“Don’t hang around ‘cause two’s a crowd on my cloud baby.” – Mick Jagger
In March of 2020, which seems so long ago and just yesterday at the same time, a lot of people who were accustomed to working in an office went to work from home, just for a couple of weeks, to slow the spread of a global pandemic.
IT departments were flooded with calls from users who had never needed to use a VPN before. People moved entire workflows from desktop applications to groupware websites. Security was set aside out of necessity as everyone scrambled to figure out how to work outside an office.
Two years later, as public concern about coronaviruses seems to be on the decline, a lot of people are still working remotely, and a lot of them intend to keep doing so.
So, how do we get back the security and accountability we had when people were working in offices while affording workers the flexibility that they might need for the next pandemic?
The answer for many, we suspect will be cloud desktops.
But what is a cloud desktop? We realize this terminology might sound a little abstract.
Think about your favorite video streaming service. Let’s say it’s the one that used to send the red envelopes through the mail. You can log on to that service while you’re eating breakfast in your living room and start watching a movie. At lunch time, you can log on from your desk at work, and pick up right from where you left off. Maybe after work you have to stop by your sister’s to watch her kids for a couple hours, and as they drift off to sleep, you finish the film on her television, or your smartphone, or a tablet or your laptop. It doesn’t really matter what device you use. The same movie is available on whatever you have handy. Even some cars can access those services (hopefully while you are in park).
Cloud desktops are a bit like those streaming video services. You can use them from anywhere, from any device. You can leave them running and come back to them later. And each time you log in, you’re right where you left off. So your home computer can become your work computer, temporarily, whenever you need it to be, and when you sign out, all your work data is still safe in the cloud. Similarly, if you break your television in a fit of rage, you can still immediately resume your streaming services somewhere else. If your home computer falls prey to malware, it doesn’t affect your cloud desktop. That cloud desktop is a computer, but it is somewhere else. You can send it keystrokes, but it would be challenging to send it a virus.
You might be starting to think about the convenience cloud desktops provide. People can work from any computer, which could come in handy if we need to shut down society again, or if you are traveling, or if you work from more than one place. But what about security? Isn’t it dangerous to make data available from anywhere?
The first thing you’ll notice when you connect to a cloud desktop is that you will be prompted to set up Multi Factor Authentication. Once configured, this will ask you to verify the session before you can connect to your cloud desktop.
If your mobile phone asks you if you’re trying to log in from Lithuania at 3am, you simply say “no” and change your password when you have an opportunity. Even if someone has your username and password, they still can’t log in unless they also have your cell phone.
Your home computer doesn’t have enterprise class security, but cloud desktops are hosted at Microsoft or other SOC2 Datacenters, and Datapath uses enterprise class firewalls to connect cloud desktops to your company’s servers and compute resources.
We also apply the best endpoint detection and response software, which leverages artificial intelligence to stop new “zero-day” threats, even before they become widely known.
Managing networks of cloud desktops is a lot like managing computers in an office, and with this technology service engineers can again apply corporate governance and security best practices, monitor traffic patterns for indications of compromise and use tools like Microsoft Group Policy and Active Directory to manage access to information and maintain audit trails just as they would in a regular office. If it seems like you’re just remote controlling a normal office computing environment, that’s because you are. Cloud desktops turn whatever device you’re using into a remote control for computing that’s happening somewhere else, and that “somewhere else” can be extremely secure, even if your personal laptop isn’t.
There’s some other advantages to this model that are worth mentioning. For example, let’s say you’re at your rural vacation home, and the internet is slow there. If you use a cloud desktop, you’re not going to be limited by that internet connection, because you will be remote controlling a computer that is in a Microsoft datacenter. Your local connection has to send keystrokes and it has to show you what is happening on the remote machine, but that doesn’t require much. You can download and upload crazy amounts of data, crazy fast. If your kids are playing video games on the same wifi, it won’t make your cloud desktop slower.
You also don’t have to figure out how to install your work software on every computer that you want to use. You or your IT provider installs your programs once, on your cloud desktop, and they’re always available from wherever you need them. Additionally, Microsoft Office is included and is configured automatically when you sign in.
As many legacy computers are unable to run Microsoft’s latest operating system, cloud desktops extend the lifecycle of older computers and can delay hardware refresh projects considerably, preserving business capital for other priorities.
And as the supply chain strains to recover from the pressures of the pandemic, a cloud desktop can be provisioned in minutes without waiting for new hardware to arrive.
Cloud desktops can be streamed full screen with a desktop app, or you can access a cloud desktop in any web browser. Tablets and other portable devices can access cloud desktops as well. Even a smartphone if you have excellent eyesight and a lot of patience.
Unlike remote desktop solutions of the past, Microsoft now allows us to provision a desktop operating system such as Windows 11 in a persistent state for end users, so there’s no clumsy profile management or switching between servers used by multiple people, and the system performs just like a new computer would, even if you’re logging in from an old computer.
Recent advances in software defined networking allow us to connect to data in multiple clouds, including public and private, and even on-premise systems when needed.
Employers gain security, compliance, accountability, and protections against unauthorized data exfiltration. Employees get their personal computers back, because they can sign out of their cloud desktop and leave work at work, and they also enjoy the unprecedented flexibility that this technology brings. This technology is ideal for companies that have embraced remote work but are concerned about security and data management. Doing this without cloud desktops can be cumbersome and complicated. We are grateful to have access to this new technology and are eager to put it to work for our customers.
