Regardless of the economic environment, most IT organizations are consistently tasked with finding solutions that will help reduce overall costs while enhancing employee productivity and increasing security. Then, during tough market conditions (like the economic environment we’re currently experiencing), that first requirement – reducing costs – becomes even more important. And while cost reduction is critical in times like these – it can’t come at the expense of employee productivity, and it certainly cannot compromise security.
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.