Back in 2018, 70% of the companies surveyed in a ZDNet Tech Pro Research study said that they either had a digital transformation (DX) strategy in place or were working on one. Since then, the global boom in remote work—not to mention the repeated findings that digitally mature companies also have better financial performance—has only accelerated those efforts.
Many organizations have identified the cloud as the lynchpin in their DX initiatives. But the cloud isn’t some magic time machine that instantly turns old habits and legacy technologies into new, streamlined ones. True digital transformation is about finding modern, innovative technologies to replace traditional approaches.
The desktop is a perfect case in point. The “desktop-as-workspace” paradigm has pretty much been with us since the dawn of personal computing, which has left organizations trying to figure out how to bundle it into their DX strategy. Some have turned to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or Desktop as a Service (DaaS) as a solution, but that’s often proved counterproductive. DX is supposed to be about decreasing your physical footprint and optimizing your operations, yet VDI and DaaS come with a lot of IT baggage and extra costs.
What this calls for—and is in keeping with the real intent of DX—is moving beyond the desktop. One way to envision it is this: If the cloud is the ship your organization is relying on to get you to your digital destination, the desktop is the anchor that’s holding you back and preventing your progress.
Think apps, not desktops
Why not give that anchor the old heave-ho and make it about the apps instead?
Unlike virtual desktops, which introduce complexity and saddle users with functionality they don’t need, virtual app delivery (VAD) aligns with DT initiatives by right-sizing your digital workspaces to suit your users. They get access to all of the software and applications they need to stay productive from anywhere—nothing more, nothing less.
Just as importantly, when it’s done right, virtual app delivery is the clear winner when it comes to ease of use. Whereas VDI can be confusing to users who are accustomed to Chromebooks and mobile devices, virtual app delivery can make accessing business-critical apps as simple as visiting a web page. Removing those usability barriers is a key enabler of DX too.
Those same qualities make virtual app delivery ideal for work from home (WFH), hybrid work, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scenarios. It gives users the freedom and flexibility to access apps securely from whatever device they want to use, no matter where they are. The very idea of supporting VDI sessions on any client device sounds like an IT nightmare, if not an outright impossibility. With virtual app delivery, device agnosticism lies at the very heart of the solution itself.
This is how virtual app delivery plays with the digital transition to web apps and BYOD while VDI plays against it. VDI keeps the legacy Windows environment at the center of the computing experience, which makes DX more painful. App delivery, on the other hand, creates an optimized alternative to the legacy Windows environment. That paves the way for an IT environment based on modern tools and BYOD.
Incidentally, this is why the 2021 “VDI Like a Pro” survey on the state of end-user computing found that 17% of organizations were planning to move away from their current virtual desktop solutions in favor of virtual apps. That will put virtual app adoption on a par with virtual desktops. The same report also noted that hybrid work scenarios are going to be the norm going forward, which will make multi-environment, multi-device flexibility all more essential to any DX strategy.
Smooth your digital transformation with Cameyo
Even if organizations are eager to migrate away from VDI and accelerate their digital transformation, the idea of abandoning their legacy Windows software altogether can be daunting. That’s where virtual app delivery scores another win.
With Cameyo, organizations can facilitate their DX by delivering their existing Windows apps as virtual apps without changing a single line of code. In as little as 10 minutes, internal and legacy Windows software can be published as universal HTML5 apps that users can access from any browser. This completely removes any learning curve or redevelopment costs. Users are able to work with their familiar business-critical software on any device, and IT can support them with just a few clicks.
Better still, Cameyo’s NoVPN maintains ease of access without exposing the internal network to the security risks of VDI and VPNs.
If the cloud is central to your DX initiative, Cameyo’s cloud-native approach to virtual app delivery will fit right into your strategy. Cameyo’s fully hosted service runs in your choice of Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure, and there are native integrations with G Suite, Office 365 as well as popular cloud storage solutions. Naturally, there’s also a self-hosted version of Cameyo that enables you to utilize Cameyo in any cloud environment you choose, deploy Cameyo on-premises, or any multi-cloud or hybrid scenario you may have as well
With Cameyo’s robust and seamless virtual app delivery, organizations aren’t faced with figuring out how to take their desktops to the cloud. Instead they get the freedom to break away from the cost, complexity and security issues of virtual desktops that are holding back their digital transformation. But don’t take our word for it – see what customers access industries have to say about Cameyo in our case studies here, or take a look at the ever-evolving database of customer feedback collected by third-party research firm TechValidate to see how customers rank Cameyo.
Take 15 seconds to sign up for your free trial of Cameyo today and experience it for yourself.