Amazon WorkSpaces

Introduction to Amazon WorkSpaces

Amazon WorkSpaces is a fully managed secure cloud desktop that make it easy for users to access applications, documents, and resources from anywhere on any supported device. This is available to provision on Windows, Linux, Mac, Chrome, iPads, Android tablets, Fire tablets, as well as Chrome and Firefox web browsers, delivering the ‘bring your own device’ experience to all end users. Amazon Workspaces allow you to provision high-quality cloud desktop experiences for any number of users. This way you can enable remote or contract employees and streamline test and development processes.

Since data is streamlined to your devices in an encrypted format and not stored locally, AWS Workspaces will help improve your security and reduce costs and complexity by eliminating the need for building out on-site infrastructure. In addition, this service is flexible where you can pay monthly or hourly depending on the needs of your organization. Overall, the costs are comparable to traditional desktops environments.

Amazon WorkSpaces Benefits

There are many benefits to organizations when using Amazon WorkSpaces. Amazon WorkSpaces makes it easy to manage your desktop computing infrastructure by eliminating the need for upfront investments. It also helps you avoid the complexity of maintaining, patching, and managing a large desktop environment. Furthermore, it is secure and provides each user with access to storage in AWS Cloud.

Using Amazon WorkSpaces is beneficial for both administrators and users. For admins, it helps to secure resources, lowering costs, delivering high-quality user experience, simplifying administration, and scaling it on demand. For the users, Amazon WorkSpaces supports getting instant access to apps and data, going between devices, and getting work done anywhere.

Amazon WorkSpaces Bundles

Amazon WorkSpaces offers choices of hardware and software, which are called bundles. They offer bundles of different amounts of CPU, memory, and storage to make sure you choose the right amount of resources for your requirement.

Because Amazon WorkSpaces resides in the cloud, users can access their desktop from any supported device or browser. It, also, securely integrates with your corporate active directory, so that users continue using their enterprise credentials to access company resources, making it easy to manage your workspaces using familiar system management tools.

Amazon WorkSpaces vs. VDI or PC

Amazon WorkSpaces are superior to on-premise VDI or PCs. The on-premise VDI or PCs can take months to set up for the user and have an upfront capital investment. In addition, Amazon WorkSpaces provide a more secure environment, is more scalable, provides an application manager, and there is no maintenance.

Amazon WorkSpaces Security

Amazon WorkSpaces provides top-notch security. The following are key security factors:

1. Compliance – It is compliant and conforms to payment card industry data security standards.
2. Credentials- Users sign in using their own credentials, which they can create after a WorkSpaces has been provisioned to them.
3. Digital certificates – Digital certificates are a digital form of identity that is valid for a specific amount of time which is used as a credential which provides information about the identity of an entity as well as other supporting information.
4. Access – You can restrict access to WorkSpaces based on the client OS type and using digital certificates.
5. Multi-factor authentication- Multi-factor authentication adds an additional layer of security during the authentication process. Users must validate their identity by providing something they know, such as a password as well as something they have such as a one-time password.
6. Encryption – There are 3 supported encryptions that provide data stored at rest, disk output to the volume, and snapshots created by the volume.

Amazon WorkSpaces help organizations’ needs such as graphic applications, have remote workers, students, or developers. Does this sound like something that your organization may benefit from using? Cloud Rush is here to help. We offer complimentary consultations that will help you better understand where your organization is and where AWS products, such as Amazon WorkSpaces, can provide value.