In part, a response to a 2011 Executive Order to Agencies to limit the number of devices that are issued to employees, the new report shows that more and more sensitive data is now being accessed and stored on devices that are outside Federal Control. Only slightly less than 30% of the respondents claim to have a mobile device management solution in place to handle remote wipe/lock of lost or stolen devices – raising the spectre of data falling into in appropriate hands.

Much of that risk can be reduced, by the use of Hosted Desktop or Hosted Application technology, since this does not store any data on the device being used to access the Federal Systems.  Communication between the data centres and the device are encrypted using SSL and with the addition of three-factor authentication the employee device can be as secure as anything issued by the Employer.

For more information about Hosted Desktops and why they are the future of IT delivery, contact us

Drill down into the data further and the primary reason quoted by the M-SMBs for server retention is price (almost 65%) with security coming a distant second at 29%.

What makes that an odd statistic is the fact that “Desktop as a Service” solutions (like the entrustIT Hosted Desktop) have been rigorously calculated to cost around 65% of DIY solutions when compared over a 3 to 5 year period and they don’t require any up-front investment in technology.

If you’re a M-SMB or an SMB and you’re :

• Multi-site, Mobile or Working from Home or
• Considering investing in a Server for the first time or
• Close to the point where an existing server needs replacement

Then now might be the time to think about abandoning your DIY aspirations and looking at Hosted Desktops with an open mind.

Accessible at https://service.entrustit.co.uk/support, the new system allows a Hosted Desktop user to log an issue, track its progress and interact directly with the Support Team until resolution. Issues can also continue to be reported by Telephone or Email and these will also find their way into the ticketing system, ensuring a single point of reference for all issues recorded.

Stage 2 will be the provision of management review to designated individuals within each customer allowing for monitoring of all issues reported by that business. This will follow in the Spring when testing completes.

]]> http://www.onlinedesktop.com/new-hosted-desktop-support-system-introduced/feed/ 0 http://www.onlinedesktop.com/entrust-continue-investing-in-people/ http://www.onlinedesktop.com/entrust-continue-investing-in-people/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:30:23 +0000 entrustit http://www.onlinedesktop.com/?p=240 Continue reading →]]> As part of their ongoing professional development, entrust technical staff are encouraged to study for and achieve certification for a range of Microsoft technologies. Virtual classroom time in business hours is reinforced by personal study time at home, ensuring that our customer facing team are always well qualified to deal with technical support questions – even when the issue is local rather than within our Hosted Desktop environment.

We are delighted that Jake Edmonds and Joshua Pardey, both from our Technical Support Team,  have attained Microsoft certification for Hyper-V and Windows7 as part of our most recent training program. We are sure that our customers will appreciate their new skills when they need support.

• iPad & iPad2
• Samsung Galaxy
• Motorola Zoom
• Blackberry Playbook

The good news is that for existing customers, the only step required is to download the appropriate Citrix Receiver from the App Store for your device of choice. Point the device at https://connect.entrustit.co.uk and enter your credentials and that’s all that’s required.

The beauty of this is that you can get a fully functional Windows Hosted Desktop, with all the application software you need – on almost any operating system (iOS, Android, BB). Couple it to a 3G connected device and you truly are completely mobile.

CEO Jeff Dodd commented “Strong organic growth is always pleasing, but against the backdrop of continued economic uncertainty in the Eurozone these are great results. Having produced operating profits for fifteen straight months all new sales strengthen our financial position and allow us to look at future acquisitions for even greater economies of scale.”

During 2011, entrust have continued to expand their portfolio of cloud services, as well as delivering on-premise support for legacy solutions via their subsidiary entrust Creative Technology.

The need to cut costs and the challenge of managing high volumes of data – which is increasingly business-critical – will spur the take-up of cloud services provided by service provides, said Investec.

“Difficult market conditions are fueling demand for IT services because companies can reduce costs by outsourcing hardware, software and maintenance or support to trusted third parties,” said Investec. “The rise of ‘big data’, including video and photography archives, internet search indexing and social media is also driving demand for higher volumes of IT storage, which can be provided on a flexible basis by third parties at a lower cost.”

As a result of its latest survey, Gartner received responses from 2,014 CIOs representing more than £150 billion in CIO IT spending and covering 38 industries across 50 countries. The survey found that only 3% of CIOs today have more than half of their infrastructure and applications operating in the cloud. But that number is expected to grow to 46% by 2015, making cloud transformation the hallmark of many CIOs at their current companies.

entrustIT hosted virtual desktops are an example of both platform as a service and software as a service cloud products. Delivering a complete IT environment, they allow mobility as well as consumption based IT spending. For more information contact us.