End User Compute on AWS

The modern workplace is no longer defined by the traditional office location, and organizations are scrambling to adjust to this.

Staff are often distributed, and now with the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, more staff are working from home. Meanwhile, most organizations have their staff facing internal services within the bounds of their private internal network, and thus require the ability to somehow externally connect their staff back into this private network.

Traditional Virtual Private Networks (VPN) connect the remote worker’s PC to the internal network, but then questions arise as to the security of that remote system, and if it is a managed device, is that a company asset. Compromised remote workstations on VPNs present a danger that they may then be used to access the company internal network by a remote attacker.

Furthermore, concentrating all external client VPN connections via a bottleneck that may be license, hardware or bandwidth constrained may also be a limitation. Why pay for more than 100 VPN licenses when only 20 people normally connect. Except now, in a pandemic, where nearly all employees are trying to use the same VPN.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure – VDI – is redefining the boundary of the network. It shifts eyeballs into company network data centers, instead of connecting whole remote systems into internal networks.

With Amazon Workspaces, clients only need a device, and a client application (available across multiple platforms, including iPad) to access their corporate desktop. No VPN, no TCP access to the entire machine. Just video render traffic of the desktop, but optimised for long distance, high latency networks, such as over mobile phone carrier networks, or across continents.

Your team can access the corporate internal services they need, with strong authentication and security, from anywhere, addressing many of the needs of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity for staff access.

This turns the table on public and client-accessible locations, such as in a retail environment. If desktop services accessed via VDI, then those network locations can be dynamic, optimized and locked down to permit just the encrypted VDI traffic

With flexibility in the cloud to scale up and down the staff provisioning, you can be ready to react to changes of circumstances in minutes, without massive financial commitments in advance.

• Familiar desktop experience
• Strong security compliance in the AWS Cloud
• Cost efficient provisioning on demand, and decommissioning when no longer needed
• License flexibility – BYO or use the AWS Clouds Service Provider licensing model straight on your AWS bill.
• Use existing devices: personal laptops and desktops (Windows, MacOs, Linux), iPads and Android tablets – or a modern browser on any other device.
• Supports RADIUS and Multi-Factor Authentication
• Optimized protocol for video streaming – combatting high latency and lossy networks

Why Akkodis?

Akkodis designs well-architected, fault-tolerant, secured solutions that power industry and government. Our End User Compute builds upon this pedigree to address the end user access requirement in Enterprise and Government.