Challenges and Strategies for Migrating to the Cloud ☁️

• Mature On-Prem Solutions: Organizations with well-established on-prem VDI (like Citrix or VMware/Omnissa) might initially use a lift-and-shift approach to cloud migration.
• Cost Management: On-prem is more a density problem - you need to get as many VMs on each server as possible. Cloud environments require different optimization strategies, focusing on power management and operational adjustments to avoid high costs.
• Less Mature On-Prem Organizations: Often these organizations look at moving to the cloud as an opportunity to re-evaluate their overall strategy and think about modernizing applications, potentially using a browser-based approach. 
• Maintenance Considerations: In cloud environments, you may need to align maintenance to power management schedules instead of doing patches and updates in the evening. 
• Performance Considerations: Assessing application performance is crucial, especially latency-sensitive apps that may need back-end migration to the cloud for optimal performance.
• DaaS is a Spectrum: On one side you have completely on-prem, where you manage the physical hardware, the virtualization platform, the published app platform, the OS and everything on top of that. The other end is a completely managed service where you pay for a subscription and you get access to a desktop that has the OS provided by the vendor. You need to understand the requirements of your organization to determine where on the spectrum you should fall.

The Role of Platforms 

• On-Prem Organizations Might Prefer Platforms: If you’re all on-prem today, then the idea of a platform can be appealing as the tools have been integrated and work well together. When using a platform you then need to build your processes around the platform. Many of the platform providers have acquired companies, so you need to understand how integrated the tools really are. 
• Cloud Hosted Offers More Bespoke Options: If you’re primarily in the cloud it becomes much easier to pick and choose the tools that are best of breed for your specific use cases. 
• ROI Issues: Time to value can be an issue when adopting a platform approach. Waiting 36 months to implement and get the return on investment isn’t palatable to many organizations. 

Importance of EUC as Mission Critical Infrastructure 🌟

• Operational Priority: EUC should be considered as critical as databases and application infrastructure, as it directly impacts user productivity and satisfaction. There are many examples of organizations delaying EUC migration only to realize that users' performance was severely affected. Fixing these issues only adds time and cost to these cloud migration projects. 
• Migration Strategies: Involving EUC teams early in cloud migration projects ensures optimal performance and user experience.
• Phased Approach: Phased approaches can lead to issues with user experience when EUC solutions are left till last. Leading with EUC and using EUC solutions strategically can facilitate a stepwise migration to the cloud, aligning with application modernization efforts.

Browser Security vs. Endpoint Security 💻

• Challenges with Endpoint Security: The proliferation of contract workers, and globalization of the workforce means managing all endpoints can become very challenging, but sometimes that is the right use case for your organization. 
• Browser Security Gives Another Option: Browser security is providing more options for use cases that used to be very challenging. 
• BYOD Considerations: The rise of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) necessitates a focus on browser security to ensure safe access to corporate resources.
• Operational Efficiency: Cloud management and modern endpoint management strategies can simplify device provisioning and reduce operational costs.

Zero Trust Security 🔒

• Google’s BeyondCorp Initiative: Originating from Google's response to Operation Aurora, BeyondCorp focuses on moving beyond traditional corporate perimeters to ensure secure access.
• Core Principles: Device attestation, context-based security, and eliminating reliance on VPNs by using the browser as the primary control point.
• Implementation: Zero Trust also does not need to be all or nothing - you can take a phased approach that increases your security measures stepwise. Start with a couple of applications, improve the security and make it an excellent user experience to create a pull instead of a push.

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