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Knowledge workers have been leaving the corporate local area network (LAN) in large numbers since the turn of the millennium. Nowadays difficult economic circumstances – including mounting costs for office infrastructure, real estate and commuter gasoline – are pushing more workers out into the mobile world.
As workers move outside the trusted LAN environment, their experiences with corporate applications and information vary. Productivity is often much lower than desired. Remote users typically have limited, unreliable access to applications and data and experience high levels of frustration.  Sometimes they’re offered a half-baked portal or web interface to access information. Sometimes they get nothing. Virtual Private Network (VPN) access allows them to log into corporate resources from abroad. However, IT organizations find that they end up supporting far-flung hardware when VPN software is installed. Complexity increases and security risks are introduced. VPN client software often fails to work on mixed hardware, operating system (OS) and software environments. All of a sudden IT finds itself delivering remote support on laptops that are outside their sphere of control.
For the overall business, the cost and complexity of delivering mobile desktop functionality increases significantly as users move out away from the confines of the corporate network. Support costs typically soar while productivity lags.
Decoupling from Limiting OS and Platform Requirements
Mobile workers need to have a consistent desktop that includes all the resources, applications and data they require. That desktop needs to be accessible anywhere there’s a web connection (which is pretty much everywhere in today’s business world). They need to access it with whatever hardware they have booted up, as well – including home desktops, laptops, cell phones, mobile internet devices, thin client computers, iPhones and the like.
They should be able to connect to their desktop with one simple URL, one bookmark…one browser home page.
As the computing world becomes more web-centralized and users rely on specific OS and application platforms less and less, this dream is becoming a reality. Analyst groups have been tracking this phenomenon for quite some time now. They’ve noted the sea-change shift from Windows applications to web applications. Software developers are not coding for Windows these days. They’re designing web applications.
Users are effectively decoupling from hardware and OS restrictions and consuming information via the web channel. As the workforce becomes more liquid – communicating and producing from every nook and cranny of the globe – centralized, cloud computing is an increasingly compelling solution. When all the necessary corporate applications and resources are available securely via the web, “workforce liquidity” makes a ton of sense.
It just hasn’t been a complete reality until now.
Stoneware webOS Delivers Virtualized Web Desktop
Stoneware’s webOS provides a "Virtual web Desktop" capable of presenting all of an organization's Windows, web, and hosted applications in a single desktop interface that can run inside any standard web browser. The solution is perfectly suited to the whole workforce liquidity trend.
All that’s needed is a browser and a Web connection. Mobile desktops are not forced to install software that presents support problems for IT. Stoneware middleware is hosted at the corporate site. Brokering technology for messaging, web apps, authentication and database access delivers everything to the remote desktops.
All existing resources are controlled as usual back at corporate headquarters. The model extends the virtualization functionality popularized by Citrix, VMware and Zen by decoupling not from just hardware but the OS itself. The entire webOS desktop interface is delivered through the browser using AJAX.
Users simply boot their device, open a browser, log in and et voila – the virtual desktop awaits them. Everything from web applications, Windows applications, hosted applications like Salesforce.com and Google Docs, and internal intranet applications are accessible and used the same way they always are.
For the user, everything is consistent, synchronized, backed up and available wherever they go. As a result, organizations can leverage existing infrastructure in the field, like home computers, hot-spots, and user-preferred laptops and mobile devices without incurring equipment or IT support costs. The employee realizes an instant pay raise. Commuting costs are returned to their pocket, and they lose no capability. They can be “office productive” anywhere.
Key Benefits
- Reduce IT management costs
- Work anywhere and reduce fuel and cube costs
- Preserve Windows software investments
- Easily roll-out cloud computing initiatives
- Web app scalability
- Needs only a browser and a connection
- Device agnostic interface delivery
- Independent of hardware and OS
- Familiar desktop look and feel (customizable and personalized)
- Integrates web apps like Google Docs and Salesforce.com
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