Empowering developers in financial services with desktop as a service

The pandemic has accelerated the trend toward remote working environments but it also pushed governance and security issues to the top of the priority list for IT departments within financial institutions. Employees, and developers in particular, need the technological agility to work remotely given the hybrid workplace model being adopted by the majority of organisations. For financial institutions, it’s key to have a reliable and performant remote desktop solution that is easy for mobile workers to use, yet highly secure. Business and technology leaders at financial institutions are increasingly taking a cloud-first approach to remote work applications, including hyperscale-based desktop as a service solutions.

What is desktop as a service?

Desktop as a service (DaaS) is a model for delivering virtual desktops to end users, including providing the requisite network, storage, compute, virtualisation, and tools, directly to enterprises from the cloud. This includes the network that provides secure access over VPN and built-in identity management access to those critical systems. For storage and compute, IT departments at financial institutions no longer have to forecast, purchase, and configure these resources on an ongoing basis.

Benefits of desktop as a service for financial institutions

There are several benefits financial institutions can gain from DaaS:

Security

The right DaaS solution improves performance, optimises security and governance as critical applications and data are centralised and not sitting on multiple endpoint devices. 

Cost Reduction

Working with a DaaS provider enables IT departments at financial institutions to move provisioning desktop infrastructure from being a capital expense to a predictable operating expense. Most DaaS providers offer a full suite of services for a per user, per month, subscription fee. This allows enterprises to only pay for the users currently on the platform, scaling up and down as needed, while having access to a team of experts that can keep their system up-to-date and secure without ongoing investment from their IT departments.

Scalability

Financial institutions require an agile desktop infrastructure that can adapt to evolving business needs. DaaS providers offer flexible desktops that can be scaled instantly. Since the desktops are virtual, their configuration can be easily customised.

Accessibility

Financial institutions need to be agile and flexible enough to meet the demands of their ‘always on’ customers. Accessible from any device, anytime, anywhere, DaaS solutions enable finance professionals to cater to customers from different time zones, whether at the office, on the road, or at home.

Productivity

Desktop service management tasks, including provisioning of new desktops, upgrades, patches and addressing other security issues, are all performed by the DaaS partner in a central location. This delivers better employee experience with fewer IT disruptions, resulting in increased productivity. 

There are several DaaS providers, including leading cloud vendors like Amazon.

Amazon WorkSpaces

Amazon WorkSpaces offers a fully managed and highly secure cloud desktop solution across a broad hardware spectrum, without the upfront costs of deployment and configuration. They enable remote developers to access high-performance desktops from any location, preserving security.

The flexibility provided by Amazon WorkSpaces means developers can spin up and tear down high-end development machines for resource-intensive workloads as and when they are required, without the overhead of purchasing and maintaining additional hardware. This increased efficiency can represent a significant cost saving for financial institutions of all sizes.

Ubuntu Desktop on Amazon WorkSpaces

Until now, Amazon WorkSpaces offered the option of either Windows or Amazon Linux machines. With the addition of Ubuntu WorkSpaces, developers can use their preferred Linux operating system, with access to a wealth of open source tools and libraries in cutting-edge fields like data science and artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI/ML). Everything developers need to be productive is easily available and up to date for developers in the financial services industry through Ubuntu. 

Ubuntu also integrates well in a Windows-centric environment. With support for Microsoft’s Active Directory authentication technology and Windows group policy client, Ubuntu users in financial institutions can securely connect to the network resources they need.

IT administrators at financial institutions gain comprehensive control over their developer’s desktop environments, from security policies to installed applications. All Ubuntu WorkSpaces benefit from Ubuntu Pro, which includes support for expanded security patching for 10 years.

By leveraging Ubuntu Desktop on Amazon WorkSpaces IT admins can also avoid the overhead of mixed OS device management among developers.

Get started with Ubuntu Desktop on Amazon WorkSpaces

Amazon Workspaces offers a wealth of best practice guides and tutorials, including how to assign Amazon WorkSpaces to users from a directory service. More information is available in the AWS guide to getting started on Amazon WorkSpaces.

Join our webinar in German to learn more about Ubuntu Desktop for AWS WorkSpaces on December 8th at 10:00 CET. It will be led by Michael Jaeger, Product Manager Cloud Native followed by a Q & A session with Oliver Smith, Product Manager, Ubuntu Desktop and Srikrishna ‘Kris’ Sharma, Financial Services Sector Leader.

Pricing for Ubuntu WorkSpaces is connected to users’ hardware requirements. More information and detailed pricing can be found on the Amazon WorkSpaces page.

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