Insurance

One of the leading independent intermediaries in Europe was able to deploy DesktopDirect in order to provide a cost-effective, scalable business continuity planning (BCP) solution, as well as enable 3rd parties with access to limited resources, without having to build out additional VPN capabilities. The firm’s employees needed to be able to continue processing claims in a timely manner through transit strikes and inclement weather. Additionally, external parties needed to have easy access to limited resources “on-demand” — that is, quickly and in many cases temporarily, without requiring configuration changes in the network. Because of DesktopDirect’s remote desktop access, SSL encryption, and ease of deployment capabilities, employees were able to continue working through the aftermath of a volcanic eruption that affected most of the continent’s travel routes, and consultants and auditors have been able to start and end projects efficiently, without causing IT undue additional workload.

Education

For a large university in the south central region of the US, DesktopDirect has provided a realistic solution to satisfy the requirement to comply to the state’s disaster recovery (DR) mandate. Realizing that implementing a scalable DR plan could require excessive time and break IT budget, the university decided to look beyond standard VPN solutions in order to avoid installing the same applications on multiple computers and servers. DesktopDirect was the perfect solution, easily scaling to meet the DR requirement, even for an extreme situation such as a large-scale H1N1 outbreak. The resource-constrained IT department was able to deploy quickly and easily, avoiding losing valuable time that would have been required to custom-build a DR solution from VPN and web-based access methods, and was able to re-purpose many servers, saving additional costs overall.

Financial Services

Using DesktopDirect, one of the top 5 US-based financial services firm has maintained business continuity through disruptions over the past 3 years, servicing over 30,000 worldwide employees in 8 locations. The firm provides regular and occasional telecommuters with on-demand access to office computers. DesktopDirect has enabled the firm to avoid unnecessary revenue losses from disruptions — for example, during an unexpected heavy snowfall that happened to occur on a Friday, nearly 15,000 unique users logged in from home and other remote locations — nearly twice the daily capacity of 8,500, enabling the firm to transparently conduct financial transactions and provide continued research and analysis services to clients throughout the world. DesktopDirect’s unique architecture enabled the financial institution to maintain compliance with regulations and avoid any risks of data leakage outside their corporate offices.

Public Utilities

DesktopDirect has enabled a large provider of electric services within the to implement a real disaster recovery (DR) plan — in their words, “one that really works”. Mandated by the government to have a DR strategy in place, the provider needed a secure solution that was easy to deploy and intuitive for users, requiring minimal training and ideally enabling users to log in with their everyday, single sign-on (SSO) credentials. Because VPN required training for new VPN users to learn, and because an alternative remote desktop access solution required remembering an additional password, the provider chose DesktopDirect, and has been happy with the deployment, as it “simply works” and provides an easy, secure, intuitive DR solution. The provider is able to maintain high levels of service to its community through disruptive events, while maintaining compliance to the government regulation for DR implementation and keeping data securely on its corporate network.

Software

One of the world’s largest business software providers was unnecessarily burning resources to bring staff on-site from around the globe. Employees, engineers, and consultants in different countries were required for day-to-day operational and implementation support for customers within India. Because of VPN access restrictions, personnel were required to fly to India to provide support, costing the company in productivity time and travel expenses. With DesktopDirect, the company enabled staff to provide customer support without requiring travel or fat client installations from remote locations. Because of DesktopDirect’s data leakage protection and desktop access capabilities, the company maintained compliance to each customer’s individual security requirements.

Energy

With DesktopDirect, a large oil manufacturer immediately established BCP compliance measures, as mandated by the national government, and assured consistent energy production levels to its region through disruptive events, including an H1N1 outbreak. For the first time, the oil manufacturer’s proprietary and custom applications, only permitted to run on office computers, were made accessible remotely while maintaining compliance to corporate regulations, without any data leakage, which ensured security for sensitive data regarding production levels and distribution schedules.

Health Care

DesktopDirect enabled a large health care industry provider to offer anytime, anywhere access to work computers, which was especially critical for non-technical users. The solution’s data leakage prevention capability prevented the accidental loss of medical information, enabling the provider to maintain HIPAA compliance for remote users. DesktopDirect provided a way to ensure continuity of time-sensitive medical treatments when hospital administrative staff could not get into their offices for any number of reasons, and significantly reduced the number of VPN users and laptops, enabling the provider to implement a critical BCP measure while staying well within IT’s limited budget.