What is Workspace as a Service (WaaS) and How It Works?

The evolution of modern technology has brought innovation and agility into diverse business functions. With the working model having changed in the global business scenario, the need for virtualization has arisen.  

The conventional sit-in-the-office workspaces are being transformed into digital workspaces, giving employees flexibility they deserve.

 

What is Workspace as a Service (WaaS) and How It Works?

What Is a Digital Workspace? 

Digital workspace is a technology framework that combines all the applications required for the hybrid workforce to collaborate securely and get work done from anywhere, on any device. Digital Workspace as a service unifies and gives a friction-free user experience. A digital workspace is a new-age solution where users get their desired apps, virtual desktops, and data delivered on their personal devices from a remote cloud infrastructure. 

Businesses are going for Workspace as a Service (WaaS) offered by a third-party provider that takes away all the hassles of deploying the digital workspace on office premises and minimizes capital and operational costs. The WaaS providers also take care of everything from desktop deployment, implementation, data security, and application delivery to software updates. 

Further, this blog covers: 

  • What makes the digital workspace collaborative? 
  • How does WaaS work? 
  • Benefits of Workspace as a service 
  • Should you go for digital workspace solutions? 
  • ACE managed Workspace as a service 

What Makes The Digital Workspace Collaborative?

What will you get by deploying a digital workspace or a workspace as a service? A workspace is considered successful when it can unify, secure, and simplify the IT team’s work by bringing all the applications from Windows or Android in one location— the centralized cloud. 

Thereby, the users can have reliable access to apps and simplify workflow across any location or device.  

It comes with a whole lot of security features to integrate with endpoint management solutions, including Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Endpoint firewall, and Intrusion Detection and Prevention System. Simply, Workspace as a service removes friction and IT bottlenecks by delivering fully-managed digital workspace to firms. 

Try Citrix Workspace solutions

Effective workspaces deliver: 

Good Collaboration: A digital workspace offers a platform for the workforce to connect and share data repositories and applications with other employees or even clients.   

A Unified Platform: Managed Workspace acts as a platform to provide a data-focused cloud environment so that employees can be productive regardless of location  

A Secure Framework: Workspace is supported by well-defined security and compliance concepts that ensure role-based access is provided according to the organization’s culture.   

Unmatched User Experience: Workspace as a service is a simple and intuitive framework that is easy to personalize and scale as per business needs. Focused on cloud-driven technology, a digital workspace ensures customized experience for users with the right set of tools to get work done. 

Start working smarter, not harder, with ACE’s hassle-free managed workspace services

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How does WaaS Work?

The basic functioning of Workspace as a Service revolves around delivering flexible workspaces to create a remote cloud environment across end-user devices. Here’s how it works: 

  • The provider deploys a workspace solution on their infrastructure (preferably cloud) created in state-of-the-art data centers. 
  • The workspace solution enables the creation of flexible virtual desktops and the installation of the desired applications. 
  • These apps and desktops are delivered on the users’ endpoint devices (smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc.). 
  • Users need to install client software on their endpoint devices where they can access the personalized Workspace. 
  • Users can access the entire Workspace with a Single Sign-On (SSO) option, so they do not need to remember multiple passwords. To enhance security, WaaS Providers deploy multi-factor authentication for the workspaces. 
  • Once setup is done, end-users can request their preferred apps and virtual desktops, which the provider can deliver on their devices. 

Recommend Reading: Enhance Your Team’s Productivity with Flexible DaaS Solutions

Benefits Of Workspace as A Service 

Looking for reasons to implement digital workspace? Firstly, a managed workspace as a service brings along new innovative ways of collaboration. Here are a few of the significant benefits of a workspace. 

1. Work From Anywhere, Enhance Productivity 

One of the primary requirements of a competitive business landscape is to offer a delightful experience to employees. This makes it paramount that the workforce should be well-equipped to cater to their needs at all times. However, working from the office means that a single night of heavy snowfall impacting travel the next day can cause a dip in productivity. 

With WaaS, employees can work from their preferred location and time. As your digital workspace can be accessed from personal devices through the Internet, coming to the office to accomplish tasks is no longer necessary. You could be sitting at home, traveling, or on vacation, yet all the apps and virtual desktops will always be at your fingertips. This helps build customer relationships as there’s no moment when their queries go unanswered. 

Check out Expert Opinion: 

Ian Moyse Views on Virtual Desktop Solution & Virtualization (acecloudhosting.com) 

2. Get Secure Digital Workspace, Build Trust In Data Security

The more people work remotely, the more security becomes a concern for the enterprise. Since users work on personal devices with different networks, IPs, and endpoints, it becomes difficult to ensure data security.  

Deploying on-premises IT solutions poses some security vulnerabilities due to the physical hardware involved. For instance, as the data is stored on local servers or systems, any malfunction can cause data loss. Another thing to note is that deploying physical desktops in the office calls for a dedicated security team and protocols. 

workspace as a service

Once you have a clear image of what is Workspace for your business, you get to know that the security  is the priority. However, you don’t need to worry about it, and the provider is responsible for that. Since the Workspace is only delivered to your endpoint device and not actually installed, any damage to your devices does not cause data loss. 

Moreover, at the backend, WaaS providers deploy advanced safeguards such as OS patching of desktops, antivirus, data encryption, 24/7 network monitoring, and innovative policies to ensure complete protection of your workspaces. 

Know more about ACE virtual desktops’ security, read here: 

How Safe is Your Data with ACE Virtual Desktop Infrastructure? (acecloudhosting.com) 

3. Reduce Capital Expenses, Convert them To Operating Expenses

Setting up a comfortable yet productive workspace on the office premises calls for some unavoidable expenses. The foremost thing to consider is the office space required to accommodate the workforce. Once you have acquired suitable office space, you need to purchase physical desktops for the employees. This also makes the deployment of a dedicated IT team necessary. 

By opting for Workspace as a Service, businesses can minimize the costs mentioned above. With WaaS, companies can deploy BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy, enabling employees to work on their personal devices like smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Hence, there is no need to purchase physical desktops in the office. 

Consequently, a dedicated IT team in the office becomes unnecessary. You can also optimize the office space because of the reduction in on-premises hardware. 

Read more: Workspace As a Service Vs. Desktop as a Service (acecloudhosting.com) 

4. Customize Your Workspace Solutions, Get Unmatched User Experience

In the conventional office workspace, businesses need to assign dedicated desktops to each employee. However, some employees only require one or two apps to accomplish their tasks – assigning them a desktop is a waste of hardware resources. Moreover, the desktop configurations also differ from user to user. 

WaaS offers flexible workspaces wherein you get what you need. The WaaS providers facilitate seamless application delivery to the end-user devices, where even a single application can be delivered instead of a dedicated virtual desktop. This leads to resource optimization, which, in turn, reduces overall costs. 

Explore the benefits of VDI with Citrix DaaS

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5. Ensure Business Continuity, Work Uninterrupted

Ensuring continuous business operations involves the availability of business apps and data whenever you need them. However, a conventional IT setup is often subject to hardware malfunction and security threats that can delay your process. 

Good WaaS providers in the market ensure an all-time availability of the apps and virtual desktops by creating workspaces on multi-redundant infrastructure. The redundancy of servers, equipment, and networks ensures that work is uninterrupted even if hardware malfunctions. 

Moreover, redundancy is extended to the data center level, where your workspaces are replicated in multiple data centers to protect them from disasters.  

Should You Go For Digital Workspace Solutions?

Workspace service proves to be beneficial for several use cases. Let’s have a closer look at Workspace as a service use cases: 

workspace as a service

  • To Support Remote Work

The remote work model has rolled out the adoption of cloud technologies in the last few years. Firms need a digital work environment to ensure employees can communicate and manage without hassles. Workspace lays the ground for firms to hire talent from around the globe. 

  • To Ensure Greater Security

Studies say ‘49% of all corporate data is stored in the cloud.’ 

Having WaaS is just like a consolidated WAN solution that can securely support BYOD and unmanaged devices. It is a fully integrated solution that provides secure access to IT sanctioned apps for local internet breakouts. Businesses with sensitive information can ensure that data is secure and accessible only by concerned team members. This allows cross-organizational teams such as sales or research teams to benefit from a single working environment that connects common resources and disparate workflows. 

Know more: Our Security | Ace Cloud Hosting 

  • To Manage Contract Workers 

When a workforce operates from different locations, it becomes difficult for the IT leaders to offer them collective resources to complete any work. Deploying WaaS can help you unlock the power of cloud so that there are no unstructured workflows. Moreover, this scalable solution makes it easier to employ freelancers and contractors as you can manage scattered workflows and applications from a central location. 

workspace as a service

ACE Managed Workspace as a Service 

Workspace as a Service (WaaS) is undoubtedly set to become the new mode of working in the coming years. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a crucial role in the increased adoption of WaaS due to the necessity of an efficient remote working environment during these times. You, too, can look for WaaS solutions to offer employees a flexible, secure, and productive working platform. 

ACE takes away complexity for clients and comprises pre-defined integrations with add-on applications. It provisions the workloads and gives your employees a secure space to collaborate with clients and internal teams from any device or location. 

  • With ACE, you can enhance how teams work by unifying apps and improve productivity by streamlining remote workflows.  
  • Be free of security risks with a cloud-delivered workspace as a service by implementing zero-trust models and role-based access, and more.   
  • Modernize IT workloads with WaaS and virtual desktops, and let your IT team work in modern, consumer-like cloud desktops. 

To get tailor-made workspace solutions for your business, get in touch with our solutions Consultants. 

About Julie Watson

Julie is a dynamic professional with over 16 years of rich experience as a VDI and Application Hosting expert. At Ace Cloud Hosting, she humanizes disruptive and emerging remote working trends to help leaders discover new and better possibilities for digital transformation and innovation by using cloud solutions with an enterprise-class security approach. Beyond work, Julie is a passionate surfer.
On the weekend, you will find her hanging out with her family or surfing around the North Shore of Oahu.

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