Awingu - Secure Remote & Homeworking On Any Device

In this COVID-19 pandemic situation, we have seen how remote working is the future. The technical innovation, which was long due, has been forced upon us by the force of nature. It is high time that we use technology to innovate our work culture. Remote working has never been easy due to privacy concerns, technical problems, and internet-related issues. But today, we have sufficient resources and tools to make remote working feasible. One such company is Awingu providing fast, low-cost, and secure remote & homeworking on any device.

Awingu, founded at the end of 2011 and commercially launched in 2014, has an international scale and is active in over 20 countries spanning across every continent. The Awingu software is distributed through a global distribution network and sold via a primarily partner-driven model and has strategic partnerships with technology giants such as BlackBerry, Barracuda, and Microsoft. Furthermore, Awingu is also available via the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.

When the 'friction' between IT departments and the end-users grow in significance, Awingu remains dedicated to closing that gap. Awingu's easy-to-use and highly secure unified workspace balance end-users' requests for a seamless experience to work anywhere, on any device with the IT administrators' worries about the security of their data and its complexity their infrastructure. At Awingu, they are dedicated to improving every stakeholder's life by easily, securely, and cost-efficiently, enabling the future of work – one where the workspace is digital, not physical.

Awingu Product Overview

Awingu lets you access all your legacy Windows applications and desktops from within the Awingu browser-based workspace. No changes are needed in the applications, nothing to install on your device (laptop, desktop, Apple Mac, Chromebook, Raspberry Pi, etc). Awingu leverages the "Remote Desktop Protocol" (RDP) to access applications and desktops.

Awingu has out-of-the-box connectors for popular SaaS applications such as Microsoft Office 365, GSuite, and Salesforce (Awingu can be used as your "Identity Provider" (IdP)). Furthermore, Awingu can easily be integrated with external IdP's such as Okta, Google Identity, and Microsoft Azure Active Directory, which enables you to extend the Single-Sign-On to over 5000 SaaS applications easily.

Awingu provides secure external access to internal websites (like an intranet) and internal web applications (such as your CRM and marketing tools) via the Awingu workspace by leveraging the "Awingu reverse proxy." With Awingu, you get access to your company-shared drive, SharePoint, and Office 365 OneDrive via your browser. Their web-based file manager provides a unified view across all drives (on-premise or in any cloud), supports all common file/folder operations, and offers drag-and-drop functionality, file sharing, and breadcrumb navigation. Once authenticated into the Awingu workspace, it is no more needed to add login & password credentials to access connected applications, desktops, or file servers. Awingu takes care of the 'Single Sign-On' in full security.

Awingu's Architecture

Awingu leverages a company's current architecture and is deployed as a virtual appliance on most hypervisors. This can be a private or public cloud. From there, Awingu connects to a classic back-end environment. It links with Active Directory, LDAP, or an external IdP for user management. It can connect to application servers running Microsoft RDP for legacy applications or desktops. Web applications (e.g., intranet) can be connected via the "Awingu Reverse Proxy." Finally, it can connect to classic file systems via WebDAV and CIFS and cloud storage environments such as Microsoft's OneDrive.

For end-users, everything is available on a browser via Awingu's online workspace. No need to install agents, plugins, etc. The benefits of using Awingu are:

• Simple gateway architecture: Awingu virtual appliance uses standard protocols (e.g., RDP, CIFS) to communicate to the back-end: easy to set up and manage Aggregates legacy RDP Apps & desktops, file servers, websites & SaaS
• Lightweight & any cloud: Virtual Appliance can run on as little as 1 Linux VM for up to 500 concurrent app sessions. Available for all leading hypervisors and public clouds, all features run from the same product
• Single sign-on: Leverage AD/Windows credentials or external ldP. SSO with RDP, reverse proxy, SaaS, or file servers
• Secure & compliant: Built-in features such as MFA SSL certificates, usage auditing, granular controls, etc. Add security on top of naked RDS access
• Open architecture: Easy to connect and leverage external services out of the box (e.g., MFA printing, auto-provisioning, etc.) Awingu's Open API can be used for automation
• Multi-tenant & easy to scale: Service provider ready with built-in multi-tenancy, even from one single VM deployment

Mobile Working Without Constraints

The concept of (Bring your own device) BYOD was first introduced in 2009, but only in 2011, it started to become an emerging trend. Right now, in 2020, it's a fundamental strategy to enable your workforce with remote working. This allows productivity gains. Employees are more comfortable and often work faster with their own technology. Due to this, your company can also save on hardware spend, software licensing, and device maintenance.

BYOD also brings flexible working, bringing more satisfaction to the employees. Awingu makes all software, including legacy and files, available in a browser. As such, it runs on any device with a browser. And that covers a lot of form factors. You can log in via any browser. There is no need to install any agents or plugins, nor to maintain and manage these locally installed "agents" and "plugins." Awingu runs inside the browser. There is no local data on the device (if you don't want to). This is a significant benefit from a security and compliance point of view. Awingu's workspace optimizes user experience based on the user's context, e.g., pushing a mandatory "strong authentication" when logging in from outside the company network. Given there is no need to manage devices from a deployment or security/compliance perspective, IT organizations can gain significant cost optimizations when adopting browser-based workspace.

"At Awingu, we are dedicated to improving the life of every stakeholder in the company by easily, securely and cost-efficiently enabling the future of work – one where the workspace is digital, not physical."