TetherView Unveils Digital Bunker Service for Virtual Desktops
TetherView today launched Digital Bunker, a hosted IT environment through which IT services providers can manage and secure virtual desktops on organizations’ behalf.
Michael Abboud, CEO, TetherView, says that while the concept of a digital workspace for consistently accessing multiple applications has been around for some time, TetherView manages both the individual desktops and the IT infrastructure they are hosted on for a flat fee per user.
That approach has the added benefit of ensuring the entire IT environment meets SSAE 16 and SOC 2 requirements, using an IT environment based on a framework designed around National Institute of Standards (NIST) and the International Standards Organization (ISO) guidelines.
With many employees expected to continue working remotely once the COVID-19 pandemic eventually subsides, Abboud said organizations of all sizes are looking to transition to IT environments that are optimized for remote workers. Rather than building those environments themselves, TetherView is making the case for a IT service, based on VMware software, through which routine IT tasks are managed by TetherView. Organizations can opt to access Digital Bunker on IT infrastructure hosted by TetherView, or deploy it on a cloud service and have TetherView manage it on their behalf.
As part of that service, TetherView makes available its TetherView Pocket Protector, which combines a variety of end-user computing (EUC) technologies that manage applications running on any remote device. A TetherView Sync capability provides users with a single, secure location for hosting files that can be securely shared as an attachment, or via a link, with other users or external business partners.
Abboud said he doesn’t see TetherView replacing the need for an internal IT department. There’s a dashboard through which an internal IT department can manage and scale TetherView virtual desktops as they see fit, in addition to managing and monitoring all inbound and outbound data access. The real issue is that most internal IT teams simply don’t have the resources and expertise required to build and secure an IT environment that gives each employee a digital workspace that can be centrally secured and managed, Abboud said.
The biggest challenge organizations have today when transitioning to a platform like DigitalBunker is simply inertia. Many internal IT teams are concerned that such a move is, in essence, outsourcing their responsibilities and threatening their employment. Abboud said that, in reality, Digital Bunker makes it a lot easier for internal IT teams to focus on providing a better business application experience at a time when many more employees are working from home, and will be for the foreseeable future. It also eliminates the opportunity for end users to introduce unsanctioned applications into an IT environment, otherwise known as shadow IT, Abboud said.
In fact, Abboud noted that one of the most unfortunate aspects of the pandemic is that internal IT help desks are being crushed under the weight of support calls from remote users.
It’s already apparent that IT organizations will be making major investments to better enable remote access. While there are a slew of technologies that IT teams can employ to achieve that goal, the question that inevitably arises is whether it makes more sense to rely on an external service, especially when users are increasingly using software, delivered via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application model, that already resides outside the four walls of a traditional data center.
It may be some time before most organizations come to that conclusion. In the meantime, however, with end users already making extensive use of a wide variety of cloud services, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify deploying applications on local servers that are both difficult to secure and not easy to manage.
