible performance, security, and the way that it helps simplify workflows. We were not willing to adopt any solution that added complexity, hindered our employees’ productivity, or sacrificed security in any way,” said Mario Zúñiga, IT Director, Digital Workplace at Sanmina. “We decided that Virtual Application Delivery would provide the best experience for our employees, especially as we migrated to Chrome devices.”

In the case of Sanmina, they were able to accomplish cost savings, increased user productivity, and increased security based on:

• Cost Savings Associated with ChromeOS Devices – Analyst firm ESG did an Economic Value Validation study on the cost reductions enterprises have seen by moving to Chromebooks, and they determined that organizations can spend 43 percent less on hardware and still get performance equivalent to higher-priced PCs.
• Cost Savings Associated with VAD – According to Sanmina: “Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery platform provides us with cost savings in a variety of ways. First, there are the cost savings of being able to Chrome to begin with – which reduces our total device cost by 40% or more – which we could not have done without Cameyo. There’s also the cost savings that comes from the amount of time and effort Cameyo helps us save when it comes to setting up each end user. Previously, with PC laptops, we’d have to purchase a new device, get that device set up, install all the applications and drivers, etc. Now we can just provide users with a Chromebook and they are up and running in minutes,” said Zúñiga. “But there’s also a significant cost savings associated with how much Cameyo reduces our support costs.” 
• Better User Experience – “With Cameyo, we can move our employees over to Chrome devices without disrupting their workflows. Cameyo’s platform enables us to give our employees access to the full desktop version of their legacy Windows applications on any Chrome device, but instead of the app needing to be physically installed and managed on each device, Cameyo provides access to those apps through the browser. For our employees, the experience is seamless. We’ve surveyed users to collect feedback on their experience using their apps through Cameyo, and the results were phenomenal,” said Zúñiga. 
• Enhanced Security – “One of the biggest draws of migrating to Chrome Enterprise was its security, so we had to find a Virtual App Delivery platform that would preserve our security posture. The fact that Cameyo has a zero-trust security model baked in at its core just adds additional layers of security so that we can confidently enable our employees to work from anywhere, on any device, with the utmost security,” said Zúñiga. 

(NOTE: You can read the full case study of Sanmina’s deployment of ChromeOS + Cameyo here.)

Now that we’ve seen one example in action, let’s break down the various ways that ChromeOS and Cameyo help large enterprises all over the world reduce costs while enhancing the user experience and increasing security. 

1) The Cost (and Longevity) of Devices

In ESG’s economic value validation report entitled “Quantifying the Value of Google Chromebooks with Chrome Enterprise Upgrade”, the analyst firm highlighted not just the 43% reduction in hardware costs that we cited above, but also the increased longevity of Chromebooks as well. ESG’s research confirmed that Chromebooks have a 24% longer life than other enterprise computing devices.  Not only does this mean that your investment in Chromebooks lasts longer, but it also eliminates the need to extend warranties and maintenance contracts on other aging computers.

2) Reduction in Software Licensing Costs

According to ESG, Chromebooks typically save enterprises 45 percent when it comes to software licensing. Many of these savings are due to the savings tied to security software. ChromeOS has layers of security built in natively, enabling organizations to eliminate the compounding costs associated with licensing of antivirus and encryption software that’s needed to protect Windows PCs and Macs.  

ESG reports that ChromeOS’ built-in security features “eliminate the need to purchase, update, and support costly and resource-intensive security, collaboration, and mobility software, and greatly reduce the complexity of installing and removing applications.” 

3) Reduced Power Consumption of Chromebooks

Did you know that Chromebooks are significantly more efficient in terms of power usage than traditional PCs? According to ESG: “Traditional devices add operational costs in many ways, starting with larger batteries to run the hefty configured resources. They take longer to charge and consume more power than Chromebooks.”

ESH confirmed that Chromebooks can consume 53 percent less power than the average PC. This was tested while running many applications simultaneously, supporting high CPU and memory needs, delivering advanced video capability and supporting touchscreen use. The reduced power consumption of Chromebooks equates to longer battery life and more rapid charging, too – which helps increase mobility for your end users while minimizing downtime. 

4) Eliminating the Cost of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Unlike VDI products that increase the amount of infrastructure you need to manage – and therefore the cost and complexity – Cameyo’s cloud-native Virtual App Delivery (VAD) platform helps customers reduce infrastructure and costs by up to 80% compared to traditional VDI. For example, here’s what some Cameyo customers report regarding the cost savings they achieved:

• “Just looking at month-to-month cost compared to our previous remote desktop solution, with Cameyo we are paying only 15% of what we used to pay. But then on top of that 85% savings, we also no longer need windows clients, so we save even more money there. In addition, we have far fewer support issues, so we save even more,” said Adam Nerell, Head of IT for Klarahill. [Full case study here]
• “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,” said Emir Saffar, CIO at Ur&Penn. [See the full case study and video here]
• “Cameyo brings dramatic cost savings compared to virtual desktop products based on the amount of time it saved us in deployment, time saved in ongoing management, and the fact that everything is included – we don’t need to tack on additional third-party tools,” said Christian Ahlin, Group Head of IT at Nordward. [Full case study here]

5) Cloud Desktop Optimization Reduces the Cost of Virtualization

Whereas Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solutions typically require one virtual machine (VM) for each user, and often require 24/7 servers – Cameyo’s platform optimizes Cloud Desktops to dramatically reduce cost.  Cameyo’s cloud-native solution has advanced elasticity and usage optimization technologies built in which reduce cost by dynamically spinning up and down servers based on demand, ensuring that organizations aren’t paying for 24/7 servers when they aren’t being used. Also, Cameyo can support dozens of users per server for typical CPU-based productivity apps, and up to 10 users per server for GPU-based workloads. 

How Much Can Your Organization Save with ChromeOS and Cameyo?

In this economic environment, cost reduction is more important than ever. But that cost reduction cannot come at the expense of your people’s productivity or your organization’s security. The combination of ChromeOS and Cameyo is not only proven to reduce costs for enterprises – it does so while enhancing the user experience and increasing your organization’s security posture with zero trust security. 

To learn how much your organization can save with ChromeOS and Cameyo, schedule a meeting with one of our experts and we’ll show you the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) based on your company’s size and requirements.  

Book your meeting here. 

The post Reducing Cost with ChromeOS and Cameyo appeared first on Cameyo.

As you may have seen, a zero-day exploit affecting the popular Apache Log4j utility (CVE-2021-44228) was made public on December 9, 2021 that results in remote code execution (RCE). The Apache Log4j utility is a commonly used component for logging requests. On December 9, 2021, a vulnerability was reported that could allow a system running Apache Log4j version 2.14.1 or below to be compromised and allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code.

On December 10, 2021, NIST published a critical Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure alert, CVE-2021-44228. More specifically, Java Naming Directory Interface (JNDI) features used in configuration, log messages, and parameters do not protect against attacker controlled LDAP and other JNDI related endpoints. An attacker who can control log messages or log message parameters can execute arbitrary code loaded from remote servers when message lookup substitution is enabled.

Here at Cameyo, security is the core of our business and our platform. We have already mitigated this Log4j risk in our environment and are actively blocking any malicious exploit attempts. These protections are already in place within Cameyo – and there is no action required by our customers.

More importantly, because of Cameyo’s zero trust architecture and our industry-first innovations like Port Shield, Cloud Tunneling, and NoVPN, our customers were proactively protected against these Log4Shell attacks all along. Our Cameyo Port Shield technology is the first built-in security technology of its kind that automatically closes RDP and HTTP ports to the entire world, and then dynamically opens and closes them specifically to authenticated users, based on white-listed IP addresses, only when needed. 

Cameyo has and continues to be at the forefront of proactively protecting against vulnerabilities and attacks aimed at remote & hybrid work. Cameyo is the only cloud-native Virtual Application Delivery (VAD) platform that was built from the ground up with a zero trust security platform at its core. Yes, Cameyo helps enable and simplify remote & hybrid work. But more importantly, and before all else, Cameyo secures remote & hybrid work. 

Here are the core tenets of Cameyo’s zero trust security model:

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What is the ESSER Fund?

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER Fund) was established as part of the Education Stabilization Fund in the CARES Act, with the goal of helping address the impact that COVID-19 has had on elementary and secondary schools across the Nation. Under the ESSER Fund, state educational agencies (SEAs) will award subgrants to local educational agencies (LEAs) to help fund the programs needed to ensure students can still learn effectively regardless of whether they are learning at home or in the classroom. This blog post discusses the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund as it will be implemented by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE). 

The ESSER Fund will be a great asset for states that receive a COVID-19 waiver, supporting states in developing a plan to prevent the erosion of the academic achievement of students and providing guidance in developing strategies and tools to prevent and respond to the possible closing and consolidation of schools and districts during a period of crisis.

Background on the ESSER Fund

What is the timeline for the utilization of ESSER funds?

There is a very specific timeline of when the funding from the CARES Act, CRSSA, and ARP must be utilized.

According to the Department of Education, ESSER, ESSER II, and ESSER III funding, “May be used for pre-award costs dating back to March 13, 2020, when the national emergency was declared.” Funding from ESSER is available to be distributed from May 11, 2020, to September 30, 2021. The timeframe for ESSER II is March 15, 2021, through September 30, 2022. For ESSER III, the period is May 24, 2021, through September 30, 2023.

How can ESSER funds be utilized?

Each of the funding bills clearly stipulate how school emergency relief funds are to be spent. The CARES Act notes that allowable uses are “preventing, preparing for and responding to COVID-19.” In addition, ESSER funds (including ESSER II and ESSER III funds) can be utilized for: “hiring new staff and avoiding layoffs and developing strategies and implementing public health protocols including, to the greatest extent practicable, policies in line with CDC guidance for the reopening and operation of school facilities to effectively maintain the health and safety of students, educators and other staff.”

When CRSSA was signed into law, more guidance was offered on how ESSER II was to be spent. These uses include addressing learning loss, preparing schools for reopening, and testing, repairing, and upgrading projects to improve air quality in school buildings.

With ESSER III, the government added “…not less than 20% of its total ARP ESSER allocation to address learning loss through the implementation of evidence-based interventions, such as summer learning or summer enrichment, extended day, comprehensive after-school programs, or extended school year programs and ensure that such interventions respond to students’ academic, social, and emotional needs and address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underrepresented student groups.” Note that the other 80% is available to be used for the same uses in ESSER and ESSER II.

Unique to ESSER III, the U.S. Department of Education set aside $800 million to identify and support homeless children and youth. The school emergency relief funds are to provide these children “comprehensive, wrap-around services that address needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and allow them to attend school and participate fully in all school activities.”

What are the funding distribution restrictions for this program?

Funds are provided to State educational agencies and school districts to help safely reopen and sustain the safe operation of schools and address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Nation’s students. ARP ESSER Fund awards to SEAs are in the same proportion as each State received funds under Part A of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended, in fiscal year 2020.

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The result is that people have a bit more flexibility to enjoy time with their families and friends while still being more productive, just by nature of having the freedom to shift their schedules as needed to optimize their time. 

Flexibility is a word we’ve been hearing and seeing a lot recently, and you’ll see the trend continue through this week’s news. So with that, let’s take a look at this week’s top five stories about remote & hybrid work:

1) Forcing employees to return to the office? Prepare to face the consequences (Fortune)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I love an article that starts with a good, no-BS opener. 

“Employees do not have to be together in an office five days a week to do their jobs well.”

Such a simple statement, but one that apparently still needs to be repeated as many companies are pursuing the path of eliminating remote work and forcing people back into the office. 

As this Fortune article highlights, though, the organizations considering this approach should be very wary of how it will be received. 

“We’ve all read or heard about the “Great Resignation,” where employees are quitting their jobs at an unprecedented rate for more favorable work situations, or simply taking some time off. According to a recent report by Monster.com, as many as 95% of employees are considering changing jobs.”

“Of those looking for new jobs, half of people currently working remotely say if their current company does not offer remote work options long term, they’ll look for a job at a company that does.”

So what insights does the article share in terms of keeping people happy and productive? 

•  Employees will be more fulfilled when faced with fewer trade-offs
• A hybrid workplace will help retain and recruit top talent
• Maintain culture outside of the office

The article has a lot of good stats, and it gives some good food for thought for any execs thinking about “canceling” remote and hybrid work policies. Check out the full article here. 

2) Flexible Work Is Not a New Concept, It’s Just Evolving (Entrepreneur) 

There’s that magic word again – flexible. 

“Now, with the possibility of a return to the office on the horizon, but with nearly two-thirds of US workers wanting to remain working from home (according to Gallup), organizations need to develop long-term hybrid work strategies that meet the needs of both employees and businesses. 

In determining these approaches, leaders should keep one concept at or near the top of the priority list: flexibility.”

And here’s the thing I appreciated the most about this article: It actually addresses the fact that the concept and practice of remote work are NOT new, and has been around for a long time pre-pandemic. 

“Remote work is no longer an added benefit, but a requirement for a happy and productive workforce, and we actually have ample precedents to draw upon; a number of industries have, over decades, enjoyed the benefits of flexible work.”

This article provides a really good, concise history lesson on flexible work, and how this isn’t just something to be done out of necessity – it should be adopted simply because it works better and has great benefits to the organization and its people as a whole. 

Read the full article here. 

3) Google Calendar adds RSVP options for attending events virtually (The Verge)

It’s one thing to track the various policies that companies are adopting around remote & hybrid work. But another great indicator of whether or not a trend is here to stay is to take a look at whether or not companies are actively developing and rolling out new technologies to enable those new trends. 

To that end, Google is the latest to announce some new functionality that is specifically targeted at better enabling the hybrid workspace:

“ To accommodate hybrid workplaces, Google plans to expand RSVP options over the next few weeks to let users say whether they’ll attend an event virtually in Google Calendar invites.

Virtual attendees will specify their status through a new drop-down menu that is viewable by the host and other guests in the event details. The company hopes that listing how people plan to attend an event will help organizers know what to expect, and presumably accommodate attendees who won’t physically be in the room.”

To learn more about the new functionality coming to your Google Calendar soon, check out the full article from The Verge here.

4) Slack rolls out new features aimed at a digital-first way of working (TechRepublic) 

Sticking with the theme of new product capabilities and how they indicate just how big the shift to hybrid work is, check out this news from Slack:

“Slack unveiled a series of features Wednesday designed for a digital-first way of working. 

Slack Huddles—described as a “lightweight,” audio-first way of communicating. Huddles is designed to let users create and share video, voice and screen recordings more easily. Users can record and upload short videos or voice clips with screen sharing that others can watch and respond to either synchronously or asynchronously.

Slack Atlas—an enterprise directory to connect to colleagues. Slack Atlas enhances profiles with dynamic information that includes a company’s organizational structure, employee start dates and custom fields. It integrates with systems including Workday, so profile data automatically populates and is always up to date. 

Scheduled Send—the ability to schedule when a user wants to send messages. Instead of having daily meetings, Scheduled Send is designed to let someone record their ideas and contribute to the conversation. When a recording is shared in Slack, anyone can watch on their own time.”

All of these new features are not only aimed at enabling hybrid work, but they’re also primarily aimed at enabling efficient asynchronous work, which is very interesting. GitLab has been preaching the benefits of “async” for years.

To learn more about the new features, check out the full article here. 

5) Videoconferencing Challenge Looming (Bob O’Donnell, TECHnalysis Research)

If you don’t already follow analyst Bob O’Donnell on LinkedIn, do yourself a favor and do so now. You can easily do this by going to the full LinkedIn article here, then clicking “Subscribe” in the upper right. 

In this article, Bob brings his typical in-depth analysis to the topic of videoconferencing. Do yourself a favor and read the whole article, but this passage in particular stuck out to me:

“While some might argue that the concerns I’ve raised may not be as big an issue as I’ve made them out to be, remember that video-based meetings are an essential part of the whole hybrid work model. If companies can’t successfully support large numbers of these meetings, the entire hybrid work model falls apart. We survived through the pandemic because, as frustrating as they might occasionally have been, video-based calls worked and allowed us to collaborate remotely. If the infrastructure to enable these calls isn’t widely and robustly available in the office, then the hybrid work model will fail—miserably so—and organizations will have little choice but to make hard decisions about their work environments and work policies.”

Now, beyond Bob’s excellent analysis, I was also captivated by some of the comments on his article (another benefit of this being posted on LinkedIn – an actively commenting user base). For example, this comment from Geroge Anders:

“ I’ve worked in a split-geo world for the past four years. That’s meant many hybrid meetings even in the Before Times. Typically, meeting-runners in NY or Mountain View CA would invite a few extra participants from San Francisco, London or other locations.

The good news is that even with existing technology, it all pretty much works. We don’t quite get the easy back and forth of having everyone in the same room. But meeting-runners are pretty good at inviting feedback and fresh ideas from the remote-location people periodically. And there’s an art to claiming the speaker’s chair from a remote location — in an instant — when you need it.

Still, what’s sufficient for a project-update meeting isn’t going to be good enough for a full-strength ideation meeting — or for genuine team-bonding. And getting meeting etiquette right will be a constant work in progress.”

Check out the full LinkedIn article (and the comments) here.

The post This Week in Hybrid & Remote Work – July 9th Edition 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.

With Cameyo Analytics we’re providing an end-to-end view of your Virtual Application Delivery environment, and the platform’s new AI helps optimize your cloud and on-premises environments. This helps you ensure your end-users always have the best, most productive experience with virtual apps while also reducing cost and complexity by optimizing infrastructure utilization in the background. 

The Dollars and Cents

So when we talk about “reducing cost”, what do we mean? During our beta testing of Cameyo Analytics we determined that organizations are typically overpowering their infrastructure for virtual applications by 3x. Optimizing their environments with Cameyo Analytics can save them a minimum of 50% on server and usage costs. Yes, you read that correctly – a 50% reduction in costs. Especially when we look at large global-scale deployments, these cost savings are incredibly significant. 

But Hey, Don’t Take Our Word For It…

Here’s what Sanmina, one of our Fortune 500 customers, had to say:

“Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery platform already plays a critical role in enabling our Digital Workplace strategy by removing the legacy application roadblocks that were preventing widespread Chrome adoption here at Sanmina,” said Mario Zúñiga, IT Director, Digital Workplace at Sanmina. “When we began working with Cameyo we provided feedback regarding the type of analytics and reporting that would be useful to us, and Cameyo not only listened to our suggestions – they incorporated them. Now with Cameyo Analytics, we get a whole new level of real-time monitoring, alerts, and actionable intelligence that will enable us to continually optimize our Digital Workspace.”

And for the analyst perspective on our new technology:

“As organizations accelerate investments to enable productive remote & hybrid work at scale, they also require solutions that provide visibility into cost efficiencies and predictable user experience,” said Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). “Cameyo’s AI-driven monitoring and analytics identifies issues and proactively acts upon that data to constantly optimize cost within an organization’s Virtual Application Delivery environment. Especially as more organizations shift from Virtual Desktops to Virtual App Delivery, Cameyo’s AI is helping them boost confidence during the transition by automating away the complexity traditionally associated with VDI and DaaS.” 

So, What New Features Does This Enable  

Actionable Intelligence

Cameyo Analytics’ AI provides more than just real-time insight – it provides actionable intelligence that can be easily implemented. Cameyo Analytics provides information including CPU, GPU, and RAM usage, session requests & concurrency, and more. This enables customers to easily optimize their infrastructure, creating greater efficiency and reducing costs. Benefits include:

• Real-time alerts identify issues as well as opportunities for optimization. 
• Automated actions enable the quick implementation of necessary changes, regardless of your environment (cloud, multi-cloud, on-premises or hybrid).
• Identification of trends and suggested actions to customize your Virtual Application Delivery strategy accordingly. 

Proactive Issue Remediation

Cameyo Analytics gives you the real-time data needed to proactively identify, troubleshoot, and remediate problems before they become issues that impact your employees’ experience and productivity. This AI-enabled issue remediation is done automatically in the background for Cameyo fully-hosted customers, and Cameyo self-hosted customers receive alerts and suggested actions they can easily implement in their own environments. Benefits include: 

• Real-time monitoring and AI provides the industry’s deepest insights into your Virtual Application Delivery environment.
• Cameyo’s AI constantly compares those insights against historical data to detect potential issues before they arise.
• Alerts and automated actions ensure you have immediate insight and the ability to quickly fix issues before they have a chance to impact the user experience.

How Much Does This Fancy New AI Cost? 

That’s the best part – as of today, Cameyo Analytics is automatically enabled for all customers at no additional cost. Self-hosted customers can simply login to their Cameyo dashboard and navigate to Admin, then Analytics to access all features of Cameyo Analytics. Want to learn more? Check out the video below, or check out the full announcement here. 

The post The First AI to Optimize Virtual App Delivery Cost & Experience appeared first on Cameyo.

There’s good reason to get excited about this major evolution in the workforce. In a hybrid environment, employees can divide their working hours between home (or anywhere, really) and the office, which removes the “one-size-fits-all” approach to how they’re expected to achieve organization, efficiency and focus. As a result, hybrid work holds the promise of more flexibility, increased collaboration, higher morale and—contrary to conventional wisdom—greater productivity.

At the same time, it’s also important not to sugarcoat things. The very flexibility that lends the hybrid workplace its many advantages also creates gaps in IT security. One Wall Street Journal article went so far as to call it a “hacker’s dream” and “cybersecurity nightmare.” Based on the social media response to those descriptions, it seems like many IT professionals would agree. They’ve been battling a massive rise in the number of cyberattacks that aim to exploit this new distributed workforce.

The hybrid workplace magnifies age-old problems

So, how exactly is the hybrid workplace inherently more risky than the traditional model?

• Open windows: Your average user has always been pretty lax about keeping their device up to date with the latest security patches. But if the dynamic nature of hybrid work leaves IT unable to monitor BYOD devices closely or push out updates to company-issued devices quickly, it could open the window just wide enough for a hacker to take advantage of a fresh exploit.
• Personal problems: There’s nothing new about employees using work-related devices for personal use—checking social media, for example, or making an online retail purchase. The hybrid environment can blur that distinction even further, which exposes work devices to even more threats, such as public Wi-Fi networks or connections to un-vetted smart home devices.
• Gone phishing: Malicious e-mails aren’t uncommon in the corporate world. If a user is also receiving their personal e-mail—along with the inevitable phishing attempts—on their work device, it likewise increases the vulnerability of the corporate network. Scammers are all too aware of this, which is why phishing incidents rose by 110% between 2019 and 2020.

Hardening cybersecurity through Zero Trust

Zero Trust has emerged as a best practice for mitigating the risks not just of the hybrid workplace but the entire Digital Era. In a nutshell, Zero Trust assumes that every device or user on the network could be compromised. Protecting the network and safeguarding sensitive data therefore means that restrictiveness, as opposed to permissiveness, is the default. Even after several strong identity checks, users can access only the files and services they need to stay productive.

This technical document by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has more detail on Zero Trust as an architecture and a security paradigm. And this blog post looks at the concept of Zero Trust and how it relates specifically to remote work. 

One of the fastest paths to a Zero Trust architecture, even in challenging hybrid environments, is through adopting solutions that already support it. Cameyo is one such solution.

How Cameyo brings Zero Trust to Virtual App Delivery (VAD)

Cameyo was developed with a Zero Trust security model as its foundation. This means it doesn’t require any extra steps or add-ons to make Cameyo a seamless fit with stringent Zero Trust policies.

That might seem like it’s at odds with Cameyo’s ease of use, given that remote employees can still access their business-critical apps anywhere, anytime, on any device, and with a single click. Doesn’t tighter security mean more cumbersome hoops for the user to jump through?

A big part of this capability is that Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery (VAD) platform separates the user’s device from the corporate network entirely. Even if the user’s device is unpatched or outdated, Cameyo keeps it sequestered through a secure technology called NoVPN. Apps run in an SSL-encrypted browser window, so they never actually come into contact with anything outside of that secure browser session. That completely eliminates the chance that an employee’s personal device can infect or harm the corporate network or its data. 

There are several additional technologies that Cameyo implements to support Zero Trust architectures. Its Port Shield functionality dynamically opens and closes common RDP and HTTPS ports in response to authenticated remote activity, which minimizes opportunities for brute force attacks or zero-day exploits. Meanwhile, layered revert and session sync work to preserve essential user and application settings while discarding data that could harbor malicious software.

With this powerful combo of features, Cameyo enables your organization to accelerate its implementation of Zero Trust while also smoothing the transition to hybrid work. With Cameyo’s Virtual Application Delivery, remote and in-house employees enjoy straightforward access to the applications they need without those applications being installed on their devices. Along with reducing the time spent managing app updates, this helps to offset the security risks of BYOD devices, outdated systems or under-vigilant users.

For more info, Cameyo’s full suite of built-in Zero Trust practices and technologies is detailed in this blog post. You can also test Cameyo firsthand in your own organization, totally free of charge. Simply sign up for your free trial today and experience the security and simplicity of virtual application delivery for yourself.

The post The Hybrid Workplace Has (Security) Issues appeared first on Cameyo.

If this is your first time joining us and are looking for more technology-focused coverage, you can check out previous weeks’ posts here. 

For those looking for some additional perspective, here are the top stories we came across this week:

1) A blueprint for designing hybrid work strategies (Fortune)

This guest post in Fortune was written by a professor of work and organizational studies at MIT Sloan School of Management and presidential chair of sociology at the University of Minnesota. In what be one of the most amazing examples of good timing, the authors finished a 5-year-long study on how companies could help employees create better work-life balance and issued their initial report in April 2020, right after the pandemic began. 

In this article, they’ve dug into the data from that 5-year research project to outline the key findings that apply to management teams that are currently struggling to find the balance between remote work and hybrid work for their teams. 

The post-COVID decisions about what to do next represent a challenge, but also an opportunity. The pandemic has disrupted old patterns, opening up possibilities for not only remote work or more flexible schedules, but for reassessing previously taken-for-granted ways of working.

We expect most employees and managers will prefer some blend of remote and in-office work going forward, as they did in our study. The exact mix may depend on the work being done and the personal lives of the workforce, but working at home exclusively only works well for some employees and roles. However, our research shows that having some say in when, where, and how they work is highly valued by many employees, and can be good for a company’s bottom line.

The takeaway from our research is clear: Don’t let this opportunity to redesign work for the better pass your organization by.

2) 3 ways to encourage informal communication in a hybrid workplace (Fast Company)

One thing that we’ve seen more people talk about as an argument for getting people back into the office is the need to recreate the “magic” of informal communications that can happen in an office environment. From the article:

The reopening announcements are good news in the sense that one of the themes to emerge during the COVID-19 pandemic was the importance of informal communication and the difficulty of maintaining it with a remote workforce. Remote work removes many of the day-to-day opportunities present in physical workplaces that allow informal communication to unfold so naturally, that it’s virtually invisible.

Here at Cameyo, we are and always have been a globally distributed and fully remote team, and as such, we’ve always been focused on finding ways to enable and encourage people to interact and joke around with their colleagues virtually. And many organizations – even prior to the pandemic – have long had great success with distributed and remote teams. Frankly, it seems like this argument that informal communication can only happen in an office only comes from the management teams who are hell-bent on getting people back into a physical space. 

With that said, it is extremely important to be purposeful and deliberate about enabling this type of communications in remote and hybrid environments, and this article does a great job of providing some concrete steps you can take, including:

RECOGNIZE INFORMATION “HAVES” AND “HAVE NOTS”

HOW TO PLAN FOR UNPLANNED CONVERSATIONS

CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR MAGIC TO HAPPEN IN PERSON AND ON VIDEO

PROVIDE PERSONALIZED TRAINING

SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

You can read the full article here. 

3) 10 New Books for Leading in a Hybrid Work Environment (Entrepreneur)

There’s not much to say about this one, other than that it’s a great list of books that will help you and your team become better leaders in this new future of work. The author sums it up perfectly:

As the working world evolves at an accelerating pace, it’s more important than ever to make the time to stay on top of your professional development. These books will help you adapt to the hybrid workplace.

If you and your team are committed to using this unique time in history to re-think and re-shape how your company and people work, then check out the full list of books here. 

4) Emotional intelligence is more than a buzzword—it’s a requirement for a return to life (Fast Company)

This article struck me because its advice is equally valuable when thinking about just resuming normal life in general, but also when thinking about a return to the office. For those not familiar with the concept of EQ:

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and regulate emotions in ways that help us think more clearly and work with others more effectively. Such an ability is a superpower for managing uncertainty and ambiguity—something everyone is experiencing these days.

This article does a great job of providing a valuable and practical overview of EQ in what amounts to just a 5-minute read. There are a lot more layers to peel back, and the article links to many of them, but it’s a great primer and provides lots to think about. 

You can check out the full article here. 

5) We’ve all forgotten to ask what hybrid working really means (TechRadar)

This one resonated with me because of the parallel it draws between “hybrid work” and “digital transformation.” This is a frequent joke that comes up in a lot of conversations, the fact that “hybrid work” is gunning for “digital transformation’s” throne when it comes to the least understood business phrase:

No longer is remote working discussed in romantic terms, as a revelatory solution to problems that have dogged office workers for decades. Instead, it has been decided that “all things in moderation” is a maxim that applies in this context too, and that hybrid working is the ultimate ideal.

However, according to Anand Eswaran, President and COO at RingCentral, a variety of pitfalls await businesses as staff begin to return to the office. One of the main problems is that no one quite knows what “hybrid working” really means.

• Take a look at our list of the best VoIP services around
• We’ve built a list of the best UCaaS services out there
• Here’s our list of the best business phone systems available

“Since the start of the pandemic, ‘hybrid working’ has overtaken ‘digital transformation’ as the most cliched phrase in business,” Eswaran told TechRadar Pro. “Every company is going to be on a journey to figure it out.”

This is a great article that reminds us all not to get too lost in buzz phrases and ground everything we do in actual business strategy. Check out the full article here. 

Thanks for joining us, and we’ll you back here next week.

The post This Week in Hybrid & Remote Work – May 21st Edition appeared first on Cameyo.

Global market intelligence firm IDC lays out some of these challenges in its white paper “Challenges of the New Work Experience,” which is well worth a read. The four key issues they identify are:

• Inflexible work environments. The traditional workplace was organized around desks and departments, making it static and fragmented. Collaborative processes and productivity were far more stifled than many organizations realized.
• Limitations to talent. Employers that were bound by geography likewise restricted their available talent pool. At the same time, existing employees needed new training that would capitalize on their innate skills as well as new technologies.
• Organizational rigidity. Classic vertical hierarchies were reinforcing siloed thinking that focused on functions rather than outcomes. Flattened structures would be far more conducive to innovation and morale.
• Outdated approaches to security. The security protocols that might have been serviceable in a consolidated office environment proved cumbersome and even risky once the workforce was distributed.

 As a response to these challenges that have become so acute in hybrid work environments, IDC recommends the adoption of an intelligent digital workspace.

The intelligent digital workspace is where people, data, content, community, and context meet with the technological solutions workers need to do their jobs. […] In the new work experience, the workspace is personalized for the user and proactively provides the specific resources that worker needs for the task at hand.

– IDC

 The intelligent digital workspace has several key advantages. They include:

• Fluid, efficient workflows that employees can rely on.
• Going beyond simple task execution to support knowledge sharing and real-world behaviors.
• Ubiquitous, comprehensive access to resources that transcends time and place.

 IDC lays this out in more detail in its related white paper titled, appropriately enough, “Embracing the Hybrid Workforce with an Intelligent Digital Workspace.” That’s worth a read too.

 So, while trusted analysts agree on the need for dynamic, hybrid workplace models and the role of the digital workspace in adopting them, that still leaves one important unknown: How do you choose the right one for your organization?

 The Digital Workspace Ecosystem Alliance (DWEA) was organized and launched earlier this year to provide a clear, vendor-neutral answer to that question.

The DWEA is an independent consortium of 10 (and counting) technology leaders that recognize the value of the hybrid work environment. Because many organizations are trying to navigate this unfamiliar terrain as quickly, optimally and cost-effectively as possible, the DWEA is dedicated to helping them do just that. The ultimate goal of the DWEA is to enable secure, seamless productivity for everyone, whether they’re remote, in-office, or a hybrid workforce.

Although there are many solutions that bill themselves as “digital workspaces,” the fact is that no singular digital workspace solution exists in the market today. Rather, there’s an expanding ecosystem of digital workspace solutions. Up to now, many organizations have been stuck trying to research and evaluate each of these solutions on their own to see if they make sense for their particular use case. And, of course, their budget.

The DWEA aims to demystify that process by providing organizations with informed education and unbiased resources on digital workspaces. Through its network of members and partners and their collective expertise, the DWEA will support organizations in determining which solutions in this growing ecosystem are right for their particular use case. At the same time, it will help them avoid the cost and complexity of products and capabilities they don’t need. And as the hybrid workplace continues to evolve, the DWEA will help you stay abreast of those changes through surveys, reports and analysis

To find out more about the DWEA and the digital workspace technology ecosystem, check out this Digital Workspace Ecosystem Alliance white paper offering background as well as tips for evaluating solutions. That same page has more information on current members of the DWEA as well as an inquiry form if you’d like to join.

The post Hybrid Work Demands Digital Workspaces. The DWEA Is Your Guide. appeared first on Cameyo.