AWS Partner Network (APN) Blog
Modernizing Legacy VDI and Streamlining Operations with Wipro virtuadesk and Amazon WorkSpaces
By Anil Sakhi, Practice Director, Cloud & Digital, Wipro virtuadesk – Wipro
By Tushar Agarwal, Sr. Partner Solutions Architect – AWS
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| Wipro |
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As workforces work remotely more than ever before, enterprises are increasingly looking at digital workspace as a solution that can help their teams work remotely in a secure manner.
While employees look at flexibility of working from anywhere, InfoSec teams want to ensure sensitive data stays secure.
Organizations from domains like financial services and pharmaceuticals have long embraced virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) technology for security and compliance reasons. With digital becoming a mainstream part of key business processes, other business domains are embracing remote workspace solutions as well.
Organizations have realized they need to support distributed workspaces and collaboration for business continuity. A modern digital workspace solution needs to quickly scale based on business demand, flexibility, global presence, security, operational efficiency, and optimized pricing (no large upfront expenses).
On-premises enterprise workspace deployment projects, however, can usually take a year or more to set up. This doesn’t allow enterprises to respond to rapidly changing business needs.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides cloud-based VDI services such as Amazon WorkSpaces and Amazon AppStream 2.0 that deliver managed workspaces and application streaming that are secure, can be set up quickly and scaled out globally, and are available in an OpEx model.
In conjunction with these services, organizations also need an end-to-end lifecycle, governance, and management solution that can simplify the deployment and management of these services at scale.
Wipro virtuadesk is a mature enterprise VDI management solution that provides this capability.
About Wipro virtuadesk
Wipro virtuadesk is a transformative application and desktop delivery platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, and automation-led managed services. Wipro virtuadesk provides a unified end-user experience, as well as a provisioning and management experience for enterprise customers.
From an end-user experience perspective, Wipro virtuadesk ensures consistent workspace delivery by proactively monitoring key service and performance parameters and taking proactive remediation steps.
From a management perspective, Wipro virtuadesk provides operational tools, service monitoring, automation, service visualization, and a single pane of glass for operations. Once deployed, Wipro virtuadesk integrates with ITSM tools like ServiceNow to provide seamless provisioning and support experience to end users.
At the start of a workspace transformation journey, Wipro—an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner and Managed Cloud Service Provider (MSP)—uses tools to conduct a detailed user persona and application assessment to determine the right-fit workspaces for each individual.
From a security perspective, organizations expect physical endpoints to comply with security standards before they allow end-user access to workspaces. Wipro virtuadesk supports these requirements by integration with third-party tools such as deviceTRUST for endpoint security.
Figure 1 – Wipro virtuadesk architecture overview.
Wipro virtuadesk Features and Customer Benefits
Here are some of the salient features that Wipro virtuadesk provides. We’ll discuss some of the benefits in the sections below.
Figure 2 – Wipro virtuadesk features.
Image and Application Management
In a typical corporate landscape, there are multiple business applications in use. It’s recommended to adopt application layering technology that enables organizations to speed up the process of delivering applications to Amazon WorkSpaces by decoupling Windows base images from business applications.
The application layering delivery solution aims to help users enhance user experiences while reducing the cost of application packaging, layering, administration, and delivery. It also eliminates image sprawl and reduces costs.
Three application layering tools which are compatible with Amazon WorkSpaces are:
Wipro virtuadesk supports integration and best practices implementation with these tools.
Global Health Monitoring
Wipro virtuadesk Global Health Monitoring provides overall health status of Amazon WorkSpaces and Amazon AppStream 2.0 infrastructure in a single pane of glass.
Operations teams can use it to proactively remediate ongoing issues and avoid service disruption. This tool complements Amazon CloudWatch for health monitoring.
Figure 3 – Wipro virtuadesk Global Health Monitoring for Amazon WorkSpaces.
Enterprise Marketplace
Wipro virtuadesk provides methods and processes to integrate with leading ITSM tools like ServiceNow to provide seamless operations processes. This includes VDI provisioning and de-provisioning, application-related requests, and commonly used helpdesk and ticketing processes.
AIOps
Wipro virtuadesk AIOps applies artificial intelligence to the data captured from user endpoints (Amazon WorkSpaces and Amazon AppStream 2.0) and analyzes them to give meaningful insights to support service delivery.
In addition to using smart sensors to monitor the environment and present data to the user, the tool also intelligently finds patterns in the environment for where those sensors are firing. These sensors have the ability to self-heal issues if certain conditions are met.
This is a key functionality in moving issues away from the service desk and closer to automation for repetitive issues that end users face in day-to-day operations.
Security
Security and governance are key requirements for delivering virtual desktop infrastructure. In digital workspace solutions like Amazon WorkSpaces and Amazon AppStream 2.0, a good security posture requires implementation of the controls described below.
Wipro virtuadesk leverages Wipro’s dedicated Cybersecurity and Risk Governance Services (CRS) practice to implement these controls per customers’ compliance and governance requirements:
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA).
- Conditional and contextual access.
- Endpoint posture checks and compliance using Zero Trust Access (ZTA).
- Remote management of devices for compliance and security using modern device management.
- Policy-based apps access management and secure micro tunnels for apps and data access using Secure Access Service Edge (SASE).
- Workspace analytics to drive insights about employee experience, productivity, engagement, and behavior.
- Analytics-based anomaly detection and remediation using Wipro virtuadesk AIOps.
- Vulnerability management.
- Anti-malware protection.
- Copy paste protection and screen locks.
- Ability to disable unwanted software, print screen, snipping tool, drives, RDP access, printer, and USB access.
- Disk encryption.
- Patch management.
- DDoS protection.
Workplace Transformation and Migration Methodology
Wipro virtuadesk supports proven methodology for implementing Amazon WorkSpaces and Amazon AppStream 2.0 projects.
Typical phases include:
- Transformation strategy: This process includes building the business case for enterprise transformation and covers business benefits, IT return on investment (ROI), and technical evaluation.
- Discovery/assessment: This process is used to discover and assess aspects of the enterprise landscape and technical requirements, including user groups and use cases, application portfolio, endpoint device groups standardization, security, privacy, and compliance in the cloud.
- Planning: This process involves transformation and implementation planning, including activities such as user groups onboarding, application packaging, desktop migration, effort estimation, and project planning.
- Proof-of-concept (PoC): During this phase, Wipro configures and deploys a set of non-production desktops and applications to validate the customer use case. Wipro also tests user experience and gathers feedback to fine-tune the migration plan. Upon PoC completion, Wipro decommissions the PoC deployment in 4-6 weeks.
- Pilot: In this optional phase, Wipro deploys business-critical apps and/or desktops, and integrates with data management/monitoring tools and support processes. Some customers choose to go directly from PoC to production, depending on meeting success criteria.
- Production: In this phase, Wipro implements the full-scale production deployment and onboards users, meeting all of the operational, business, and security requirements. Typical production deployment includes high availability and disaster recovery considerations.
- Support: In this phase, Wipro provides steady state support that includes SLA monitoring and compliance, continuous upgrade process, and change and incident management.
Conclusion
There is a growing and compelling need for organizations to provide digital workspace solutions to enable their workforce to be productive remotely in a secure manner.
Evolving hybrid workplace scenarios make the demand for such services unpredictable, but Amazon WorkSpaces and Amazon AppStream 2.0 provide a stable, scalable, secure, and reliable solution for business use cases across the world.
Wipro virtuadesk provides deep domain expertise in desktop virtualization and provides an end-to-end VDI management solution that delivers business value, enhances user experience, and provides enterprise-grade security.
To learn how Wipro virtuadesk can help you modernize your legacy VDI landscape on AWS, contact Wipro at ask.cis@wipro.com.
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Wipro – AWS Partner Spotlight
Wipro is an AWS Premier Tier Consulting Partner and MSP that harnesses the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics, and emerging technologies to help clients adapt to the digital world.
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