What’s Being Sold: The EUC business unit encompasses a range of virtualization products, including VMware Horizon Cloud (DaaS), VMware Workspace ONE (unified endpoint management), Dynamic Environment Manager, and App Volumes (application layering). These EUC solutions provide users with access to desktops and applications from any device, anywhere.

Echoes of Citrix: This news comes on the heels of the recent acquisition of Citrix, another major player in the virtual desktop space. That acquisition has caused significant disruption for Citrix customers, with reports of new pricing models, degraded support, and uncertainty about the future of the products. Both the Citrix and VMware acquisitions have resulted in significant layoffs, as well, leading to many of their customers doubting the level of support and innovation the organizations will maintain moving forward.

There’s a Trend in Legacy VDI & DaaS: The acquisitions of Citrix and VMware, coupled with the spin-out of Frame from Nutanix, paint a clear picture: legacy VDI and DaaS solutions are facing significant challenges. This turmoil highlights a broader shift towards Virtual App Delivery (VAD) solutions, which offer a more agile and cost-effective way to deliver applications to users.

Alternatives to VMware’s EUC Products: Unlike VDI and DaaS, which require Microsoft Windows-based virtual desktops, VAD solutions actively eliminate the need for Windows virtual desktops while still enabling you to deliver any app to any device. This eliminates the need for costly and complex infrastructure and simplifies management.

Cameyo: A Leading Alternative for VMware Customers: Cameyo is the pioneer and leader in the VAD market. We enable you to deliver all of your apps – Windows, Linux, SaaS, and internal web apps – to any device either from the browser or as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). Our platform provides a seamless migration path for VMware customers looking to continue their digital transformation, allowing you to leverage your existing investments while transitioning to a more modern and efficient solution. With Cameyo, you can:

• Maintain flexibility: Continue using your existing VMware infrastructure for as long as needed, while having a much more cost-effective and modern VAD solution in place to migrate users to as VMware licenses expire. Cameyo also gives you the ability to user our fully-hosted version (in Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure) or self-host Cameyo in any cloud (Google Cloud, AWS, Azure, Oracle Cloud, IBM Cloud, etc.), hybrid, or on-premises data center of your choice.
• Reduce costs: Eliminate the need for expensive virtual desktops and simplify management of your digital workspace.
• Improve performance: Deliver applications faster and more reliably with Cameyo’s high-performance architecture.
• Enhance security: Benefit from Cameyo’s robust Zero Trust security model.
• Increase user productivity: Provide a better digital employee experience with any anywhere workspace that gives your users seamless access to their apps, regardless of their location or device.

The Future of VDI & DaaS: The future of VDI and DaaS is uncertain, but one thing is clear: organizations are looking for more agile, cost-effective, and secure solutions. The rise of VAD solutions like Cameyo is a direct response to this demand. By embracing VAD, organizations can ensure they are prepared for the future of work and deliver the applications their users need, when and where they need them, across a wide variety of use cases.

Get Started with Cameyo Today: If you’re looking for a modern and secure alternative to VMware’s EUC products, book a demo with Cameyo today and we’ll set up a demo environment for you within 15 minutes. Or if you’d rather dive in a test it for yourself, start a free trial.

The post Broadcom to Spin-Off VMware EUC Business: What Are Your Options? appeared first on Cameyo.

The Difference Between Virtual App Delivery and Virtual Desktops

Cameyo is a Virtual App Delivery platform that grants users direct access to all of their applications – including Windows, Linux, SaaS, and internal web apps – from the cloud without requiring a full Windows virtual desktop environment (like those from Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Desktop, Citrix, VMware, Nutanix, etc.). On the other hand, traditional VDI and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solutions provide complete virtualized desktop experiences, replicating the entire operating system with applications, files, and settings delivered from virtual machines hosted in the cloud or on-premises servers. Most Virtual Desktops were not designed as native cloud services, which often results in multiple layers of complexity that reduce scalability.

Some VDI providers have begin to re-position their services as “cloud desktops”, but that is often a misnomer, as these are often not natively cloud-based services. Instead, they are the same traditional remote desktops that are complex to manage, have significant security issues, and deal with issues like latency that degrade the end-user experience.

Luckily, for most companies and use cases, virtual desktops have been rendered obsolete by Virtual App Delivery. Your people can use any device and operating system they want, and they can still access all of their apps either in the browser or as PWAs without having to sign into a virtual Windows 10/Windows 11 desktop environment first.

Eliminating the Virtual Desktop

Virtual App Delivery is superior to traditional VDI in several aspects:

1) Enhanced Security: With Virtual App Delivery, applications are delivered independently, reducing the attack surface compared to full virtual desktop environments. IT decision-makers can apply granular security measures to each application, mitigating the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access. And Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery platform is built with a Zero Trust security model at the core to further reduce the attack surface by eliminating the need to expose firewall and server ports to the open internet.

2) Cost-Effectiveness: Virtual App Delivery eliminates the need for costly virtual desktop infrastructure, resulting in reduced hardware and maintenance expenses. The seamless application delivery model saves valuable IT resources and optimizes budget allocation. And simple, all-inclusive per-user per-month pricing makes Virtual App Delivery solutions like Cameyo more cost-effective by an average of 70% compared to virtual desktops.

3) Flexibility: Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery provides the flexibility for users to access applications from any device or endpoint with internet connectivity. And while Cameyo’s fully-hosted solution runs in Google Cloud, it also provides the flexibility to self-host Cameyo in any cloud or in your own on-premises datacenter. Cameyo’s flexibility also extends to your existing technology investments – preventing against the vendor lock-in that comes with many virtual desktop solutions.

4) Simplicity: Compared to traditional VDI setups, Virtual App Delivery is less complex to deploy and manage. IT administrators can streamline application delivery, updates, and user permissions, reducing the burden of maintaining full virtual desktop environments.

VAD Instead of VDI on GCP

As a Google Cloud partner, Cameyo leverages the robustness and security of GCP, ensuring a powerful and reliable application delivery experience. With two options available, companies can choose between fully-hosted or self-hosted solutions:

1) Fully-Hosted Service: Cameyo’s fully-hosted service runs on GCP, with all infrastructure expertly managed by the platform. This option offers a hassle-free experience for organizations seeking a turnkey solution without the burden of infrastructure maintenance.

2) Self-Hosted Service: For companies desiring greater control and customization, Cameyo can be self-hosted in their existing GCP instance or in their own on-premises data center. This option caters to specific security and compliance requirements while benefiting from Cameyo’s cutting-edge technology.

Performance and High Availability with GCP and Cloud Orchestration

Cameyo’s integration with Google Compute Engine API ensures optimum performance and high availability for Virtual App Delivery through:

1) Elastic VM Orchestration: Through the Google Cloud Compute Engine API, Cameyo provisions VM instances on-demand, allowing for elastic scaling to meet growing user demands. This flexibility ensures smooth application delivery, even during peak usage periods.

2) Efficient Snapshot Management: Capture, duplicate, and manage VM snapshots effortlessly with Cameyo and the Google Cloud Compute Engine API. Organizations can quickly deploy consistent images worldwide, enhancing the application delivery experience for users across different regions.

Secure Transmission with Google Cloud DNS API

Cameyo prioritizes security in its Virtual App Delivery solution through integration with Google Cloud’s DNS API, including Automatic DNS Name and SSL Certificate Provisioning. This enables the platform to provide DNS names and SSL certificates to orchestrated VM instances, ensuring secure data transmission without the complexity of manual SSL setup and management.

Cloud Tunneling for On-Premises Access

Cameyo’s innovative Cloud Tunneling functionality provides secure remote access to on-premises virtualization backend servers, providing secure access to apps without the need for VPNs. Cloud Tunneling establishes secure connections between end-users and servers without the need for VPNs or firewall adjustments. This streamlined access maintains network integrity while providing a smooth user experience.

Conclusion

Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery on GCP revolutionizes the way companies access and deploy applications. By eliminating the need for virtual desktops, organizations can provide their workforce with seamless application access from anywhere, reducing TCO. The platform’s integration with Google Cloud Platform ensures enhanced security and flexibility, resulting in the best end-user experience. As validated by the Economic Validation study by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), companies can expect a 54% reduction in TCO compared to traditional virtual desktop solutions (download a free copy of the ESG report here). With Cameyo, the future of VDI on GCP is one where you can eliminate the virtual desktop altogether. With Google Cloud and Cameyo you can unlock the true potential of remote and hybrid work while simplifying app deployment, enhancing security, and empowering your workforce. Want to see it for yourself? Start your free trial here, or schedule a consultation call & demo here. 

The post VDI on GCP: Streamlining Access to Apps with Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery appeared first on Cameyo.

Understanding the Basic Components of Azure Virtual Desktop Pricing

Azure Virtual Desktop pricing consists of several components that contribute to the overall cost. It’s crucial to understand these elements to accurately estimate the expenses involved in the Azure cloud service. The primary components include:

1. Virtual Machine (VM) Costs: AVD leverages Azure Virtual Machines (Azure VMs) to host virtual desktops. VM and desktop costs and the Azure resources needed are determined by factors such as the VM type, the region in which it’s deployed, the scalability needed, and the VM’s size and performance capabilities.
2. User Access Licenses (CALs): CALs are required to access AVD (or any remote service hosted on Windows servers). They come in two types: per-user and per-device CALs. Per-user CALs allow users to access their virtual desktops from any device, while per-device CALs enable multiple users to share a single device. So the number of users in your organization is one factor in overall cost, as is determining upfront how many of your end-users operate on shared machines (for example, call center workers that may share the same desktop device with other workers on different shifts).

Microsoft Licenses for Azure Virtual Desktops and Associated Costs

To leverage Azure Virtual Desktop, certain Microsoft licenses are required. These licenses play a pivotal role in determining the pricing structure. Here are the primary license types:

1. Windows 10 Enterprise Multi-Session: This license enables multiple users to run Windows 10 on a single VM, optimizing resource workloads and reducing costs.
2. Microsoft 365 E3/E5: These licenses offer certain productivity and security features, including access to Office apps, advanced security capabilities, and collaboration tools. The choice between E3 and E5 depends on the organization’s specific needs.
3. Remote Desktop Services (RDS) CALs: RDS CALs are required for each user or device accessing the AVD environment. They provide access to remote sessions and virtual apps.
4. Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit: Organizations with existing on-premises licenses may be eligible for cost savings by utilizing the Azure Hybrid Benefit. This benefit allows customers to apply their existing licenses towards AVD deployments.
5. Azure Active Directory – Azure Active Directory P1 is available as a standalone or included with Microsoft 365 E3 for enterprise customers and Microsoft 365 Business Premium for small to medium businesses.

Azure Infrastructure Costs Associated with AVD

In addition to the VM and license costs, Azure infrastructure costs should also be considered. These costs include:

1. Storage Costs: AVD requires storage to store user profiles, OS images, and application data. Azure Storage pricing depends on factors such as capacity, redundancy options, and data transfer.
2. Network Costs: Network egress charges may apply when users access data or applications from the AVD environment. Organizations should consider potential network bandwidth requirements and associated costs.

Persistent vs. Non-Persistent Virtual Desktops and Impact on Pricing

Azure Virtual Desktop provides two deployment options: persistent and non-persistent virtual desktops. Understanding these options is crucial as they have implications on pricing.

1. Persistent Virtual Desktops: These desktops retain user-specific settings, applications, and data across sessions. Persistent desktops are ideal for users who require a personalized experience but may have higher storage costs due to individual disk requirements.
2. Non-Persistent Virtual Desktops: Non-persistent desktops do not retain user-specific changes between sessions. They offer a fresh desktop experience with each login. Non-persistent desktops are more cost-effective in terms of storage, as they utilize shared images and require less disk space per user.

As you can see, it is anything but simple to determine what the true cost of Azure Virtual Desktop will be for your organization – and the same holds true for much of the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) market. But by understanding the components of AVD pricing, the necessary Microsoft licenses, Azure infrastructure costs, the functionality required, and the distinction between persistent and non-persistent desktops, it can be a bit easier to make informed choices and effectively manage expenses.

Remember, if you’re serious about looking into Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), then it’s essential to consult with Microsoft documentation and licensing experts to get the most accurate and up-to-date information on Azure Virtual Desktop pricing and licensing policies. But if you’re looking to unlock major productivity gains in your organization while optimizing costs, Virtual App Delivery (VAD) may be your best bet.

The Rise of Virtual App Delivery

While Azure Virtual Desktop is a popular choice for delivering virtual desktop experiences, recent advancements in Virtual App Delivery (VAD) have opened up new possibilities for organizations that are looking to provide their people with access to all their apps – Windows, Linux, SaaS, and internal web apps – on any device while enabling better security, a better user experience, and a dramatic reduction in cost. VAD allows users to access all of their applications remotely from any device, regardless of the operating system, eliminating the need for an entire virtual desktop infrastructure. This approach offers increased flexibility, reduced complexity, and significant cost savings.

Cameyo: A Pioneer in Virtual App Delivery

Over the past five years of serving hundreds of organizations (from Fortune 500s to hospitals to financial institutions to SMBs and everything in between), here at Cameyo we helped establish the Virtual App Delivery (VAD) category as an alternative to legacy virtual desktop solutions. With Cameyo, businesses can leverage their existing infrastructure and securely deliver all of their applications to users on any device – all without the need for complex virtual desktop deployments or VPNs. Cameyo’s user-friendly interface and streamlined management tools empower IT teams to efficiently deliver applications while reducing costs and complexity and significantly increasing security.

The TCO Benefits of Cameyo

Back in May, the analysts at Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) completed a three-month-long economic impact analysis where they interviewed organizations that have made the switch from traditional virtual desktops (VDI and/or DaaS) to Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery (VAD) solution. In this study, the four categories examined were: licensing, hardware, operational, and subscription fees.

ESG’s model calculated the expected savings when deploying and maintaining Cameyo’s VAD solution compared to the cost of deploying traditional VDI. The model found that the annual costs for implementing Cameyo are far less when compared to those of traditional VDI. According to ESG’s economic analysis, an organization could recognize a 54% reduction in TCO by utilizing Cameyo instead of VDI. As part of this reduction in TCO, organizations can realize the following:

• 75% reduced license/application costs – Traditional application deployment methods require the purchase of a separate license for each device the application is installed on. Cameyo’s process of providing access to applications on a per-named-user basis helps companies reduce their licensing and application costs by enabling each user to access their applications on any device, without needing a license for each device. Cameyo’s practice of delivering applications also reduces IT overhead and indirect support and maintenance costs.

• 82% reduced hardware costs – VDI typically has increased infrastructure requirements, whereas Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery (VAD) platform is cloud-native, reducing hardware costs.

• 53% reduced operational costs – Conventional VDI solutions require additional technical support and resources to manage the infrastructure. Cameyo’s cloud-native solution eliminates many of the tasks typically required to operate a virtual desktop, such as configuring applications for each personal desktop, provisioning, patching, and updating those devices, which reduces the number of resources needed to manage the IT environment over time.

• 35% lower subscription fees – Cameyo’s public cloud-based delivery, simplified management, and flexible pricing allow for lower subscription fees. Cameyo representatives are able to assist organizations in choosing the correct subscription based on their needs.

Conclusion

Determining the cost of Azure Virtual Desktops can be challenging, given the complexity of Microsoft’s licensing policies. However, by carefully considering your organization’s requirements and leveraging Microsoft’s on-demand pricing calculators, you can gain a clearer understanding of the associated costs. Additionally, exploring alternatives like Virtual App Delivery, with Cameyo as a leading example, can provide more flexibility, reduced complexity, and significant TCO benefits.

To get a simple and straightforward quote for the cost of Cameyo (which is a simple per-user, per-month pricing model), simply answer a couple of questions here and we will send you the details right away. Or if you’d rather see Cameyo in action before looking at pricing, schedule a demo with us here and within 30 minutes we’ll give you a full demo and help you evaluate if Virtual App Delivery is the right approach for your organization. In our experience, it often is (no matter how large the organization or which vertical you’re in) – but if Cameyo is not a fit, we’ll let you know right away and will even help point you in the right direction for another solution.

The post Demystifying Azure Virtual Desktop Pricing: A Comprehensive Guide appeared first on Cameyo.

This is why we’ve always prioritized case studies where you can read – in our customers’ own words – why they selected Cameyo over Citrix, VMware, and the other old-guard virtual desktop providers. 

Then, about a year ago, we started seeing reviews of Cameyo pop up organically on G2, the world’s largest site for IT peer reviews of SaaS products. G2 is a place where our customers can go and share their opinions about Cameyo freely with their peers, and they can even do so anonymously, giving everyone the peace of mind to share openly. 

Which is why we’re beyond excited that our customers’ reviews have earned Cameyo – for the third quarter in a row – the following rankings in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) & Desktop as a Service (DaaS) categories:

• #1 for “Best Estimated ROI”
• #1 for “Fastest Implementation”
• #1 for “Easiest to Do Business With”
• #1 for “Users Most Likely to Recommend”

We are honored that our customers feel so strongly about Cameyo that they take their personal time to fill out these reviews and share their experiences with their peers. Thank you to all of you who have done so!

And we’re even more honored that these customer reviews have landed us the #1 spot when it comes to ROI, implementation time, and other critical measures. If you’d like to read all of the existing G2 reviews on Cameyo, you can see them all here. 

The post G2 Reviews Rank Cameyo #1 for “Best ROI,” “Fastest Implementation,” and More for 3rd Quarter in a Row appeared first on Cameyo.

Virtualization 101

Virtualization is the process of abstracting software from the hardware on which it runs. A typical real-world example is when a user connects to a remote desktop. In this case, the user theoretically has a desktop-like experience as if the software were running on their local machine, but the operating system and all the applications are actually running on a server in a data center that could be located tens, hundreds or thousands of miles away. 

In fact, the very same server could be running multiple instances of this desktop-like environment for different remote users. That’s why these instances are called virtual machines, or VMs. Their parameters are defined by software, not the true physical hardware that’s powering them. This software used to configure VMs is called the hypervisor, a futuristic-sounding term that actually dates back to the 1970s.

What’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)?

With a basic understanding of virtualization under our belts, the concept of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) should be fairly clear. This is a technology that was developed several decades ago to give users access to a desktop-style computing environment that was independent of the machine they were using to access it.

The “infrastructure” in VDI refers to the suite of hardware and software that needs to be in place to support a VDI environment. This involves hypervisor hosts—servers that are traditionally located in on-premises data centers—to support the virtual machines. Additional servers and software solutions are needed to broker connections, handle multi-session support and facilitate remote access.

In addition to this, many organizations also provide the fleet of devices on which users will interact with these virtual desktops. These are often what’s known as thin clients, with “thin” describing the fact that their core functionality relies almost entirely on the virtual machines. Zero clients, by comparison, have no functionality without a connection to the virtual desktop infrastructure.

The de facto technology standard for accessing virtual desktop environments is called Remote Desktop Services (RDS), with the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) being a key component of that architecture. RDS was developed by Microsoft back in the late 1990s. With the emergence of cloud-based technologies, VDI morphed into desktop as a service, or DaaS. This, in a nutshell, took the infrastructure of VDI and transferred it to the cloud. The paradigm stayed largely the same. Which is why Azure virtual machines are just the cloud service version of VMs hosted on-premises.

Now view that through the lens of Microsoft Windows

Circling back to the question posed in the title of this post: Windows virtual desktop infrastructure is simply VDI framed in terms of Microsoft Windows. Here, “desktop virtualization” is assumed to mean equipping end users with Windows desktops. The hypervisor host is taken to be running some variant of Windows Server. The users themselves are presumed to be Windows users, not macOS, Linux or ChromeOS users.

And, to be honest, that’s pretty much how VDI is usually framed anyway. Every single VDI and DaaS provider—whether you’re talking Citrix, VMware, Nutanix or Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop—has the same underlying approach, which is to provide users with a virtual Windows operating system environment on (mostly) any device. They equate delivering “desktops” with providing end users with Windows desktops in their entirety.

Some of the proposed use cases of Windows VDI include:

• Remote work: Users get the full, familiar Windows desktop experience even outside the office on BYOD clients.
• Workspace standardization: Virtual machines and VDI enable IT to create and manage a uniform computing experience across the organization.
• Cost-cutting initiatives: On account of their lower-spec hardware (e.g., CPU, RAM), thin and zero clients are less expensive than conventional workstations and laptops, making them more cost-effective.
• Dynamic or growing workplaces: Provisioning new end users with virtual desktops instead of standalone machines improves scalability and agility.

But the benefits of VDI aren’t quite as clear cut in these scenarios as the messaging would have you believe. Virtual desktop infrastructure, including DaaS, is a legacy approach to modern computing environments that would benefit more from cloud-native solutions. VDI is expensive, cumbersome and can even open up major security vulnerabilities. And as we’ll see, providing end users with a complete Windows desktop environment often just doesn’t even make sense.

Why Windows virtual desktops are a legacy approach

The fundamental issue with Windows-centric desktop virtualization is that it’s wedded to the traditional concept of the operating system. It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with Microsoft Windows per se. The bigger sticking point is that VDI is focused solely on giving end users a classic, old-school PC-style desktop experience — with all the potential drawbacks that entails.

Latency is just one such issue. Recreating the PC experience on a remote thin client can be far more data-intensive than just delivering a single software application. This can lead to input lag and lack of responsiveness that leads to a sub-optimal and unproductive experience for the end user. 

Security is another concern. Providing Windows virtual desktops to remote users means that malicious actors have the power of full desktops at their disposal should one of those devices be compromised. Even if steps are taken to mitigate that, like using sandboxed virtual servers, the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and unsecured RDP ports can increase an organization’s attack surface.

And let’s not forget pricing. VDI is widely acknowledged as a huge investment. Although DaaS does take some of the on-premises hardware out of the equation, equipping users with Windows-based remote desktops still involves a significant outlay. There are much more efficient approaches that can suit varied workloads.

Finally, there’s the often-overlooked matter of ease of use. Windows-based virtual desktop environments create a bifurcated user experience where the user is on one OS, then has to use VDI to log into a Windows desktop session in order to access their apps. This bifurcation also exists in all-Windows scenarios where the user is on, say, Windows 11 and has to use a VDI environment running Windows 10.

A modern approach to virtualization: Virtual App Delivery 

Instead of pushing all the complexity and security issues of the Windows operating system onto users’ devices, Virtual App Delivery (VAD) provides end users with straightforward, streamlined access to the apps they need.

Cameyo, a pioneer of VAD, embraces this app-centric approach because it suits the more flexible digital workspaces required by modern organizations. Through Cameyo’s VAD platform, end users have remote access to all the apps that are essential for their productivity, and they can seamlessly work with those apps right within their device’s native OS environment — whether it’s Windows 10, ChromeOS, macOS, IGEL, Android, iOS or Linux. That’s because Cameyo’s virtualized apps are delivered securely through the native Web browser, or as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). 

This creates a frictionless, high-productivity user experience even on BYOD devices. Compare that to a desktop virtualization solution like VMware Horizon or Citrix that still requires users to log back into a (virtual) Windows OS every time they need to access their apps and data. By contrast, Cameyo is quicker for IT to provision, more transparent to the end user and easier to optimize for different workloads.

That’s what makes Cameyo the only virtualization solution to move beyond the Windows operating system while still giving end users access to all of their Windows and Linux (and SaaS and internal web) apps on any device. Cameyo’s VAD platform provides a native application experience on any OS, which in turn feeds into a superior digital employee experience (DEX).

Getting started with Cameyo couldn’t be easier. Sign up today for your free trial and test drive our Virtual App Delivery solution in your own environment. If you’re not quite ready to take that step, that’s fine too. Feel free to schedule a demo with one of our engineers to have them show you the ins and outs of Cameyo.

The post What Is Windows Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)? appeared first on Cameyo.

VDI was one of the earliest ways for modern organizations to enable their users to stay productive while offsite. It’s been around for several decades, which is why VDI’s approach to virtualization is based on the traditional workstation computing model — back when everyone used desktop PCs. Through the use of virtual machines (VMs), VDI tries to replicate that classic operating system-style desktop environment. From a technical standpoint, your standard VDI environment is built on a lot of hardware and software like data centers, thin clients, load balancers, Windows servers, authentication mechanisms and so on.

Once mobile devices and cloud-based computing technologies started to mature, everyone from IT leaders to ordinary users started reframing things in terms of workspaces. VDI followed suit. Its model shifted slightly to desktop as a service (DaaS), which essentially took VDI’s on-premises infrastructure and swapped all or part of it for cloud infrastructure. But DaaS isn’t a huge departure from classic VDI solutions. Although it adopts SaaS-style pricing, DaaS is still very much focused on replicating the Windows-centric user experience on endpoint devices.

If DaaS is just cloud-based VDI, what’s a VDI workspace?

A VDI workspace is, in a nutshell, the environment users have to log into in order to gain remote access to their apps. The term itself doesn’t really distinguish whether that workspace is provided through classic on-premises VDI or DaaS managed services.

However, what nearly all VDI workspaces have in common is that they stick to the desktop-first paradigm that is the hallmark of VDI solutions like Citrix and VMware. They force the end user to log into a Windows OS “workspace” just to access their apps. It’s effectively the 20th-century workstation concept with some 21st-century dressing.

The result is a user experience that’s completely at odds with today’s more modern, fluid technology landscape. VDI workspaces insist that the growing numbers of Mac, Linux or Chromebook users have to go through a separate Microsoft Windows environment in order to work with their apps. That separation just isn’t conducive to most contemporary workflows. It creates barriers to remote and hybrid work by trying to make user devices fit the outdated mold of desktop workstations.

The digital employee experience (DEX): Seamlessness, not segregation

In recent years, and especially since the workplace upheavals of 2020–2021, IT thought leaders have begun placing increased emphasis on the digital employee experience (DEX). In fact, DEX has become so important that Gartner estimates that half of IT organizations will have a DEX strategy and tools in place by 2025.

At its most basic, DEX is a way for organizations to assess how well their technologies are empowering their users. To determine where your organization’s DEX strategy currently stands, it helps to start asking questions like these:

• Are our technologies generic and one-size-fits-all? Or do they cater to different workflows and workloads?
• How can we truly optimize our technologies for different use cases?
• Do our end users have access to their essential productivity tools anywhere and on demand?
• Are we still thinking exclusively in terms of desktops and laptops? Or are we considering all mobile devices?
• Can we achieve an unparalleled user experience alongside cost-effectiveness and zero trust security?

There are plenty of DEX resources out there, but it might be helpful to know that many of the leading articles on DEX recommend “going beyond portals” (a legacy of the workstation mindset) to make it easier for users to engage with their colleagues and their productivity tools. That means phasing out practices like VDI workspaces that channel users through what is essentially a segregated, self-contained Windows environment.

Those at the forefront of DEX and digital transformation are instead advocating for seamless digital workspaces — that is, workspaces that aren’t bound to a specific operating system, user device or workflow. Which makes Virtual App Delivery a key enabler of the secure digital workspace.

Cameyo boosts DEX (and productivity!) through flexibility and security 

As the only virtualization solution that doesn’t force users into a Windows workspace, Cameyo’s VAD platform provides the seamlessness and flexibility that enhance an organization’s DEX right out of the gate. Cameyo transcends VDI’s outmoded workstation models by getting apps, not operating systems, into users’ hands on any device, regardless of OS.

Cameyo also streamlines DevOps processes by enabling IT professionals to deliver all the apps their people need directly to their devices as progressive web apps (PWAs). No software redevelopment is necessary as part of this, and users don’t have to change their behavior at all. With Cameyo, they simply use their Windows, Linux, SaaS, and internal web apps from any device—including Macs, Chromebooks and mobile devices (e.g., iPhone, Android tablet)—within that device’s native environment. It’s completely transparent to them, so they can work as they’ve always worked.

On top of that, Cameyo’s VAD is an integral part of Zero Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA). So organizations can implement security best practices while also boosting the DEX for end users.

You wouldn’t adopt a VDI solution without testing it first, and we wouldn’t expect you to adopt a VAD solution without the same due diligence. Sign up now for your free trial of Cameyo to see how quickly you can start publishing and delivering your business-critical apps to end users. If you’d rather have one our engineers take you through things in a bit more detail, don’t hesitate to schedule a demo instead.

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Not all remote desktops are VDI, but you could say that VDI is a form of remote desktop. It effectively creates workspaces—usually Windows environments—that end users can access through specially configured devices or software clients. The infrastructure (the “I” in VDI) consists of on-premises host servers running virtual machines (VMs), and it’s these virtual machines that users connect to and interact with.

What’s so wrong with virtual desktop infrastructure?

Virtual desktop infrastructure achieves a particular end, but it’s not the most elegant or efficient solution. Generally, it has three main drawbacks.

• Cost: On-premises infrastructure is expensive. The servers that host the virtual images, store data and assist with authentication during remote access sessions all have to be purchased and maintained. VDI also requires organizations to purchase specific endpoints. These can be specialized thin or zero clients or laptops that have been provisioned for use with VDI. Plus organizations will also pay to license the VDI solution and the Windows operating system on the VMs.
• Complexity: Desktop virtualization solutions claim to be optimized for easy provisioning and administration, but they don’t just manage themselves. Some organizations have entire in-house teams of trained, certified IT professionals to oversee their VDI implementation. Others have to pay to outsource that responsibility. Either way, those teams constantly have to optimize VDI deployments for particular workloads and help users troubleshoot the various problems that can emerge.
• Security: VDI has a troubled history with security. End users need remote access to the VDI host servers, and this is typically done via a virtual private network (VPN) in combination with the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). RDP in particular has several well-known vulnerabilities, and VPNs have the potential to allow complete access to the corporate network if they’re compromised. That runs completely counter to today’s zero trust best practices.

In recent years, the advent of the public cloud has enabled VDI to transition into what’s called desktop as a service (DaaS). DaaS largely follows the same model as traditional VDI except the infrastructure is transferred to cloud-based backends like Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS). That removes some of the need for expensive on-premises data centers, but it’s not as if the SaaS-style pricing of cloud infrastructure is free.

More importantly, DaaS comes with many of the same drawbacks as traditional VDI. Even seemingly straightforward solutions like Amazon Workspaces can’t escape the steps involved in provisioning virtual desktops to end users or the licensing costs associated with operating systems.

What about Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops?

Like VMware Horizon View, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is one of the more popular virtual desktop solutions. Because of Citrix’s long history in the desktop virtualization space, the name alone still carries a lot of weight in IT circles.

But that same popularity also makes Citrix solutions a known target for malicious actors, which raises worrying security concerns. As recently as December 2022, the United States National Security Agency (NSA) was sounding the alarm over two Citrix networking products. With the backing of the Chinese government, the APT5 hacking group was actively exploiting a zero-day vulnerability Citrix ADC, an application delivery controller, and Citrix Gateway, a remote access tool, to gain wide-ranging access to targeted networks.

These exploits can be directly attributed to the various components that Citrix uses to power its virtualization solutions. This highlights how VDI’s complexity can become its Achilles heel: The more moving parts, the greater the attack surface. 

VAD: The true virtual desktop alternative

As these issues of cost, complexity and security make clear, finding virtual desktop alternatives isn’t as important as finding an alternative to VDI itself. Even a low-cost, open-source VDI solution, if one existed, would still bear many of the inherent shortcomings of the virtual desktop infrastructure model.

The true virtual desktop alternative is one that isn’t bound to any particular operating system. It’s one that enables end users to work with ALL of their essential apps – Microsoft Windows, Linux, SaaS, and internal web apps – from any device. It’s quick to deploy, easy to provision and incredibly intuitive for end users. Above all, it’s cloud-native and supports zero-trust network architecture by design.

That’s exactly what Virtual App Delivery (VAD) offers. VAD transcends the limitations of a virtual desktop, instead creating a flexible, secure, user-optimized digital workspace. And, as a pioneer of VAD technology, Cameyo is able to provide streamlined remote access to business-critical and even legacy apps without compromising the seamless user experience or the rock-solid security that modern organizations need to stay agile and productive.

Here are just a few of the many ways that Cameyo supports zero trust practices:

• Segmentation – Cameyo separates end users’ sessions and isolates their devices from corporate networks and data. Should a device become infected with ransomware or malware, the malicious software has no way to reach the corporate network/data or the Cameyo system.
• Least privilege – All traffic is encrypted, and apps are delivered via a secure HTML5 web browser. Along with maintaining device segmentation, this eliminates the need for VPNs for remote access.
• Identity & access management – Cameyo integrates with your preferred Single Sign-On (SSO) provider. Any Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) that the SSO utilizes also applies to Cameyo.

That tight security, combined with cost-effectiveness and simplicity, is what makes Cameyo’s VAD so superior to VDI when it comes to remote work enablement. With just a click, end users can start working with full-featured desktop versions of their essential apps from any of their devices — whether it be an Android tablet, an iPhone running iOS, a Mac or a computer running a Linux operating system (including ChromeOS). You can think of it as a highly customizable, app-first cloud desktop.

These are the reasons why Computerworld called Cameyo “the new alternative to Citrix.” And it’s also why the industry as a whole is moving away from virtual desktops in favor of Virtual App Delivery. VAD is more streamlined, more versatile, more secure than VDI and easier on your bottom line, as former Citrix customers like Ur&Penn have already discovered after migrating to Cameyo.

Sign up for your free trial of Cameyo today and discover how easy it is to roll out app-centric digital workspaces to your end users. Or maybe you’d like more details on how exactly Cameyo supports your zero trust IT practices? In that case, simply schedule a demo and one of our engineers will reach out to provide you with the right info.

The post Your Options for a Virtual Desktop Alternative appeared first on Cameyo.

Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly known as Windows Virtual Desktop) is certainly one. Nutanix Xi Frame, Parallels RAS and VMware Horizon are others. But the various Citrix solutions—such as Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp, now rebranded and offered as part of the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops product suite—often occupy a large chunk of mindshare. Wherever a list of virtual desktop solutions exists, you can bet you’ll find Citrix.

One of the reasons Citrix evokes such strong mental associations with desktop virtualization is because the company has focused on virtualization technology since its inception over 30 years ago. Three decades can seem like millennia in the tech world, so to have a company stick with its initial business proposition for that long is definitely something worth noting.

What does all that mean for IT departments and CTOs who are looking to support their remote workforces? Should Citrix be the natural go-to choice when you’re looking for virtualization solutions? How does the company’s longevity affect the desktop virtualization products it offers today? And is virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) even the right virtualization technology for you to begin with?

Let’s answer those questions with a quick trip to the past.

A brief history of Citrix VDI

Citrix was founded in 1989 by a tech entrepreneur who had previously led the design teams for the OS/2 and IBM DOS systems. These projects were foundational in giving us the multitasking-capable PC operating systems we use today. From the start, Citrix had its sights set on developing remote access solutions for Microsoft operating systems—specifically Microsoft Windows. This OS-centric model would become an enduring theme.

Bear in mind, too, that these were the very early days of modern personal computing. Windows 95, which most of us would recognize as the grandfather to our current desktop and laptop OSes, wouldn’t appear for another five years.

Through acquisitions as well as its pioneering work in virtualization, Citrix grew by leaps and bounds over the coming decades, a growth that was accelerated in part by Windows’ popularity in the enterprise. Citrix VDI solutions were adopted by several major companies and were responsible for advancements like the thin client, which are low-cost, low-spec endpoints that rely on a remote hypervisor server for their functionality. In many ways, they could be considered the precursor to Chromebooks.

Much of the groundwork that Citrix laid during this period would shape the very architecture of virtual desktop infrastructure as a whole. From provisioning paradigms to authentication processes, Citrix VDI had an outsized influence not only on how organizations actually implemented virtualization solutions but how they came to think of them in the first place. 

The downsides of a long legacy in virtual desktops

With all this history comes, well, history. Three decades spent developing desktop virtualization products also means that those products have three decades’ worth of accumulated legacy technology, engineering pivots, integrations of acquired technologies that increase the overall attack surface, and marketing rebrands behind them. You can see the weight of all this history in the many components that are involved in a typical Citrix XenDesktop deployment.

• Citrix Delivery Controller. This stores configuration data as well as other settings. These are contained within a database that’s managed using Citrix Studio or Citrix Director.
• Provisioning Services. This allows the team of IT admins who oversee the Citrix implementation to distribute desktops to users in real-time from a shared master image.
• Citrix StoreFront. This functions like a software launcher. It displays the desktops and applications that have been assigned to users. End-user authentication takes place through the StoreFront portal.
• Citrix Workspace (formerly Citrix Receiver). This is the dedicated software client through which end users connect to their virtual desktops. It is installed locally on the endpoint device.
• Citrix HDX. This is a proprietary technology suite that leverages Citrix’s Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) remote protocol. ICA is responsible for handling local and remote client data traffic, compression and more.
• Citrix ADC (formerly Citrix NetScaler). Some large VDI implementations that suffer from latency and bandwidth issues will make use of the company’s dedicated load-balancing and optimization technologies for a better user experience.

These components are traditionally hosted in an on-premises data center for the sake of security and maintenance. (For more detail, see our post on “Understanding Citrix VDI.”) However, this architecture adds significantly to the upfront costs of Citrix VDI implementations, which continues to make them expensive to purchase as well as expensive to operate. Furthermore, in an age of increasing ransomware threats, the large attack surface created by these components requires even more vigilance and oversight.

Huge enterprise-scale organizations that absolutely need VDI for their specific workloads or use cases are often braced to budget for these large CapEx and OpEx outlays. But as more organizations look to virtualization technologies to support their hybrid and remote workers, it’s hard to justify this level of cost and complexity. 

In recent years, Citrix has tried to expand its traditional scope with new desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) offerings. These take conventional desktop virtualization and swap out some or all of the on-premises components for cloud infrastructure. That allows them to feature more public cloud integration and adopt something closer to SaaS pricing models (even if they are hard to parse). At the end of the day, though, these Citrix cloud-based desktop services can’t escape their roots in legacy VDI and retain a lot of the same caveats.

The modern approach: Virtualizing apps, not OSes

There’s no denying that Citrix has had a major influence on current virtualization technology. Yet a lot has changed since 1989. Heck, a lot has changed since 2019! It’s time to stop thinking that the primary function of remote desktop solutions or desktop virtualization is simply to replicate the classic operating-system-based PC desktop experience. You don’t need virtual machines and a huge array of components to keep remote users productive.

Virtual App Delivery (VAD) rethinks the remote desktop environment for the cloud era. After all, unlike VDI (whether it’s Citrix or one of its alternatives), Virtual App Delivery isn’t a legacy virtualization approach that has had to be re-engineered to take advantage of the public cloud. VAD was born in the cloud and designed from the very beginning for the cloud desktop needs of today’s organizations.

As the pioneer in Virtual App Delivery, Cameyo’s approach to application virtualization is better suited to most use cases than VDI. Instead of trying to furnish end users with Windows-dependent digital workspaces, Cameyo gives remote users secure, Windows-independent cloud desktops that deliver all of the apps they need to be productive. Because Cameyo is cloud-native, remote users can access those apps on any device with an HTML5 web browser—whether it’s a Linux laptop, a macOS desktop or an Android mobile device.

How VAD cloud desktops are reframing virtualization

Ur&Penn offers a perfect case in point. After disappointing results with a leading DaaS product and a leading VDI product, this leading Swedish watch and jewelry retailer discovered Cameyo. Within a few hours of deploying our VAD platform, Ur&Penn’s employees were working with business-critical apps on their Chromebooks.

According to Ur&Penn CIO Emir Saffar, they found Cameyo’s virtual app delivery to be:

• Simple: “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.”
• Secure by design: “From a user experience perspective, [with Cameyo, our end users] use the same desktop version of the applications they’re used to – but those applications simply run in a browser tab instead of needing to be deployed and managed locally.”
• Cost-effective: “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 right there.”

“Citrix was even more complex to set up than [Nutanix] Xi Frame, so we had to hire an outside engineer to come set everything up, which just added more expense. Everything was difficult,” said Saffar. “The first thing we noticed when we started our free trial was that Cameyo was truly built from scratch to be a cloud solution, whereas Citrix has clearly just taken their old technology and tried to push it into the cloud.”

And Ur&Penn isn’t alone in choosing Cameyo over Citrix. Klarahill, another large Swedish business, did the same, reducing its remote desktop costs by 85% in the process.

Why go through all the hassle of rolling out VDI or DaaS solutions when you can easily start with Virtual App Delivery and test it out to see if it’s right for your use case? Sign up today for your free trial of Cameyo and begin providing your users with streamlined, customized cloud desktops in as little as a few minutes. If you’d prefer to learn more about how Cameyo achieves more than VDI with less cost and infrastructure, feel free to request a demo from one of our engineers.

The post What Is Citrix VDI, and What are Your Options? appeared first on Cameyo.

But, just like virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) itself, evaluating the expanse of different virtual desktop solutions can be a little more complicated than it first appears. The remote desktop solutions of just five short years ago are not the virtual desktops of today. Digital workspaces have evolved as the world moves to the cloud, and the way organizations deliver software to their remote users is changing.

Before we look at where virtual desktops are now and where they’re headed, it’s helpful to know how they started.

What exactly is a virtual desktop?

Remote users might be more common these days, but they aren’t a new phenomenon. Ever since the advent of the personal computer, organizations have had a growing need to provide end users with some form of remote computing environment. That need accelerated as mobile devices became more widespread. The pandemic gave it increased urgency.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) first gained popularity as an early way to support the end-user computing (EUC) model. VDI is a server-based computing paradigm wherein the operating system—usually some version of Microsoft Windows—is not run on the local machine. Instead, the operating system is run as part of a virtual machine (VM) on a hypervisor server in a data center. This host server is often (but not always) located on-premises for reasons of security and management.

Because all the actual computing for the virtual desktop environment is done on the data center server, VDI makes it possible to use endpoint devices that might have reduced processing power and limited functionality. These are called thin clients. Endpoint devices known as zero clients have no independent capabilities and can only run the virtual operating system.

And though teasing out the differences between virtual desktops and remote desktops can be like splitting hairs, the distinction can be important. Whereas VDI solutions provide a desktop via the hypervisor virtual machine, solutions that leverage Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Services (RDS) work a bit more like sharing software from one machine to another.

The long legacy of VDI

As a pre-cloud virtualization technology, VDI set the tone for how individuals and organizations thought of virtual desktops for many years. This idea was still very much centered around replicating the familiar user experience by virtualizing the entire operating system (OS), whether Windows or Linux, on remote endpoints. Even if end users just needed one or two Microsoft Office apps for their particular workloads, they still had to interact with the full OS.

IT departments have also had to go to great lengths to make that happen. The operative word in the VDI acronym is infrastructure: Above and beyond the basic VDI platform, separate solutions are almost always needed to enhance functionality like remote access and authentication.

For example, VDI often goes hand in hand with virtual private networks, or VPNs, which allow users to “tunnel” through the organization’s firewall and onto the internal network in order to access their virtual desktop. Unfortunately, VPNs are challenging to set up, require dedicated hardware and software, and they introduce major security risks.

VDI is also surprisingly costly. There are hardware expenses (e.g., virtual machine servers, license servers, storage servers, load balancers, server peripherals) as well as operating expenses (e.g., deployment, maintenance, upgrade). In fact, most VDI implementations require a permanent team of IT professionals dedicated to overseeing and administering the solution. This explains why, even as far back as 2013, industry analysts were saying “the numbers won’t work” when trying to justify VDI from a budgeting standpoint. That’s still the case today.

However, because they provided the virtual desktop functionality that so many organizations needed, VDI solutions like Citrix and VMware Horizon did gain a foothold in the enterprise and became almost synonymous with the technology itself.

DaaS: VDI enters the cloud

With the advent of cloud computing came desktop-as-a-service (DaaS), a shift that caused the idea of virtual desktops to morph a little.

DaaS took the footprint of on-premises infrastructure and moved it into the cloud, where it acquired some of the advantages that cloud platforms are known for—things like better scalability, faster disaster recovery, automatic updates, less management overhead and more predictable pricing. Generally, DaaS provides more APIs for extensibility and smoother integration with other cloud services, including IdPs for user authentication. Those are all pluses.

But at its heart, DaaS remains very close to classic VDI with a few cloud-friendly tweaks. Well-known desktop service solutions like Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD), now rebranded as Azure Virtual Desktop, still revolve around the operating system and aim to mimic the local PC user experience. The complexity of management doesn’t go away, either, which is why solution providers have sprung up with dedicated IT teams to help organizations manage their DaaS solutions.

Like VDI, DaaS can also suffer from latency. As much as you might try to optimize every variable in the chain, you’re still trying to recreate a local Windows desktop environment over a standard Internet connection.

VAD: The evolution from virtual desktops to cloud desktops

Then software innovators started asking important questions: Why does a virtual desktop have to be tied to an operating system in the first place? Why can’t it be tailored to individual end-users and unique use cases instead of being dependent on Windows OS? Shouldn’t a true cloud-based digital workspace work with every device rather than a pool of company-issued thin clients?

Virtual app delivery (VAD) was the natural answer to those questions. By removing the longstanding dependency on the Windows operating system and all that entails, VAD marks a significant evolution from virtual desktops to cloud desktops. Organizations can implement VAD solutions to deliver select Windows apps to their remote users, of course, but now they can do so without all the administrative and infrastructural overhead.

VAD is able to take this streamlined approach because it’s fully cloud native. It’s not a legacy technology that’s been retrofitted to incorporate cloud services; it was designed to capitalize on the latest cloud technologies for unparalleled cost savings, security, flexibility and ease of use.

Cameyo was quick to develop the potential of VAD and optimize the technology for today’s hybrid workplaces and educational environments. Our Windows-independent cloud desktop solution is:

• Secure – Cameyo supports zero trust environments through the use of several industry-leading technologies, including NoVPN and Port Shield, to protect against the rising threat of ransomware and other exploits.
• Versatile –  Because it isn’t bound to the Windows operating system, Cameyo frees you to customize your digital workspaces for specific apps and workloads.
• User friendly – For end users, remote access to Cameyo apps is as simple as clicking on a browser bookmark. For admins, deploying and managing Cameyo is measured in minutes.
• Device agnostic – To access apps via Cameyo, all users need is a modern HTML5 browser like Chrome or Firefox. Cameyo runs just as smoothly on macOS and Linux computers as it does on Android and iOS mobile devices.
• Cost-effective – With lower CapEx and OpEx relative to both VDI and DaaS, Cameyo gets you more productivity for far less money.

Simply put, Cameyo is hands down a better alternative to the virtual desktops offered by VDI and DaaS.

And the industry has already taken note. In 2021, according to the “VDI Like a Pro” survey on the state of end-user computing, 17% of organizations were planning to retire their current virtual desktop solutions in favor of virtual apps. Renowned tech pundit Rob Enderle has gone so far as to call Cameyo “the future of desktop computing” in Baseline magazine. Customer after customer has gone on record praising Cameyo for its simplicity, user experience and ROI.

Sign up for your free, no-strings trial of Cameyo today to gain a firsthand understanding of how Windows-independent cloud desktops represent a huge advancement upon yesterday’s virtual desktops. Alternatively, you can request a demo and have our engineers explain why virtual app delivery might be the optimal solution for you and your end users.

The post What are Virtual Desktops, and What’s Right for You? appeared first on Cameyo.

If your organization utilizes Citrix and/or VMware products and services, you’re likely concerned about the future of those organizations and what this will mean for their ongoing support and development of the digital workspace technologies you rely on. And there’s little doubt that both Citrix and VMware will continue to undergo significant organizational changes as their respective acquisitions shake out. 

For example – for a very raw and unflinching insider evaluation of the what the Broadcom acquisition means for VMware, take a look at this missive by former VMware employee and EUC industry veteran Brian Madden:

Brian Madden’s brutal and unfiltered thoughts on the Broadcom / VMware deal

TLDR: Brian says:

• “Broadcom will shred VMware.”
• Speaking of VMware’s technology, he says: “The innovation engine died years ago, and today they just buy other companies without truly integrating them.”
• He estimates that, like Citrix, VMware will go through “massive layoffs” (he estimates up to 25,000 layoffs). 

Granted, that is one person’s evaluation of the VMware acquisition. But if you review the press & analyst reports on the acquisition, there is not much optimism in terms of what this deal will mean for existing VMware customers. 

What most seem to agree on is that the EUC industry is undergoing a tectonic shift and that the face of the digital workspace will be forever changed as a result. So what does this mean for you? 

In times like these, organizations are presented with a significant opportunity to evaluate their existing strategies and contracts. And the good news is, if you’re looking to make a change due to the current market uncertainty, you have opportunities to significantly reduce costs, all while improving your users’ experience and increasing your organization’s overall security posture. 

Reducing Cost, Without Compromise

Both Citrix and VMware’s VDI/DaaS solutions are rooted in decades-old technology, resulting in products that can be extremely complex to deploy and manage, not to mention costly. Migrating to a cloud-native Cloud Desktop solution can help you reduce the cost of your digital workspace by up to 85% compared to Citrix or VMware (or any traditional VDI/DaaS product). For example, here’s what some Cameyo customers report regarding the cost savings they achieved with our Cloud Desktop solution, powered by our Virtual App Delivery (VAD) platform:

• “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]

When it comes to overall ROI, a recent survey of Cameyo customers revealed that 19% of customers received an “immediate” ROI based on the amount they saved compared to their previous virtual desktop solution. 61% saw ROI within 3 months, and 91% saw ROI in less than a year. 

And the best part is, these cost savings come without compromising the end user experience. In fact, Cloud Desktop solutions like Cameyo improve your people’s experience, helping make them more productive while reducing support headaches on your end. 

A Better User Experience

Your people need seamless access to all of their apps & data on any device so that they can be productive from anywhere. Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery (VAD) platform gives your people a streamlined Cloud Desktop so they can access ALL of their apps – Windows, SaaS, and internal apps – from a single, ultra-secure location, accessible through any HTML5 browser. And with Cameyo PWAs, you can publish and push any Windows app to your users as a PWA with a few clicks.

The end result is that your people have access to all of their applications without anything needing to be installed or managed locally on their device. There’s no alteration to the user experience, nothing new to learn – they get a seamless experience that enables them to work just as they always have. 

Here’s what Cameyo customers say about the user experience we enable:

• “Unlike Nutanix Xi Frame and Citrix XenApp where our employees either couldn’t access their applications at all or were frequently experiencing performance issues and being logged out, Cameyo provides a native application experience with no performance lags, through the browser. From a user experience perspective, they use the same desktop version of the applications they’re used to – but those applications simply run in a browser tab instead of needing to be deployed and managed locally. There’s nothing new to learn on the user’s side,” said Emir Saffar, CIO at Ur&Penn.
• “With Cameyo, our employees get to access the same desktop version of the software that they’re used to with absolutely nothing new to learn, so it’s a seamless user experience. And ChromeOS Flex has enabled us to deliver persistent Chrome meetings in between various geographical locations and remote workers to help build a better workplace culture,” said Christian Ahlin, Group Head of IT at Nordward
• “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 John Cerio, Network Administrator at Baldwinsville Central School District.

Zero Trust Security for your Digital Workspace

Another key benefit of migrating to a truly cloud-native Virtual App Delivery (VAD) solution is increased security. Cameyo was built from the ground up with Zero Trust security at its core (read more about our Zero Trust architecture here), eliminating the security vulnerabilities that plague many legacy virtual desktop solutions, which have led to a massive spike in ransomware over the past 2 years. 

Here’s what Cameyo customers have to say about the security benefits they’ve seen:

• “With Cameyo you get this very powerful solution, with very low complexity and cost, all while getting greater security than you’ll find in other solutions. Complexity is the antithesis of security. The more complexity a solution has, like the many components of virtual desktop solutions, the more potential security issues you will have. Cameyo is built on a zero trust security model, and it also strips away all of the complexity that could result in security issues down the line,” said Adam Nerell, Head of IT for Klarahill. 
• “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 Mario Zúñiga, IT Director, Digital Workplace at Fortune 500 manufacturing giant Sanmina.
• “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 John Cerio, Network Administrator at Baldwinsville Central School District.

The acquisitions of Citrix and VMware have clearly marked a major shift in the EUC and digital workspace industries. And it’s logical for Citrix and VMware customers to be concerned about how the turbulence of these acquisitions will affect them. But there is opportunity in this uncertainty. Just as these acquisitions mark a changing of the guard from legacy VDI/DaaS to Cloud Desktops/Virtual App Delivery (VAD), it also marks an opportunity for your organization to migrate and adopt cloud-native solutions that can significantly reduce your costs, deliver a better user experience, and increase your organization’s overall security. 

We have dozens of case studies (here) where you can read more about the experience of companies who have already made the shift from VDI/DaaS to Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery (VAD). And we’re happy to put you in touch with customer references so you can hear more about their experiences. 

We understand your uncertainty and would be happy to discuss your options – even if it turns out that another solution may be a better fit. Schedule a personalized demo to discuss, and on we can also get you set up with your own demo environment to test within minutes. Or you can get started with your own free trial here.

The post How the Turbulence of Recent Acquisitions Presents an Opportunity for Cost Reduction appeared first on Cameyo.