Why do you "NEED" WorkPlace for your business?

Virsage WorkPlace provides your company with a competitive advantage by saving your business both time and money.

There are three needs that WorkPlace fulfills.

•  Agility – Businesses must be able to react to change quickly.  Whether it is onboard/offboarding new employees, rolling out new software packages, or allowing workers to access their information from wherever they are – traditional IT is slower and more expensive than WorkPlace.
• Business Security – Companies today rely on data.  Any interruption in either connection, hardware or software costs money.  WorkPlace provides enterprise grade data and system access that was not previously cost effective.
• Productivity – Like it or not, employees are changing how they want to work.  Studies show that companies who embrace this change show an increase in overall employee productivity, lower overall wages as employees prefer flexible work environments over higher salarys

During the PC revolution era, companies strived to quickly integrate technology with their business to make their companies faster and more efficient, but over the last few years the constant cycle of buying new hardware and software every few years has left companies with upgrade fatigue. Historically, being on the cutting edge can be expensive, error prone, and time consuming. WorkPlace is a smarter way to upgrade your current technology, stay with the applications your staff has already learned how to use, and gain new features that enable to you work more productively and cooperatively than before.

WorkPlace saves your business time by ensuring your staff has access to all of the needed business applications, files, and emails from any device: PC, Mac, tablet, or smartphone. Most people have some sort of remote access currently, but usually along with a decreased experience or lack of features. WorkPlace enables you to be just as productive on the road as you are in the office. By having your team all on the same versions of software, and by having shared storage available quickly from anywhere, your team will spend far less time emailing documents back and forth and more time collaborating in real time. WorkPlace enables you to extend specific files quickly to customers and business partners as well outside of the WorkPlace system to make projects with external parties far easier to manage.

WorkPlace saves your company money by keeping you out of the cycle of PC obsolescence. You’ll never have to buy another server, or pay for a new “Microsoft tax” every 3 years for Windows and Office software.  These programs and the software licensing are included in your WorkPlace subscription. This ensures you always get the latest versions without having to make large capital expenditures. Because WorkPlace is a desktop as a service and support is included, you get immediate access to platform upgrades without having to manage traditional IT upgrades and headaches. New features, functionality, and increased system robustness are coming online all of the time, and are done behind the scenes without disruption to your business. WorkPlace enables your business to take legacy (older) programs and servers and bring them into the cloud era. This means you can get more life out of the software that you have already purchased and add features to programs.

For instance, "WorkPlace has enabled companies to take applications like POS systems, accounting platforms, electronic medical records, and sales tools and made them available on smart phones and iPads."

WorkPlace is a better way to manage your IT expenses. Why pay for more software, storage, or hardware than is really needed? With WorkPlace, you pay for what you really use and your pricing scales with your business. The pricing is predictable and consistent, and there are no long term contracts. The technology included with WorkPlace are systems we recommend for all companies, but few can afford to purchase and manage these systems in the traditional fashion. WorkPlace provides your business with industry leading infrastructure in an affordable format: Multiple data centers, redundant servers, high availability failover infrastructure, network attached storage, offsite replications and backups, web filtering, email filtering, spyware protection, antivirus, redundant Cisco firewalls, Microsoft Exchange email, Microsoft Office 2010 Professional, remote access, cross-platform support, professional network management and technical support.

Workshifting

Increase productivity and increase your bottom line. WORKSHIFTING

When does one shift end and another begin? How do you enjoy a mid morning ride or take time off to spend an hour or two at the library with your kids. When is the last time you went for a run at 9am? Or just had the opportunity to stay at home and work from there for the day?

                  

Personally I live and work seven days a week and I do so on my schedule with complete control of my workday. After spending several years running my own business I found that now working for a company again defiantly has its benefits and I enjoy it. I have tried working for a few companies prior to coming to Virsage and looking back I can honestly say that CONTROL of my workday was the primary thing that was missing in all of those opportunities.

So what does Workshifting mean and how do you make it work?

Workshifting is providing workers today with the ability to jump in and out of work at a moments notice and gives them agility to take the call or get out a quote on time, make adjustments to the document while at the park, and “take the call” wherever, whenever.

I have three little girls and I don’t want to miss out on what is happening in their life while providing a means for them to have a life. They keep me super busy and when Im not traveling I get to take them to the library and spend time with them at the park all while when its necessary sit down with my iPAD and phone to hammer out some business anywhere, anytime, on any device.

To not take advantage of the benefits of workshifting during my kids' summer vacation would be almost as criminal as not supervising them outdoors.

School is out now and I have a plan to make the most of our summer and still provide the support for my partners and customers they are requiring of me each and every day.

1. Start work early, take time off in the middle of the day for activities with the kids, and then finish my work later in the afternoon and evening.

2. Work 7 days a week and take off when I need to .

3 .Actually use some of my vacation days.

4. Take a laptop (or iPad, iPhone or Android tablet) with me and work from our vacation destination (if we ever decide on one).

5. Know when to say when and not take the call or look at my phone. Sometimes you just have to leave that device on the desk charging.

6. Enjoy a combination of all of the above. (I wish more dessert menus had this option!)

Keeping track of an employee who works flexible hours like these might seem like a manager's nightmare, but im not the only one who advocates summertime scheduling. A recent blog article from US News Money explains "How Summer Hours Make Employees More Productive."

Citirix sponsored a white paper based on our findings titled Workshifting Benefit: The Bottom Line (PDF 2.3Mb). For additional resources and research on workshifting, please visit Citrix Online’s blog, at workshifting.com

What we found is that by working at home just half time:

• Employees could save up to $7,000 and gain 2-3 weeks of family time each year.
• Businesses could save over $10,000 per employee, attract better qualified workers, and improve disaster preparedness.
• U.S. could reduce Gulf Oil imports 37%, reduce green house gas equivalent tof taking 10 million cars off the road, and prevent 100,000 traffic-related injuries or deaths.

How about you? Do you think a summer schedule would work for you? How do you plan to use workshifting to make the most of the long summer days? Get out of the office this summer and enjoy it. Life is too short to spend 60 hours a week in a office with 4 walls.

Photo Credit Undress for success.com

What’s going on in the Desktop Receiver

What’s going on in the Desktop Receiver world – Synergy 2012

Sure – The whole world is crazy about tablets, smartphones, retinal displays, etc. – but there is great innovation happening at Citrix on the desktop front as well. In fact, it has been an interesting last 12 months, wherein as a product team we have witnessed certain areas of convergence between the mobile and desktop receivers. In certain others, we have intentionally let them take independent paths (FYI – our definition of desktops includes Windows PCs, Macs and Linux thin clients).

Let’s roll back a few years, when desktop receivers were introduced to serve as a container for the 7 or so clients that Citrix delivered to a user. Suddenly, the Citrix world went from 7 sys tray icons to one – Sweet!. But, those were simpler times! In the last few years, the IT world has gone for a spin: we have added new acronyms like BYOD to an already crowded IT alphabet soup, invented new words like ‘Consumerization’, and made IT managers nervous with concepts like self-service and app stores.

Guess what – Receivers (and specifically desktop receivers) have drastically evolved with these changing times. And a good place to learn about this evolution and participate in this dialogue is Synergy 2012. Specifically, I want to highlight your attention to the session around Desktop Receivers. During this session, my intent is to take you all on a journey, in which we discuss the following topics:

• Interesting innovations in the HDX front

• Going beyond desktop virtualization with Web/SaaS apps & Data

• Interesting developments and products in the Linux thin-client ecosystem

• A new streamlined approach to software delivery and updates

Let’s get the dialogue started – I look forward to hearing your comments on this blog and also seeing you at this session. Go ahead and register here for Synergy 2012, and get ready for a good time in San Francisco!

Remote Desktop vs Citrix for DaaS

As Desktop as a Service (DaaS) continues to grow, we have been getting more questions about how WorkPlace compares to other DaaS solutions that use Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), sometimes called Terminal Services or Remote Desktop Services. While both technologies can connect you to a hosted desktop, there are many important differences that have real impact on your business.

Remote Desktop

Microsoft includes the Remote Desktop client on Windows operating systems and the Terminal Services server component is included on Windows Servers. This is an easy way for administrators to enable a remote desktop session to a computer. For many DaaS providers this is their first system for providing hosted desktops because it is relatively easy and inexpensive to implement.

To be fair, the very first version of WorkPlace used Remote Desktop and Terminal Services Gateway to provide remote access to our customers. We very quickly found the shortcomings of remote desktop.

Printing: To print from remote desktop, the print drivers that your client computer uses have to all be loaded up on the server and setup with the exact same name. As there are more and more types of printers and users involved in your organization, this grows as an issue requiring your staff to call the help desk whenever they have a new printer or use only very specific printer models increasing costs.

Performance: Remote desktop was designed to run on high-speed local networks that are even faster than today’s broadband networks. In a remote desktop session, specific tasks like scrolling through a web page or PDF document can feel very slow. Additionally these sessions don’t manage bandwidth well so if you have many users logging in from the same office, one person can use up most of the bandwidth slowing things down for everyone else.

Security: By default, terminal servers do not use encryption; all information is transmitted in what we call “plain text.” This means that any information intercepted on a wireless connection or in transit can be read by any computer listening. Microsoft has a solution with the use of Terminal Services Gateway, but some of the RDP clients (like those for MacOS) do not support this so you are stuck trading off between security and convenience. On a side note: I would not recommend any provider who does not use terminal services gateway as it also means your servers are more closely exposed to the Internet and vulnerable to virus and hacking attacks.

Citrix XenApp

Virsage uses Citrix XenApp software to provide secure remote connections to Mac’s, PC’s, iPads, iPhones, and Android systems. Citrix has been the leader in application and desktop publishing for over a decade, and they are the industry gold standard for DaaS hosting.

Citrix solves all of the issues of printing, security, and performance that are inherent to the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Citrix clients are available for most every platform available today as well as a web login. The performance differences with audio streaming, scrolling, website flash redirection, and multi-monitor support have a huge impact on the usability of the system from the user’s perspective. Citrix is a key component in our ability to provide load-balanced, high-availability, scalable systems that are crucial to providing business-grade DaaS.

Will companies pay attention to new operating systems (i.e. Windows 8)?

Traditionally application compatibility has driven the Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) to choose a single operating system OS/hardware platform.  This homogeneous environment – regardless of whether it was Windows, Mac, or Linux - was easier to maintain, reduced costs and increased system availability.  As more applications are available via Software as a Service (SaaS) that run from a browser on any OS or are delivered by technologies such as Citrix XenApp to any device, companies are looking to flexibility as a main requirement for their IT infrastructure.  The OS and hardware become a user-specific preference that allows employees to choose the environment that they are most productive in at any given time – a thin client from the office, an iPad from a meeting or an Android smartphone from a lunch meeting.   This shift will move the emphasis from standardizing the OS/hardware as a focal point to enabling any OS/hardware.

Zen and the Art of Microsoft Software Licensing

Even accomplished technology professionals at times find Microsoft Licensing to be confusing, redundant, and expensive. Far too many companies are either paying too much or too little for their software licenses and the costs of non-compliance have real impacts on a business.

At issue is firstly the purchase of software products like the Microsoft Office suite of personal productivity applications or the Windows Operating System on each laptop and desktop. The ability to purchase new computers with this software pre-loaded helps to keep the bulk of the world compliant on licensing costs, but as computer equipment is replaced and software that was preloaded gets installed on other computers many companies begin to run afoul of the law. How should a company balance the different replacement cycles of software and hardware without violating licensing agreements or spending money needlessly? Subscription model software licensing is the solution.

Virsage WorkPlace takes advantage of Microsoft’s Service Provider Licensing Agreements (SPLAs) to be able to provide software like Microsoft Office, Windows Client Access Licenses, Windows Server, and Microsoft Exchange to WorkPlace customers in a per-use model. Our system ensures that companies are using legally purchased licenses for all of the software they are taking advantage of. Not only does compliance now become a non-issue, but customers only pay for the software that they actually use. The amount of software used by each company is measured and billed accordingly so firms are never stuck paying for software that they don’t use. Additionally, this subscription model assures that the latest versions of software are always included, so there are not new purchase costs every few years as new releases become available.

We think pay-per-use models just make sense. That’s why we provide our services in this fashion, and that’s why we take advantage of these models from companies like Microsoft.

Dine, Snack and Taste

Dine, Snack and Taste with Virsage WorkPlace

Mark Templeton (Citrix President and CEO) used a Dine, Snack and Taste analogy to compare eating habits to mobilization at Citrix Synergy this Spring in San Francisco. With the Thanksgiving weekend approaching, it seems the perfect time to share his insight. To increase productivity, employees need to be able to access information and collaborate with clients/colleagues, anywhere at anytime and on any device. For most employees this means the combination of a desktop/laptop, iPad or tablet and a smartphone. Let’s take a look at how these various devices correlate to the holiday culinary experience.

When sitting down to your Thanksgiving feast this year you will most likely be in a comfortable chair with multiple serving dishes surrounding you, sturdy dining utensils will allow you to consume mass quantities of turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes and pie. The same is true when working from your desktop or laptop. Chances are you will be working with high resolution HD monitors connected to fast processors and large hard drives that allow you to easily use and view a cornucopia of applications on your desktop. The large desktop landscape allows you to intuitively navigate applications and websites while Skyping with family and friends; a true feast of information processing for your dining pleasure.

Now imagine that you are at a holiday party. Trays of stuffed mushrooms, bowls of spinach dip and shrimp cocktail are all within grazing distance. The constant conversations and limited seating keep you on your feet as you make your way through the crowd. The result is you eating from a paper plate that is balanced on your glass of cider. While you are able to enjoy the taste and atmosphere of the food and company –the formalness and duration of experience is much different from the holiday dinner. This snacking experience is played out on the tablet and iPad devices where users get easy and quick access to information but quickly move on to the next task at hand.

After the big dinners and parties have come and gone, the leftovers have the refrigerator packed to the top. As you walk through the kitchen, a quick stop by the icebox lets you quickly satisfy your craving for that last bite of pumpkin pie that is sitting on the shelf. Smartphones enable the taste of sending and receiving important documents, collaborating with associates or checking important metrics from virtually any place you desire.

Virsage WorkPlace is built on Citrix technology and allows users to choose the amount of information they would like to consume and where/how they would like to dine. By enabling employees to choose the platform and location that works for them, organizations will benefit from increased productivity, overall job satisfaction and decreased costs. We at Virsage would like to extend Thanks to all of our business partners and customers and hope that you are all able to spend time with your family and friends.