The disruptive road to mass telework

With my home city in a state of emergency and Teradici corporate staff home-lifted at a single days’ notice, I’m adjusting to a new normality, as we all are. Teradici is responding to the pressing interest in our PCoIP technology and solutions in several ways - increased customer support, new licensing flexibility and additional focused documentation to assist enterprises with urgent needs.  This post provides some context for a Work-from-Home (WFH) Rapid Response Guide recently published by Teradici – aimed as a quick start guide if you’re new to the PCoIP protocol or an existing customer needing to switch entire departments from LAN to WAN infrastructure immediately.

Cloud Access Software WFH Architecture at a Glance

Security remains a priority

Spatial distancing and lockdown concerns aside, corporate security remains top of mind for IT managers seeking short-term solutions.  Opportunistic phishing scams are on the rise and VPN technology should only be deployed with due consideration – besides standard telework guidelines published by NIST, IT departments should pay continued attention to cyber-security alerts, especially those related to VPN deployments.

Many options for connectivity

Media and Entertainment studios using Cloud Access Software to connect artists across air-gapped boundaries to NVIDIA vDWS virtual workstations or physical NVIDIA Quadro workstations are well positioned to maintain security compliance by instantiating our Cloud Access Connectors which enable encrypted remote computing sessions into the secured data center without need for a VPN, and are also supported by multifactor authentication.

VFX studios and other enterprises using standalone deskside computers with integrated graphics or NVIDIA GeForce graphics in conjunction with PCoIP Remote Workstation Cards now have immediate options too – including deployment of either Cloud Access Software as sketched above or Remote Workstation Cards over VPN networks.  These are important alternatives to removing workstations and computers from the four walls of corporate security.  Corporate assets remain under strict control, while avoiding potentially severe productivity loss associated with dysfunctional workstations decoupled from storage networks.

In addition to on-premises computer access, Cloud Access Software enables public cloud desktops and virtual workstations on AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure which might provide options for employees or contactors who have recently needed to return to home countries.

Performance tuning

Once you’ve set up WFH connectivity, some protocol tuning may be required - the Rapid Response guide summarizes steps aimed at reducing network bandwidth consumption while maintaining the best possible user experience, especially over challenging home wi-fi networks. With so many of us now working from home, let’s all play our part and not collectively break the internet! Some of the recent PCoIP Ultra enhancements go a long way to helping out here – task workers can benefit from lossless text reproduction under default settings, while bandwidth-hungry video editors can be configured for NVENC encoding using chroma-subsampling (available since Release 2019.11) which can reduce network bandwidth by 75% or more.  For artists using Wacom products, be sure to enable local termination so they can continue uninhibited – more than ever we’re looking forward to their inspiring creativity.

Closing thoughts

I believe the age of mass telework is now upon us - a positive initiative for our future planet, but few might have predicted such a disruptive catalyst.  Please keep your distance and stay safe out there!

Teradici is offering special 3-month subscriptions to support remote work and business continuity requirements. This temporary offer is available through June 30, 2020. Contact us or visit our remote working microsite to learn more.