DEV Community: Abhishek

Problems you can solve with application streaming

Abhishek — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 05:49:02 +0000

On our blog, we’ve spoken plenty about the nature and benefits of application streaming. Since remote work became a mainstay of every global and/or local industry, application streaming has demonstrated its efficacy and value in complete glory.

And, make no mistake, application streaming has emerged as a winner. The advantage of accessing high-end applications without having to buy equally high-end devices has been unparalleled, especially for small businesses without financial war chests.

In this piece, we’ll dive a little deeper and discuss the problems that application streaming can solve for your business, no matter its scale, domain, or growth stage. As long as you require digital operations and/or productivity, application streaming can make life easier and improve ROIs.

A quick overview: What is application streaming?

If you’re looking for a deep dive into the nature of application streaming, I recommend looking at Application streaming: Where it has taken us. But here’s a quick recap:

Application streaming is a technology that lets users fully access desktop-class tools through a browser. You start your laptop/desktop, open a browser, access the streaming vendor’s website, input your credentials and start using a completely cloud-based desktop equipped with apps and tools (even other browsers) you need for your day-to-day operations.

In this scenario, the device accesses said apps hosted on a remote server, residing on the cloud. Think of streaming Netflix videos…only you’re streaming a desktop much like your own, and you can use the software installed on that cloud-based desktop. That is the exact nature of application streaming.

At a more granular level, application streaming hinges on the fact that your local device requires only a specific portion of any application’s code to run it flawlessly. The end-user doesn’t have to install the entire application to make it work; pieces of the app can be obtained via the cloud network as and when necessary.

The application server transmits about 10% of the app’s operational data; usually, that is all the cloud desktop needs to run the app. Beyond that, the rest of the requisite data streams from the server to the client in the background while the user works on the desktop. Generally, application streaming leverages RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) to accomplish this. In the case of Neverinstall, we use WebRTC due to its inherent low latency.

Problems you can solve with application streaming.

Device dependence

As discussed above, application streaming requires the client device to execute a minimal portion of any application’s code. Consequently, you don’t need expensive, high-spec devices to tackle the operational overhead of running resource-heavy applications like IDEs, design tools, or professional video editing tools.

In the real world, this translates to serious monetary savings. Simply buy Chromebooks for your employees and engage the services of a reliable application streaming vendor. You get high productivity levels at a quarter of the cost that it would otherwise require.

Productivity levels

Application streaming allows users to download only the required attributes rather than the components. Other attributes are not immediately necessary and are stored on a network server for future access. This means that non-essential programs do not keep running in the system, consuming resources and slowing down overall output. You end up leveraging superior system performance and noticeably faster functions.

Software maintenance, even within remote ecosystems

As the customer of an app streaming vendor, you are not responsible for software installation, upgradation or security when it comes to cloud-native desktops.

Vendors will automatically provide the most updated version of each application as part of competitive customer service. Since all applications are offered via remote network servers, providing an accurate version of an application is simple as long as the customer communicates their requirements. They receive comprehensive setup, configuration, and maintenance support within a single payment plan.

Remote accessibility

Application streaming solves a key issue associated with remote work by allowing access to essential, resource-heavy applications without a correspondingly high-spec device.

Now, employees no longer have to work with low-feature apps if they do not have a high-end device or if their company cannot send them one. They also do not have to schlep to the office to access the basic technological necessities to get their work done.

Any internet-powered device can leverage application streaming and use every required app. Forget a Mac; you now need just a phone to run VSCode. Consequently, it becomes simple for employees to work tech on their devices. At most, if they do not have a laptop or tablet at hand, the employer can send them a reasonable one to get started with.

Don’t forget how application streaming solves the issue of shadow IT. Employees no longer resort to unverified apps and tools to meet deadlines and risk exposure of corporate data outside its technological ecosystem. Every tool they need is accessible via their browser.

Pricing & Scalability

In-office infra cannot be scaled up and down, depending on the number of employees dependent on it to get their work done. Suppose your business intends to hire 50 employees in the next two quarters. In that case, you’ll have to invest in recruitment efforts and upgrade your in-house infra capabilities to support the activities of these 50 employees.

Application streaming seriously minimizes this investment by offering flexible infrastructure. Start with any number of virtual desktops and scale up as and when you require with a simple upgrade. In terms of the money, what you pay to the vendor will be significantly less than the money you’d otherwise have to spend buying server space, upgrading security protocols, and maintaining a medium-to-large IT team to manage, monitor, and troubleshoot said infra.

With application streaming, you upgrade to a higher payment plan and get access to new, pristine, completely secure virtual desktops without lifting a finger.

Conclusion

Application streaming solved precise and frequently arising problems in a world taken over by remote work and globally operating business interests. Of course, there are many more advantages than the ones discussed above, but these are problems central to business growth and a healthy, accelerating bottom line.

If you’re curious, sign up to learn how Neverinstall can help your business. Check out our plans, and you’ll know exactly how this tool resolves business and technical concerns within your organization’s ecosystem.

Year in Review, 2022!

Abhishek — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 10:53:22 +0000

Neverinstall is a small team of ambitious young people, and the past year has been exciting for us. We grew the team, and our user base, introduced more applications and capabilities to the platform, completed a significant overhaul of the user interface, and democratized performance computing with the cloud.

As the new year dawns, we want to pause to observe the platform's trajectory and acknowledge our journey through 2022.

This year, we more than doubled our total number of users, expanded to new server locations, imparted more information to the people, and introduced some significant changes to bring the platform closer to a native experience. And we want to celebrate this journey with our community, our team members, and everyone who helped the platform bring it to its current form!

See how we faired, what we achieved, and our plans for the future. We’re excited to announce — Year in Review, 2022!

The Definitive Guide to DaaS

Abhishek — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 05:20:22 +0000

At its heart, DaaS provides digital workspaces, untethering people (usually company employees) from in-office devices and on-premise infrastructure. Let us take a moment to define “digital workspace” before moving deeper into DaaS.

What is a Digital Workspace?

Before the widespread adoption of remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, work largely required employees to use specific, in-office devices (laptops or desktops). They went to the office, used devices within the office, finished their work, and came back the next day for more. While some firms allowed devices to be taken out of the office space, they were expected to log stipulated working hours within a controlled space, using tech attached to on-premise facilities.

But, ever since the pandemic required stay-at-home orders to be issued, workspaces adapted to become flexible enough to cater to work-from-home situations. Everything went digital (more so than before), and employees were accessing the data and tools they needed from their living rooms, studies, and balconies.

Businesses soon discovered that digital workspaces delivered enough advantages for them to be more than temporary solutions to pandemic conditions. Users could access industry-best tools, high network speeds, and resources from their local devices – and it didn’t even have to be an expensive, high-end device.

Since digital workspaces, like those provided by DaaS, run apps and services in a remote data center rather than the user’s local device, it’s easy to operate resource-consuming software on otherwise basic-spec machines (like Chromebooks).

Generally, digital workspaces are provided by:

VDI or Virtual desktop infrastructure. In this case, each user’s virtual desktop runs on a virtual machine operating within the cloud-driven data center.
Application virtualization. In this case, the data center only runs instances of specific applications required by users.
Desktop as a Service or DaaS. As explained above, a third-party vendor provides digital workspace and removes responsibilities for configuring and managing infra from their customers.

Benefits of Digital Workspaces (for IT)

The Problems

In the absence of a digital workspace, companies’ internal IT teams had to spend time configuring, setting up, managing, troubleshooting, and monitoring a massive number of workstations, usually desktops and laptops. Since employees keep joining and quitting, they must keep providing pristine devices and restoring factory settings.

Additionally, they must keep tabs on these devices if they are taken out of the office across multiple physical locations. Concerns around data security and integrity are a big deal, and IT teams constantly have to look for data theft from these work devices. This is inevitably difficult, expensive, time and resource-consuming.

Each device requires regular software updates, patches, and periodic data backups. Don’t forget the effort required to fix bugs, crashes, and dips in device productivity. Providing consistent user support is no joke, especially since both hardware and software evolve at breakneck speed. Everything has to be updated more frequently and consistently than ever before.

For most businesses, providing adequate-quality devices and managing them became easier than dealing with the security risks of shifting to work-from-home models. Data stored locally on work-issued devices became nearly impossible to control when employees were trapped in their houses. As expected, multiple data breaches have been reported directly related to the cybersecurity gaps that show up with remote work. And as per a report by Accenture, “68% of business leaders feel their cybersecurity risks are increasing.”

BYOD

Some businesses have tried adopting BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), which simply exacerbated device management and data security issues. Those issues applied even to companies without a BYOD policy since employees inevitably use their devices to work with corporate data and tools. Shadow IT has never been more of a concern than it is now.

Benefits of Digitizing the Workspace

When it comes to addressing the challenges described above, the digital workspace came out with top marks. For IT teams, digital workspaces are a breeze to handle since much of the heavy lifting is removed to being the responsibility of a third-party data center:

Apps required by employees don’t have to be installed and operated locally on each user's device.
All company data remains secure and perpetually monitored within the provider’s remote data center. These centers are up-to-date with the latest, most robust security mechanisms to guard customer data.
In case a user’s device fails, nothing is lost. They can log in to the virtual desktop from another device and keep working as before.
Existing devices don’t have to be abandoned. They can be redeployed as endpoints to access the digital workspaces.

The software and hardware demands on each system for using digital workspaces are much simpler and easier to standardize, maintain, and secure. Data is no longer stored on devices’ internal storage, and user productivity becomes completely independent of the device’s specs and capabilities.

Additionally, local devices have to handle less operational overhead since apps are run on the cloud. This extends device life significantly, and IT doesn’t have to find, buy and send devices every 3-4 years. You could even use Chromebooks – cheap and easy to maintain – without missing out on any high-end functions of a performance machine.

Benefits of Digital Workspaces (for users)

Let’s say an employee wants to work out of her porch in the morning, have meetings with colleagues in a cafe or a workspace, and go back home and pick up where she left off. She might even want to meet and collaborate with multiple teams at multiple locations. Or perhaps, she is confined to her house because of a local outbreak. With an in-office setup, working efficiently in these circumstances would be impossible or difficult, at the least.

However, such a routine is entirely possible with digital workspaces. It also facilitates the sharing of extensive digital files. Let’s say, a global tech company wants to design and build a new headquarters in Silicon Valley. Teams worldwide can make this happen by working on a common architectural model – in their digital workspace. No need to copy, paste, send or download files.

Virtual workspaces allow users to leverage new tools to match changing responsibilities. Work expectations may shift within a project, or the employee can move from one project to another. What if they needed VSCode for their first project, and the second required them to use Figma and Obsidian? All of these apps may not run flawlessly if run locally due to device limitations. But, with virtual workspaces, this isn't a concern. Simply inform the vendor, make the necessary payments, and they’ll ensure the availability of the required software.

Now, let’s get down to the brass tacks of DaaS.

What is DaaS?

DaaS or Desktop as a Service refers to cloud computing technology that lets you access a full virtual desktop setup (like the one on your regular laptop/desktop) and apps via the cloud. Businesses often use DaaS to provide secure native and legacy apps and fully functional desktops to their workforce.

In other words, DaaS provides a fully virtualized desktop that you access through your browser or some app (depending on the provider’s setup). When you log in, you get a desktop experience that offers everything (often more) that your local device’s OS does – only it’s all running via remote, cloud-dependent servers.

DaaS providers handle backend management for these virtual architectures, leaving their customers (the business) to focus on productivity without being waylaid by maintenance and troubleshooting of said desktops. This is an optimal solution since it would be too expensive, time and effort-consuming to develop and set up such infrastructure in-house.

On the other hand, the provider is responsible for day-to-day maintenance, data backups, software upgrades and storage, and information security. Of course, many providers allow their customers to handle the security aspect themselves, depending on their preferences for maintaining complete control over data access and protection mechanisms.

At a high level, DaaS offers two kinds of desktops:

Persistent desktops: Users can customize the desktop and save all data and its current state. Every time they log in, they will access the desktop in the same state as they left when they logged off. For example, the files they worked on will be stored as they were saved (no need to download them).

Needless to say, persistent desktops require higher storage capacity on the cloud, which contributes to them being more expensive.

Non-persistent desktops: In this case, the desktop is wiped every time a user logs out of the system. No files are saved, and no work can be stored online. These desktops largely allow users to utilize shared, cloud-based tools and services. If you want your work to be saved, you’ll have to download them before logging out.

How does DaaS work?

When operational, DaaS allows users to access their data and applications from a web browser or any required software. DaaS providers offer the cloud computing infra, network resources, bandwidth, and storage space required to stream a virtual desktop to a user’s device. The user should be able to work with data stored within the desktop and use the applications hosted on said desktop. Generally, businesses purchase subscriptions from DaaS providers, which include a specific number of virtual desktops. However, this number can be scaled up and down easily simply by making the additional payment.

Since DaaS streams the desktop visuals and functionalities via the internet (emerging from a centralized server), applications that require heavy graphics have, to date, been fairly hard to use on these virtualized architectures. However, the emergence of new technologies has removed this difficulty to a great extent – even resource-consuming computing practices like computer-aided design (CAD) are capable of running without interruption or quality drop on DaaS.

The premise of DaaS’ daily functioning is simple. If one server becomes overwhelmed with traffic and user requests, the IT admin can shift an operational virtual machine from the overloaded server to another. This takes a few seconds and ensures that resource-heavy applications can continue working without interruption.

Therefore, for industries that require resource-intensive applications (such as 3D modeling, high-quality graphics, video production, simulations, etc.), DaaS comes as especially useful. Engineering, design, broadcasting, and architecture are only a few of the fields where DaaS can make a massive difference in productivity and cost-effective usage.

DaaS vs. VDI

When it comes to virtual workspaces, two terms you’ll hear frequently thrown about are DaaS and VDI. And often, they tend to be treated as synonyms – which is not entirely accurate.

VDI

VDI or virtual desktop infrastructure allows businesses (or any organization) to host remote desktop OSes on endpoints (laptops, desktops, mobile), all running from a centralized server. This is similar to DaaS, except VDI does not provide pre-installed apps. It offers virtual desktop images with specified computing capabilities - RAM, GPU, storage space, bandwidth, etc. - as requested by the customer.

But once the virtualized desktops are ready, all the apps, access control managers, security partitions, and configurations must be handled by the customer’s in-house IT team. There’s still a significant amount of setup effort the customer has to invest to prepare the workspace for employees.

VDI provides only the backbone and computing resources for virtual desktops. The actual calibration of these resources to meet specific employee/user needs is up to each enterprise’s IT department. So, you not only invest in the network, storage, and infra, but you also need to keep skilled IT experts who can set up and manage virtual architectures.

DaaS

With DaaS, customers receive virtual workspaces that are completely ready to use. The provider handles setup costs and effort, as well as management. Your IT team doesn’t have to do a thing but provide login credentials for the workspaces to the right employees.

Generally, DaaS is a lot more affordable than VDI since customers don’t need to pay for highly skilled IT folks to configure these desktops. You only pay for the subscription; the amount varies based on the required desktops.

Either way, both DaaS and VDI allow companies to save a fair bit of money since they don’t require endpoint devices with high computing power. Any internet-enabled device will facilitate access with data processing largely occurring in the data center.

But DaaS lets companies function optimally with a leaner IT team since the vendor is responsible for the deployment, network issues, and any troubleshooting end-users will need once they begin to use the virtual desktops.

On the other hand, while VDI is more expensive, it gives clients greater control over the desktops’ functionality and security. This can be a necessity for businesses under stringent security and confidentiality stipulations.

When should businesses consider DaaS?

Suppose you’re considering adopting DaaS as part of your day-to-day business operations. In that case, it might be worthwhile to go through the most common circumstances in which DaaS can deliver optimal value:

If your business is looking to establish a remote work culture. Since employees have declared their unabashed desire to work from home, employers offering the same will be considered more favorably.
If your business deals with temporary employees, like seasonal and/or contractual workers. DaaS lets you provision new workspaces within minutes and dismantles them when these contracts expire.
If business continuity is an uncompromisable priority, despite disaster situations. With DaaS, physical infra isn’t a contributing factor to employee productivity, so work can continue even if there is damage to your headquarters.
If your business is about to acquire another organization. DaaS enables quick and easy onboarding of new employees and gives them instant access to necessary applications, services, and data.
If your business needs to support resource-heavy applications that your on-site infra is not built to handle for consistent usage across employee devices. DaaS is especially useful if you frequently offer this kind of high-range functionality to mobile employees.
If you want to restrict employees’ exposure to your business’ network and intellectual property based on their role. Just trigger DaaS workspaces with only the necessary data and tools – and they’ll never have the opportunity to dig deeper into your internal data banks.
If you want to do away with shadow IT. DaaS offers consistent, pre-configured environments accessible through any device. Why would employees use unauthorized tech with such availability at hand?
If you’d like to support remote work for employees in locations far away from your own or even VDI data centers. DaaS requires minimal onsite infra and is much faster to set up for operation.

Major Advantages of DaaS

Uninterrupted productivity, irrespective of device: As mentioned before, the performance of DaaS workspaces has very little to do with the user endpoint. All processing activity and computing resources (RAM, memory, GPU) for the desktop’s working is run via a centralized server, not the user device. The only thing a device should be able to do is run a browser and connect to the internet. The cloud servers maintained by your DaaS provider take care of the rest.

Consequently, you could operate resource-consuming apps (like design tools or high-res games) on inexpensive devices like Chromebook or any low-end laptop.

Lowered maintenance costs: Since user devices don’t do the heavy lifting to run apps or store data in a DaaS setup, they don’t suffer the regular operational wear and tear. Naturally, the devices last longer and deal with fewer hardware or software issues. DaaS slows down the emergence of problems associated with aging machines - lag, productivity drops, employee frustration with work tech, and shadow IT.
Lower support costs: Any issue cropping up with virtual workspaces can be resolved remotely. Employees no longer need to physically bring or ship their trouble devices to a service center or your company’s IT team. Consequently, you don’t have to spend exorbitant amounts to get devices shipped and vendor services. Sure, you’ll pay your DaaS provider, but most plans include troubleshooting services from the get-go.

Additionally, IT personnel can remotely initiate workspace updates for performance and security, which contributes to keeping the desktops secure and functionally relevant.

Improved Security: During Covid-19, IT teams of practically every company that issued employee devices had to manage and secure hundreds or thousands of endpoints across wildly different locations. Naturally, this exacerbated risks of data theft or exposure to unauthorized individuals due to device theft or misplacement.

DaaS workspaces store all data on remote servers. So, even if the employee loses their device, it doesn’t put confidential corporate property at risk. As soon as the employee reports the theft, IT can remotely lock access to that workspace, invalidate the employee’s login credentials and ensure that business data remains untouched.

Consistent Productivity: Since the desktop’s operability does not depend on the user’s device, your employees won’t have any dips in productivity due to lagging or malfunctioning applications (issues that would otherwise show up on low-spec devices). Users can use industry-best software regardless of device health – as long as the device can connect to the internet.

Since DaaS workspaces can be updated remotely, users also don’t have to deal with the limitations of using outdated technology. This also prevents them from using unapproved tools and seriously minimizes shadow IT.

Location-agnostic access: Employees can access their work desktops, no matter where or what device they use. They don’t even need to lug around their devices – certain DaaS providers (like Neverinstall) offer virtual desktops customized for mobile usage.

Additionally, all data is on the cloud, so there’s no need to transfer files, sit through complicated security protocols or wipe the device after you’re done working. Just log out of the browser, and you can move on.

Noticeably higher ROI: DaaS ensures that people can use industry-best software (IDEs, design tools, editing software, high-res games) on any device. The savings achieved when a business can get all work done on Chromebooks instead of Macbook Pros is nothing to sneeze at.

Couple that with lower maintenance and support costs, and the savings come out to a significant number – especially for companies with large employee pools. Essentially, you pay less to get the same (or more) productivity as you would with an in-office setup requiring expensive endpoints for everyone.

Seamless onboarding of new employees: It takes a few minutes to set up and initializes a fully operational. DaaS workspace. New employees don't have to wait for a company-issued device anymore. They just get the login credentials, and they can immediately start working. Even if a company still insists on shipping devices, the employee can work on their personal laptop/tablet until it reaches them. No more productivity gaps.

DaaS also simplifies the onboarding process. Since no data will be stored on the device, employees don’t have to report device status or download specific antivirus and security software approved by the company. Again, they just log in and start work.

Widens your talent pool: With a DaaS setup, organizations don’t have to worry about a potential employee's physical location. They can work for you as long as they can connect to the internet. You can populate your company with the world’s best talent without worrying about whether they live too far away and/or can come to work every day.
Improves customer experience: DaaS doesn’t just benefit your business and employees, it can also be used to deliver superior customer experiences through collaborative browsing. Attending to customers’ needs and issues becomes far simpler, be it extending customer support, onboarding new customers, or reviewing user-facing documentation.

The big differentiator is that co-browsing does away with the need and/or limitations of screen sharing. Let’s say a customer has an inferior or currently unstable internet connection. In this case, a shared screen would not be perfectly visible due to low display resolution. The chances of dealing with more latency are also high, which degrades the entire experience.

In co-browsing, there’s no need for sharing screens. You browse the same page as your customer, seeing exactly what they see – in real-time. It’s like sitting at the same table with them and looking at their screen – but the process is fully remote.

For deeper insight into how co-browsing can improve a business’ customer-facing functions, look at Collaborative Browsing: A virtual solution for real-time participation.

Note: DaaS solutions don’t always offer co-browsing by default. If this is an important feature for you, please look for vendors that include this feature.

How Neverinstall makes a difference with DaaS

The questions are simple – how does Neverinstall stand out with its DaaS offering? How does adopting Neverinstall help me accelerate business productivity and my bottom line?

The answer to both is in a quick glimpse of Neverinstall’s primary features:

A fully-functional browser-based Linux OS can be accessed and used via any device with an internet connection.
Our desktop experience has been optimized for mobile device users. All Neverinstall workspaces are designed to run effectively on mobile phones and tablets. The platform offers responsive design, equipping it to render in different display modes. We also offer single-touch and multi-touch interactions across device classes. A virtual keyboard is also available.
Fully customizable desktops with popular pre-installed and pre-configured applications ( VSCode, Figma, Slack, Android Studio, Discord, and more). No limitations or reductions in in-app features.
The ability to select required apps before launching a workspace. For example, if you need VSCode, Chrome, Obsidian, and Spotify, you just select them, launch a workspace, and say the apps are installed and prepped for use by the server. No effort is required by the user.
The cloud desktop streams in alignment with the maximum network bandwidth available to a user. Users can launch workspaces through servers in the US and Europe, allowing them to leverage high-speed internet, irrespective of their location.
A low-latency desktop experience facilitated by the WebRTC streaming protocol.
Easy, lag-free use of input devices such as keyboards and mice.
An expanding server network perpetually strives to minimize operational latency. Neverinstall has server clusters in the US, England, Singapore, and India. Upcoming servers will cover Japan, Australia, Finland, Spain, The Netherlands, and more locations in the US.

To know more about Neverinstall, check out our plans or contact us at sales@neverinstall.com.

WebRTC for Streaming Applications

Abhishek — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 11:57:45 +0000

Our previous article Understanding WebRTC gave a high-level overview of what WebRTC is, its primary use cases, and why it's become such a favorite for online audio-video communication.
This time, we'll go a little deeper into the WebRTC protocol – why it works, why it's such a beloved choice, and what lies in its future.

A quick recap: What is WebRTC?

Built as an alternative to proprietary technology, WebRTC is an open-source standard for web-based, real-time communication. It supports browser-to-browser interaction and peer-to-peer live streaming via specific, standardized protocols. Thanks to WebRTC, internet users can now immediately launch video calls with a single click from their browsers – calls run with data fast enough to offer face-to-face online interaction.

While initial adoption was slow, WebRTC has now become a synonym for digital video communication. Most major browsers, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Microsoft Edge, support WebRTC, as do the mobile platforms Android and iOS. Of course, Microsoft and Apple came on board the WebRTC train much later, with Chrome being the earliest adopter (no big surprise here).

WebRTC’s most significant advantage is that it merges an open-source, community-driven technology with wide-range platform support and serious backing by Google. It's also been validated and adopted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

As things stand today, WebRTC is poised to evolve, expand and align with new, future-forward use cases like IoT (Internet of Things) endpoints and live processing of audio/video feeds.

The capabilities of WebRTC

From a purely technical lens, here’s what WebRTC is capable of:

Streaming video from a desktop app to a remote browser. When built with WebRTC, such an app can send anything from video files to live streams, as long as it is a web camera and/or the required input devices.
Receiving video or audio from a remote browser (the recipient is the application).
Exchanging and transmitting data streams and messages between two native applications.

How WebRTC works for application streaming

WebRTC eliminates any need for additional web servers, software integration, or hardware support. Unlike the now obsolete Adobe Flash Player (once the default technology for this purpose), WebRTC streams work on any HTML5 video player. With Flash Player, you could only play videos on players with proprietary software.

If you’ve attended any online meetings in virtual meeting rooms that you joined by clicking on a URL (Google Meet, for example), you have seen WebRTC in action.

WebRTC uses HTML5 APIs to capture, encode and transmit video streaming. Most no-frills WebRTC use cases (like launching video calls from your browser) require just a webcam and said browser. If you want to stream workflows or share your screen, you’ll need an IP camera, an encoder, and streaming tech.

WebRTC supports audio codecs such as iSAC, Opus, and iLBC. Similarly, it supports video codecs H.264, VP8, and VP9. Streaming leverages the User Datagram Protocol – a commonly used protocol that facilitates low-latency communication and accelerates data transmission. It does so by sending data without the TCP handshake required to establish a connection, which cuts down on time otherwise required to establish the said connection. It also doesn't bother with a "guarantee” of delivering all data packets.

This isn't as alarming as it sounds. A few dropped data packets don't usually result in video disconnection – you get slightly lower video quality at most. This is almost always better than the long delay other protocols experience when trying to re-send undelivered data.

WebRTC Pros

Inherently low latency, especially compared to alternative protocols like RTMP and HLS.
Enjoys broad support across mainstream browsers and platforms. It makes it easy to integrate with almost any application without lugging in excess infra/setup effort.
Device-independent. WebRTC uses in-built HTML5 components, which keeps it browser-based and highly accessible.
The wide browser and platform support ensures very few compatibility issues when integrating WebRTC with existing tech stacks. This is the direct opposite of proprietary software.
Open source is almost always much easier for developers to work with.
WebRTC is constantly being refined and debugged by a massive open-source community. This keeps it perpetually evolved, you don't have to deal with anomalies or incompatibilities that show up when software is not updated.
Thanks to simulcast, WebRTC can automatically adjust video streams to poor conditions. This is not the same as adaptive bitrate streaming (an HLS staple). Simulcast adjusts the stream on the publisher's side by generating multiple encoded packets of a single stream so that the one matching the viewer's network connection can be automatically sent out.

WebRTC Cons

In the interest of full disclosure, we should highlight the issues engineers might face when working with WebRTC for their audio-video tech stack. However, it must also be mentioned that most of these cons can be easily overcome.

Since WebRTC configurations consume significant bandwidth, WebRTC poses some restrictions on scalability. High bandwidth consumption comes from each participant establishing a browser-based peer-to-peer connection for real-time media processing.
Let’s say you’re streaming a low-res video that needs 500kbps to 10 viewers. That’s a total of 5mbps uplink speed. As more viewers join in the stream, bandwidth requirements go up since the video has to be streamed to more peers. Given that it’s rare for everyone in a call to have the same pristine network conditions, one or more participants might end up with a dropped call or a heavily degraded stream due to their network muscle.
Generally, WebRTC works great for calls with up to 50 peer connections. To scale up further, you’ll have to bring a media server into the mix. At this point, WebRTC will require the same infra as other streaming protocols.
As the previous point should indicate, WebRTC streams can have questionable broadcast quality in certain situations. WebRTC work on top of each peer’s network connectivity and the quality of their input devices. Naturally, the state of these external factors has a direct effect on the stream.
WebRTC uses UDP to deliver video, and this method doesn’t guarantee video delivery – it drops B-frames to compress the video and data packets. While this facilitates low latency and instant, uninterrupted streams, it can adversely affect the stream quality (if too many frames and packets are dropped to manage low network conditions).

WebRTC Security

In a world suffering the perpetual data of digital data theft and unauthorized access, security is a key concern for every single technical and/or business stakeholder.

There aren’t too many questions that have been raised on WebRTC’s security. It uses SRTP (Secure Real Time Protocol) encryption and numerous other security standards. It is encrypted at the protocol level and utilizes browser and community security mechanisms.

Fortunately, since it has wide browser support, WebRTC is secured meticulously by the browsers themselves – Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Edge – all of which use HTTPS to access the protocol and its functions as well auxiliary protections against IP leakage, user permissions for camera and mic access and guardrails for privacy.

Additionally, WebRTC’s open-source nature ensures that developers and cybersecurity experts keep calibrating it to meet the industry-best security standards.

WebRTC – The future of video communication?

The global WebRTC market is estimated to hit around $21 million by 2025. This is unsurprising since the applications of WebRTC are nearly infinite, especially in this digital-first world.

Since the pandemic, it has become our sector to click a link to join a work meeting, a live event, or a catch-up with friends. A significant portion of our online interaction (and human interaction) is generalized and normalized through video calls. WebRTC has made this possible by facilitating said interaction from any browser, device, and location.

Obviously, there’s much scope for improvement – enhancing screen sharing, enabling 4k+ video on calls, multi-channel audio, etc. But every niche of every industry now has the space to accommodate WebRTC-powered video communication – EdTech and telehealth being common examples that come to mind. Anyone who requires nearly instant video/audio exchange between individuals or groups can leverage WebRTC to create pristine video power applications.

As with technology, software engineers and organizations continue to expand on WebRTC capabilities. For example, think of software that streams volumetric data, depth or point cloud, to facilitate real-time 3D virtual reconstruction similar to the Metaverse. Such software can capture depth data with sensors and play with it to provide state-of-the-art real-time communication.

Wrapping up

WebRTC's potential is unquestionable and only limited by imagination. You’d be hard-pressed to find an industry or professional/personal experience that would not be enhanced with video interaction (in the absence of in-person communication). Video calls have erased geographical limitations more stridently than ever before, and a protocol like WebRTC helps create better video streaming experiences, bringing online encounters closer to reality.

Widely acknowledged as one of the most superior and easily adaptable video protocols, WebRTC is not just the future of video; it is the future of a hyper-connected, eternally available world.

Understanding the WebRTC Protocol

Abhishek — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 05:17:26 +0000

What is WebRTC?

WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) is one of the most popular technologies web apps and websites use to capture and stream audio-video content. It is also widely used to exchange data peer-to-peer without any intermediaries.

WebRTC is essentially an HTML5 specification that enables data exchange and peer-to-peer conferencing without any plug-in installation or third-party software. It comprises a set of standards, interworking APIs, and other protocols that must work in tandem.

Compared to its predecessors, Flash being the most notable of them, WebRTC provides a more secure, low-latency, and frictionless experience that can be easily generated in any digital ecosystem.

Simply put, WebRTC facilitates audio-video communication within webpages without you having to install any plug-ins.

A brief history of WebRTC

It all started when Google bought Global IP Solutions, a VoIP software firm that had already created many elements (like codec and echo cancellation protocols) necessary for RTC. Google made this tech open-source and collaborated with the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to create consensus within the industry.

In 2011, Google released the open-source project we know as WebRTC. Post-release, continuous work has been invested in updating the project and standardizing associated protocols in the IETF, as well as the required browser APIs in the W3C.

By 2016, around 2 billion browsers were WebRTC-enabled. Its popularity took off, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, with people working from home and requiring seamless, instant connectivity via the internet.

In 2021, WebRTC received official standardization (Candidate Recommendation to Recommendation). By now, it is a widely used and highly recommended technology for audio-video communication and streaming.

Core features of WebRTC

The technology is completely open-source and free to use.
It comes embedded in browsers but allows customization for your projects.
The protocol is constantly evolving. Each updated WebRTC version seeks to be more user-centric, provide advanced features and be more reliable.
It is consistently used for other open-source projects as well as commercial products.
It facilitates chat, video calling, and peer-to-peer file sharing within browsers.
WebRTC is known for low bandwidth consumption and latency.
Secures data from source to destination during transfer. Components are encrypted, while JS apps are used via HTTPS and local hosts.

Common use cases of WebRTC

Peer-to-peer audio, video & screen sharing: This was the original purpose of WebRTC – peer-to-peer communication over the internet via audio and video calls. Its applications have expanded to include text chats, screen sharing, file sharing, and the like. Popular tools like Skype, GMeet, Slack, and Microsoft Teams use WebRTC. The protocol has also found popularity in EdTech and healthcare circles, especially in the post-COVID period.
File sharing: We’ve mentioned file sharing previously, but it deserves a standalone point. WebRTC is often used to share files in different formats, even outside audio-video connectivity. Think of WebTorrent, and you’ll know the kind of file-sharing software WebRTC can build.
IoT (Internet of Things): IoT devices use sensors to facilitate information exchange with other connected devices within a network. WebRTC helps with this data exchange (audio-video streaming) in real time. The applications here are endless in the real world – drones, nanny cams, doorbells, baby monitors, home cameras, etc.
Real-time language processing: Live closed captions, automatic translations, transcriptions – all central to language processing. By combining the HTML5 Speech API with WebRTC data channels, transcripts can be generated and sent across platforms in real time. You’ll see much of this in YouTube and Google Meet when you enable the closed caption option. Similarly, WebRTC is exceptionally useful in enabling other language processing functions.

In everyday usage, you’ll see WebRTC pop up in the following scenarios (and more):

Voice or video calling, whether one-on-one or in groups;
Watch parties, like on Netflix;
Live shopping on eCommerce and retail sites;
Video communication on telehealth apps and sites between doctors and patients;
Online classes in the EdTech sector;
Virtual events such as webinars, large meetings, and online events;
Low latency broadcasting of live events such as sports;
Interactive sessions with large audiences at industry-best latency levels;
Online gaming in which visuals are rendered in the cloud and sent out to the gamers;
Virtual spaces like the Metaverse in which your avatars are rendered in 2D or 3D format within a digital environment

Key components of WebRTC

WebRTC works via multiple interworking APIs, including MediaStream, RTCPeerConnection, and RTCDataChannel.

MediaStream: This interface lets you capture media streams from local input mechanisms – cameras & microphones. It manages actions required from these streams, like recording, sending, resizing, readjusting stream quality, and displaying it to participants in a session. Any WebRTC-based app must request access from the streamer to access the data stream via the getUserMedia() method. They also need to specify if they need permission for either video or audio.

If you have access to a web server, you can test this method on a web page. Don’t open an HTML file within a browser; it won’t work due to security mechanisms that prevent connections with cameras/mics unless a real server loads them. You can, however, accomplish this with a simple Node.js server.

RTCPeerConnection: This object serves as the primary entry to the WebRTC API. It lets you trigger an online connection, connect to the right peers and grab the right media streams by attaching the right identifiers for the stream.

Generally, if you want to connect to another browser, it has to find where that other browser is located on the internet network. This location shows up as an IP address and port number – think of it as the other browser’s address.

The IP address of your device signals to the other device(s) you’re connecting to the location of your device so that they can exchange data directly. This address is what RTCPeerConnection uses as its foundation to operate.

RTCDataChannel: This API offers a transport mechanism for web browsers to exchange generic data peer-to-peer. It uses SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol) to exchange data while working on an operational peer connection.

Each call to CreateDataChannel() triggers a new data channel carrying the current SCTP association.

A few other WebRTC interfaces are:

RTCDataChannelEvent: Triggers events that show up when connecting RTCDataChannel to an RTCPeerConnection.
RTCSessionDescription: Indicates the parameters of a WebRTC session. Each RTCSessionDescription comprises a description type revealing the offer/answer negotiation it describes and the session’s SDP descriptor.
RTCStatsReport: Details the statistics for a connection or specific track on the connection. Get the report by calling RTCPeerConnection.getStats(). For information on using WebRTC statistics, use the WebRTC Statistics API.
RTCIceCandidate: This shows a candidate Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) server required to trigger an RTCPeerConnection.
RTCIceTransport: Offers data regarding ICE transport. RTCPeerConnectionIceEvent: Notifies events triggered related to ICE candidates as the target. This is usually an RTCPeerConnection.
RTCRtpSender: This interface controls the data encoding and transmission for a MediaStreamTrack on an RTCPeerConnection.
RTCRtpReceiver: This interface controls receiving and decoding data for a MediaStreamTrack on an RTCPeerConnection.
RTCTrackEvent: This interface represents a track event. That, in turn, signals that an RTCRtpReceiver object has been added to the RTCPeerConnection object. The result is that a new incoming MediaStreamTrack has been created and attached to the RTCPeerConnection.
RTCSctpTransport: This interface reveals data that explains the nature of a Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) transport. It also provides methods to access the underlying Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) transport, on top of which SCTP packets for an RTCPeerConnection's data channels are exchanged.

Why WebRTC works

Here’s the crux: WebRTC has replaced long development times and C/C++ with a Javascript API. C/C++ also requires higher costs and effort, while WebRTC comes with a JS API layer you can leverage right with browsers. This simplifies the development and implementation of real-time communication in any digital environment.

Now, behind the scenes, WebRTC is implemented via C/C++, but as a developer, you won’t need to go that deep to build applications.

Additionally, WebRTC applies to all modern browsers – Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge, among others. It can also be extracted and integrated into embedded devices or apps without browser usage.

Wrapping up

WebRTC is quickly becoming a frequent choice for any app that requires audio-video communication and data exchange. For example, Neverinstall uses WebRTC to facilitate application streaming through a user’s browser. This is largely due to WebRTC’s proven ability to stream at the lowest possible latency compared to other protocols like HLS and RTMP.

Naturally, we’ve picked the technology that allows for the least possible lag while streaming fully-functional desktop experiences via the browser. That means your experience on Neverinstall workspaces will be almost completely similar to your experience using your regular device to go about your day-to-day operations.

Understanding Cloud-native

Abhishek — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 05:19:20 +0000

Cloud-native is not just a framework, tool, or technology — it’s all of the above.

A brief history lesson

The term “cloud-native” first appeared in 2015 with the establishment of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) as a project by the Linux Foundation. The foundation was created to bring together developers who are contributing to open-source projects. Around the same time, Pivotal Software released its report about how businesses should adopt cloud computing through application development models such as microservices and serverless computing.

In short: Cloud-native is a term that describes an approach to building software that runs on top of infrastructure-as-a-service platforms. This approach aims to maximize resource utilization while minimizing waste by using containers instead of virtual machines or bare metal servers.

Cloud-native is an important paradigm shift in how we think about building software. It's not just about containers or microservices; it's about building systems that are resilient, scalable, and easy to maintain over time. Today, we discuss Cloud-native, what sets it apart, and why you need it.

What is Cloud-native?

Cloud-native is a software design architecture approach that enables applications to be built as a suite of microservices, each running in its own process and communicating with lightweight mechanisms, often an HTTP resource API.

Characteristics of Cloud-native

The purpose of choosing Cloud-native is to enable each service to scale up or down independently, including scaling out through the use of additional computers rather than relying on one powerful machine.
A Cloud-native application uses technologies that complement each other to work effectively. The result is an application that can easily scale out when needed and contracts into containers for portability when moving from one environment to another.

Understanding Cloud-native architecture

Cloud-native architecture is a way for organizations to build, deploy and run applications built for the cloud. These applications are designed to be highly elastic. They can be deployed on any infrastructure and are portable across different environments. This makes them ideal for use in an environment where resources such as servers, storage, or networks may change frequently or need scaling up or down at any time.

Cloud-native development

Cloud-native development is a new way of thinking about software development. It's a set of best practices that are designed to help you build applications that can run anywhere—on-premise, in the cloud, or anywhere else.

What is Cloud-native development?

Cloud-native development is the process of developing applications that are designed for deployment on a cloud platform. It’s an evolution from traditional software development practices, which focus on building applications to run in a data center or local network environment. Cloud-native development requires a shift in thinking about how applications are built and deployed, as well as how they scale up when needed.

Cloud-native development typically includes

Building code from the ground up with containers instead of starting with an existing operating system image. It provides an easy way to package software into a deployable unit (i.e., a container) that developers can run anywhere.
Using serverless functions for stateless tasks; means you can scale those tasks independently of each other or other parts of your application that require state information (e.g., user sessions).
Using microservices; which are small, modular services that can be built from scratch or adapted from existing ones. They are designed to be easy to deploy and manage, which makes them ideal for Cloud-native applications.

The role of DevOps in Cloud-native development

For those unfamiliar with the term “DevOps,” it refers to cultural and technical practices.

On a cultural level, it involves breaking down silos between development and operations teams so that everyone can work together seamlessly.
On a technical level, it means automating processes and reducing manual steps as much as possible—ideally down to zero. This applies both inside your organization (if you're part of a large company) or out in the world, for example, using open-source tools such as Docker containers.

What are the benefits of Cloud-native development?

Here are some common benefits of Cloud-native development.

Reduced costs

Cloud-native apps can reduce costs by providing a more efficient and scalable way to manage applications. Cloud-native applications are built with stateless microservices that are deployed as containers, allowing them to be easily scaled up or down depending on need.

This allows companies to run fewer instances of an application, which reduces the overhead associated with maintaining the infrastructure. It also provides better predictability in terms of resource usage, which makes it easier for developers to accurately estimate how much their applications will cost and plan accordingly.

In addition, cloud providers charge by usage rather than by capacity, so you don't have to pay for unused server space or other resources when your application is not in use.

Improved scalability

Cloud-native applications can scale up quickly and automatically when needed and then scale back down once the workload has decreased again. This makes them much more efficient than traditional applications, which typically require manual configuration changes or application restarts whenever you want to deploy new code or change server settings.

Resilience

Cloud-native applications are written in a way that makes them less likely to fail due to external factors like network issues or environmental problems like power outages.
Moreover, since a cloud provider owns all of their infrastructure (i.e., data centers), they can ensure that their systems will consistently work well together as needed without any downtime or hiccups due to limited resources at any one time—something that would be difficult if done manually from scratch!

This is because they are designed to be stateless so that no data is stored on the server, and any changes made by users are immediately synced back to the cloud. This makes it much easier for you to recover from failure.

Automatic failover

If one instance fails, others will take over seamlessly thanks to cloud-level redundancy and auto-scaling features built into modern public clouds like AWS and Azure. There's no need for manual failover processes or even manual monitoring; the transition to working instances is automated within the system.

Speed to market

Because cloud-native applications are built with small, modular pieces that developers can deploy independently, you can release new features or fixes much more quickly than with traditional monoliths. A modular design means that applications and code can be broken down into smaller parts and deployed separately. This makes it much easier for developers to build new features without affecting other existing parts of the application. This is particularly important for startups looking to gain market share in an increasingly competitive environment.

Cloud-native applications

Cloud-native does not necessarily mean you must write your application in Go or any other language. What it does mean is that you should design and architect it so it can be deployed on any environment, from bare metal to the public cloud (or private).

In addition to these architectural characteristics, Cloud-native applications have some key functional attributes that make them different from traditional applications — they rely heavily on automated testing, continuous delivery, and self-healing mechanisms such as blue/green deployments and canary releases.

What are Cloud-native applications?

Cloud-native applications are containerized, dynamically orchestrated, and micro services-oriented applications that are designed to be elastic, meaning they can resize automatically to meet fluctuating demand and work in virtually any environment.

The primary focus while developing Cloud-native apps is to support interoperability and automation.

What are microservices?

Microservices are a software development method that promotes using small, independent services to build application functionality. Each service is responsible for a single task, such as user authentication or data storage, and can be independently deployed and scaled. Microservices are a popular architectural style for cloud-native applications. These applications are built to run in a cloud environment, with multiple instances of each microservice running in containers on different servers.

For example, an e-commerce company might have separate microservices for product management, order processing, and customer service. Each of these would run on its own server instance with its own container image — a packaged set of code with all dependencies already installed. Each microservice could scale up or down depending on how many customers place orders or return products for refunds.

The core value proposition of microservices is that they allow you to decompose a monolithic application into smaller, more manageable pieces (in other words, "micro"). This lets you swap out parts of your application more easily — say, if one service begins to struggle and slows down your entire product.

What are the benefits of Cloud-native applications?

Here are some common benefits of using Cloud-native applications.

High availability

Cloud-native applications are developed using microservices and containers. They are deployed on the public cloud infrastructure in a way that they can be scaled to thousands of instances on demand. The Cloud-native applications are built on a microservices architecture that allows them to scale horizontally. This gives high availability of the application and allows it to serve more users at the same time.

Cloud-native apps are designed to be deployed on multiple instances and run on multiple servers. Therefore, if any server goes down, the application will automatically shift traffic to another healthy server without downtime.

Decoupling business logic and data

With on-premises applications, you are forced to compromise speed or control. You can either use a traditional monolithic application that takes a long time to deploy or a microservices architecture that gives you more agility but requires additional development time. With Cloud-native applications, you get both speed and agility with no compromise in control because the application isn't tied to a single deployment environment. Instead, it's deployed as many times as necessary across multiple environments.

This decoupling of business logic and data makes it easier for developers to change code without worrying about breaking everything else in the system.

Portability

Cloud-native applications leverage pre-packaged software that's easy to deploy and scale in any cloud environment, making them portable enough to run on multiple operating systems and hardware configurations.

Cloud-native applications are designed to run on multiple clouds, so you don't have to commit all your resources to one vendor's infrastructure. Also, since these applications are portable across multiple platforms, you can move them between private data centers, public clouds, or even hybrid clouds without making changes or rebuilding them from scratch.

Containerization

Cloud-native applications benefit from container technology instead of virtual machines (VMs). Containers let you run multiple applications on a single host without having them come into contact with each other; this means they're more efficient than VM-based applications because they take a lot less time to start up than an actual VM. Further, since they have a layered architecture—meaning if two containers have the same dependency, then that dependency will only have to be downloaded once—it makes applications significantly faster.

Understanding Cloud-native Platforms - what are they, and why do we need them?

Cloud-native platforms are a new approach to software development that takes advantage of the cloud and DevOps best practices to deliver application software faster, with minimal infrastructure. Cloud-native applications are built using microservices, small, independent services that communicate over APIs. These applications run in containers and are built using open-source tools that can be run in any environment.

A Cloud-native platform is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service or IaaS solution that simplifies the development and deployment of applications. It contains all the necessary components for building and running microservices, including tooling, runtime environments, data management, and security features.

As a result, developers can focus on building flexible APIs that integrate data from multiple sources to create new value for their users.

Cloud-native Applications vs. Traditional Business Applications

Cloud-native and traditional business applications are vastly different in their architecture, purpose, and outcomes.

- Cloud-native applications are designed from the ground up to take advantage of cloud-based architectures. They use microservices and containers, and they are typically built around APIs.

- Traditional business applications were designed for on-premises and private cloud deployments and are based on monolithic architectures that include monolithic applications and databases and complex network topologies.

Key differences between Cloud-native applications and Traditional business applications

Cloud-native Applications	Traditional Business applications
Cloud-native applications are designed to be resilient and elastic.	Traditional business applications are typically more rigid and vulnerable.
Cloud-native applications are built around microservices, which are small, independent units of code that can be quickly created, deployed, and scaled.	Traditional business applications are built around monolithic software.
Cloud-native applications make use of containerized environments and orchestration tools.	Traditional business applications do not use such solutions.
Cloud-native applications require a high degree of automation to be effective.	Traditional business applications generally do not require automation to be effective.
Cloud-native applications are often written in languages such as Python or Go.	While traditional business applications are usually written in Java or C#.
Cloud-native applications tend to rely heavily on open-source components.	Traditional business applications tend to rely less heavily on open-source components (or not at all) and more on proprietary components.
Cloud-native applications have a low barrier to entry for developers.	Traditional business applications have a high barrier to entry for developers.

Things to keep in mind while going Cloud-native

When migrating to a Cloud-native architecture, there are several things to remember.

The first is that Cloud-native architectures are designed with containers and microservices in mind. These two concepts are fundamentally different from traditional applications, which makes them difficult to migrate in a way that will provide the same level of performance and security.
The second is that cloud-based systems require a very different approach to deployment and scalability than traditional systems. While it might seem like a simple matter of moving an application over to the cloud, this requires significant retooling and rethinking of how you deploy and scale your applications.
Finally, if you're going to go Cloud-native, you'll need new tools and processes for testing, monitoring, and debugging your application—tools that might not have been available or appropriate for your older application architecture.

Conclusion

Cloud-native is the next wave in application development, and it’s here to stay. With its many advantages over traditional applications and the rising popularity of microservices, it’s clear that Cloud-native technologies will be around for some time.

Leverage Cloud-native development with Neverinstall. Sign up now or reach out to us at sales@neverinstall.com today!

How application streaming is accelerating digital transformation

Abhishek — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 11:12:36 +0000

As technology becomes the mainstay of human life, businesses are diving into digital transformation as a priority bar none. Using innovative digital products and strategies to improve business operations is now a necessity, not an option.

Application streaming stands out among the many technologies becoming essential to digital transformation, and you’ve probably heard plenty about it, or at least its close cousins – virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and Desktop as a Service (DaaS).

In this article, we’ll explore the myriad ways application streaming facilitates and accelerates digital transformation. If you’re a business owner/CTO and considering the adoption of a new mode of production, this piece should help you make an informed decision.

What is application streaming?

We’ve discussed this in great detail in earlier articles. However, if you’re unfamiliar with the core concept, here's a quick recap.

Application streaming lets you use desktop-class applications through your browser. It’s like streaming Netflix videos, except you can interact with the apps, tools, browsers, and operating system. Think of it as accessing an entire OS through your browsers.

Essentially, with application streaming at hand, you get to use a personal desktop-like setup that delivers a native desktop experience – via a browser over the internet. Most respectable application streaming portals are configured for access from multiple devices and device types, like tablets and cell phones.

In this real world, here’s what it means – you start your device (laptop, tablet, cell phone), log in via your browsers and launch a cloud-based workspace replicating your local device's desktop. You can install and use resource-intensive apps, browsers, and even professional software such as Figma and VSCode, and run this entire setup on a low-spec device like a Chromebook.

Instead of using your device's processor and computing abilities, application streaming piggybacks off remote servers. All your device has to do is run a single tab in an internet browser. Every tool running in the cloud-based desktop consumes resources provided by the remote browser so that you can run high-end tools seamlessly on rudimentary devices.

Is application streaming the same as desktop virtualization?

While they share the same functional philosophy – app streaming and desktop virtualization (VDI, DaaS, etc.) are very different. Both seek to offer access to desktops and apps over the cloud. But there are crucial differences.

App streaming doesn’t involve any download-installation-configuration-setup activity from the user. They simply choose the apps they want, and said apps show up pre-installed and pre-configured in their workspace - in seconds or, at most, minutes.

Desktop virtualization doesn’t typically deliver pre-installed apps. The vendor creates and provides virtual desktop images with specific abilities – RAM, GPU, memory, bandwidth – as per the needs of the customer preferences. However, these desktop images still have to be set up, secured, and populated with the right apps (for business workflows) by an in-house IT team. And although workspaces can be set up in seconds, like with app streaming, they need to be customized and configured before they are usable.

How application streaming is accelerating digital transformation

Caters to remote work: Multiple surveys have found that remote workers are willing to stay in their jobs longer. They are also 22% happier than permanently on-site people. 69% of millennials would give up on some work benefits in favor of flexibility (remote/hybrid setup).

In other words, people like working remotely. They will work harder for employers who allow it and will likely stick around longer. These are no small benefits, especially as attrition rates consistently increase across industries and quiet quitting continues to trend.

Application streaming is ideal for remote work environments. Employees get online access to the exact tools they need to get their job done, but employers do not have to spend on expensive high-spec devices to facilitate heavy tool usage - the very definition of a win-win. It also reduces the possibility of shadow IT and unauthorized, unmonitored access.

Lowers expenses on devices: As described above, app streaming doesn’t require the computing resources of the user’s local device – remote servers take care of the computational heavy lifting. That means you can run resource-intensive apps easily on devices that wouldn’t be able to handle these apps if installed on them directly.

Consequently, employers don’t have to buy Macbook Pros or high-end Windows laptops, so remote developers can write and compile code without device lag/crash. They could give them Chromebooks and get the same work done. Needless to say, the cost-savings are significant.

Easy, immediate scalability: It takes a couple of minutes for an app streaming provider literally to trigger a new cloud desktop. Every time a new employee joins, employers don’t have to ship over a new device before work begins. The IT team can easily spin up a new, fully customizable workspace, deliver the login credentials to the employee, and let them get started.

Similarly, if an employee quits, they don’t have to go through the rigamarole of having the device picked up. With a few clicks, companies can permanently delete the departing employee’s workspace in seconds.

The savings in time, effort, and money (for shipping and pickup) are obvious.

Promotes faster and easier collaboration: The discourse about the need for improved and organic collaboration within and between teams is vast. The right app streaming platform can facilitate improved collaboration through collaborative browsing and coding.

Through collaborative browsing, two or more users can simultaneously browse a web page or computer screens, even if they are on other ends of the planet. Each can see how the other person interacts with the screen while they are doing it.

This sounds similar to screen sharing, but both users can interact with the shared page/screen in this case. In screen sharing, only the sharer can interact with their screen while the other participant(s) can only watch.

Collaborative browsing has numerous use cases, the most important of which is customer service. If customer support personnel have to help someone fill out a form, explore a product or deal with an issue, it’s much easier when both of them can work with the page simultaneously. This cuts down communication gaps and reduces errors.

Then, there’s collaborative coding which allows devs to view and review code in real, in the exact environment within which it has been created. Instead of using GitHub to upload code, which the reviewer then downloads and reviews on their device, devs can now simply share their entire instance with the reviewer. Essentially, the reviewer sees and works with the same IDE as the coder, eliminating all possibilities of the “works on my machine” problem.

Processes like the ones described above facilitate faster, easier, and more instant collaboration between individuals and teams. This fosters a closer understanding of what colleagues or other teams are working with and their challenges. This, in turn, encourages employees to work together and create mutually beneficial solutions - another win-win for businesses.

Lower TCO: When all apps and tools run independently of a device’s hardware/software capabilities, it doesn’t depreciate as rapidly as is the norm. Hence, application streaming contributes to lower expenses businesses would otherwise spend on fixing/replacing device wear-and-tear.

If your laptop isn’t doing the heavy lifting of running dev tools, its hardware and software components don’t have to handle the operational overhead. Consequently, they function optimally for longer periods, and you don’t have to run to management/support for quick fixes or requests for a newer machine. If devices aren’t eroded as quickly, the number of employee support requests (due to device aging, lack of updates, degrading computing power, etc.) also reduces.

In the end, companies also pay much less for hardware-software vendor support, which contributes to lower spending.

Additionally, IT folks can address any issues with the cloud desktop remotely. Employees do not need to ship their device across a city/state/country (usually done on the company dime) so that support personnel can explore and diagnose bugs. Moreover, since IT teams can remotely handle all anomalies, queries or confusions can be handled faster with less effort – translating to much higher productivity.

Combine all the above - longer-lasting devices, lower vendor payments, remote support - and the total cost of ownership comes down significantly. This makes digital transformation a possibility not just for large corporations (with massive financial war chests), but small and mid-sized businesses, thus leveling the playing field to a large extent.

Wrapping up

Despite being a relatively newer technology, application streaming has already made its mark in virtual workspaces worldwide. Its ability to combine ease of use (for employees), lower spending (for employers), and in-built flexibility (for both) have made it a future-proof solution for a remorse-first world.

If you’re still unconvinced, look at this piece on why you should open your new office in the cloud.

Experience browser-based computing with Neverinstall and migrate your workflow entirely to the cloud. Sign up or contact us at sales@neverinstall.com today!

Where legacy VDI fails

Abhishek — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 12:23:53 +0000

When legacy VDI hit the scene, it was a revolutionary concept: users could be completely isolated from their environment and machines, with the ability to jump between them with no loss in performance seamlessly.

The concept of virtualizing desktops was initially popularized by Citrix Systems in the early 2000s when it launched its XenDesktop platform. And subsequently, several large corporations started deploying VDI solutions for their remote workforce.

But now? After years of being hauled back into the light by businesses that recognize that customers demand a more integrated experience and are willing to pay for it (and then some). With new technologies like AI-powered virtual assistants and hardware-assisted graphics processing units (GPUs), legacy VDI has become… less remarkable.

Perhaps it’s relevant to discuss how IDC released an op-ed last year, claiming that legacy VDI will soon be a thing of the past. It's still great if you need to run old software on an old computer—but if you want to run more modern apps? It's not going to cut it anymore.

Legacy VDI is plagued with shortcomings in meeting the changing needs of remote workers. Further, the high up-front costs and complex management make it difficult to justify the investment, especially compared to newer, more flexible solutions.

Obsolescence

How providers developed the technology explains why legacy VDI is falling short of remote workers' expectations. It was designed for on-premises data centers and is not well-suited for cloud-based deployments. As a result, it requires significant bandwidth and compute resources, making it complex and difficult to manage and a poor fit for today's remote work environment.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to why it is failing, as the specific failures of legacy VDI will vary depending on the organization and its specific needs. However, some common problems with legacy VDI affect virtually all use cases.

Inflexibility

With legacy VDI, it is often difficult to introduce changes to the system without impacting users or disrupting the business. The primary disadvantage of VDI is the potential for increased complexity and management overhead, as each desktop image must be managed and maintained separately.

In addition, VDI can require more storage and networking capacity than traditional desktop deployments. And perhaps one of the biggest hurdles to flexibility is the inability of some legacy applications to work well in a virtual desktop environment, requiring organizations to maintain both physical and virtual desktop images.

Barriers to scalability

Legacy VDI systems often need to be designed to scale more easily, making it difficult to add new users or increase capacity. There are several barriers to scalability with legacy VDI:

Lack of hardware virtualization support

Many legacy VDI solutions do not support hardware virtualization, making it difficult to scale beyond a few hundred virtual desktops.

Lack of storage virtualization

Legacy VDI solutions often do not include storage virtualization, making it difficult to add more storage capacity or replicate data for disaster recovery.

Lack of networking virtualization

Without networking virtualization, it can be difficult to add more networking capacity or to segment networking traffic for security purposes.

Lack of management tools

Without adequate management tools, monitoring and managing a large number of virtual desktops can be difficult.

Complexity

Legacy VDI systems are complex, making them difficult to manage and maintain. Because VDI was designed to be a one-to-one mapping of physical to virtual desktops, it does not easily scale to accommodate more users or demanding workloads. This means that when you have to make a change, it can be difficult and time-consuming—and sometimes even impossible—to implement.

For example, If you're running Windows XP, you have to find a way to get your new workstation up and running with all the latest updates and patches to run VDI. Then, once you get your new computer up and running, you have to figure out how to set up the whole thing so that every time someone logs in from their phone or tablet, they can access all their files and applications.

Managing VDI is a ton of work—and it's not necessarily because of how complicated the technology is; it's because of how much effort goes into ensuring everything works properly. If your company has dozens or even hundreds of employees working remotely, you must update more people on security and hardware. That means support calls (which can be expensive), training sessions (which take time), and updating software across multiple platforms (which takes time as well). Moreover, it becomes trickier to troubleshoot with VDI, especially in larger environments.

Even if it's possible to make changes to your legacy VDI system, you may still be dealing with old, unsupported applications and operating systems on your network that don't play nice with modern versions of virtual desktops. This can lead to performance issues and a poor user experience.

Inadequate performance

Legacy VDI has become a bottleneck for business productivity. It's common for companies to have hundreds of virtual desktops running on their servers at any given time, but these systems can't scale up or down. Consequently, legacy VDI systems often deliver poor performance, impacting user productivity.

Legacy VDI systems have been designed for the physical server to run the VM. The VM has no control over the physical server, and the VM cannot be stopped or restarted without affecting other virtual machines on the same physical host. To scale, you must first reconfigure your legacy VDI infrastructure with newer technologies like GPU acceleration and high-performance storage.

The primary issues with the design of VDI are:

VMs start slowly when they first start up because they need to copy their state from the previous session. This takes a long time, leading to poor performance until everything has finished copying over.
If a host fails while there are still VMs running on it, users will lose those VMs forever because they were stored only in memory and not saved anywhere else (like an external hard drive).

There are several potential causes for the poor performance of legacy VDI, but some of the most common include the following:

Lack of adequate resources

The performance will suffer if the underlying infrastructure is not properly sized or configured to support the load placed on it by virtual desktop users. This can be due to insufficient CPU, memory, storage capacity, or poor network connectivity.

Inefficient use of resources

Even if the infrastructure has enough capacity to support the load, VDI may not use it efficiently. The reasons can range from inefficient algorithms to resource contention and various other factors.

Misconfigured virtual desktop settings

Incorrectly configured virtual desktop settings can also lead to issues with the experience. This includes incorrect graphics settings, bad resource allocations, or networking configuration.

Poor application design

Some applications are simply not well suited for virtualization and can cause performance problems. This is often due to inefficient use of resources, poor multi-tasking support, or other factors.

Cost containment

Legacy VDI systems can be expensive to implement and maintain. Although the cost of legacy VDI will vary depending on the organization's specific needs, some potential issues that increase the cost of legacy VDI include the following:

The need to purchase additional hardware to support the legacy VDI environment.
The need to purchase additional software licenses to support the legacy VDI environment.
The need to train staff on how to use the legacy VDI environment.
The need to support the legacy VDI environment over time, including patching and upgrading software as needed.

Security

Security is one of the biggest challenges with legacy VDI today. The primary concerns of legacy VDI are;

The potential for data breaches which can occur when sensitive data is stored in the cloud or when users access their desktops remotely; and
The reliance on third-party providers, which pose a security risk if they do not have adequate security measures in place.

However, the architecture of VDI and the way the technology is developed poses several challenges to the security of enterprise data and applications. The primary security concerns of legacy VDI are the same as they are for any other type of deployment. However, they can be exacerbated by the fact that many organizations still rely on legacy IT infrastructure.

These concerns include the following:

Policy management

Security policies and procedures that are not in place or not followed, which could allow for unauthorized access to sensitive data or systems.

Vendor lock-in

A security solution designed for one vendor's product will not work with another vendor's product, making it difficult to switch from one vendor's product to another. The lock-in prevents organizations from moving to secure providers in due time.

Lack of visibility and control

With legacy VDI, organizations often lack visibility into what is happening on their virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). This can make it difficult to troubleshoot issues, identify potential security threats, identify flaws in the architecture, and deploy control measures in time.

Compatibility issues

Legacy VDI solutions can often be incompatible with newer software and hardware versions. This can make it difficult for organizations to upgrade their VDI infrastructure or use new technologies to make systems more secure.

Application streaming and the way forward

Application streaming enables users to access applications on a remote computer. Remote servers stream the application to the user's device, and the user interacts with the application through the user interface on their local device.

When pegged against legacy VDI, Application streaming is a significantly more efficient and effective way to deliver applications to users.

A fundamental comparison

With legacy VDI the remote computer acts as an extension of the local system, providing users with an experience similar to that of using a traditional desktop or laptop computer. The idea behind legacy VDI is that it allows organizations to reduce costs associated with providing remote access and increase productivity by providing a consistent, native experience across all devices. However, this comes at the cost of performance and responsiveness because each machine requires its own dedicated resources (e.g., RAM) for each user session; this can cause issues when multiple users are logged into one machine at once.

Further, with legacy VDI, the user's desktop is served from the data center, and they need to connect to that application with their virtual machine. This requires them to pay attention to the performance of their connection, which can be slow or even impossible in some cases.

On the other hand, with application streaming, applications are deployed directly to the end user's machine without needing an additional client. This means that there is no hardware requirement, and it also means that users need not be dependent on any specific hardware or software configuration.

Application streaming also reduces network traffic by eliminating the need for remote access to a host server. This results in lower latency, reduced training requirements, and improved user experience.

With application streaming, the user's desktop is served directly from the application server. And they can connect just by clicking on a link. Moreover, users don’t need to worry about how fast their connection is because it doesn't matter! The server will stream any content you want instantly, so there's no way for you to slow things down.

Making the call

Today, businesses can take advantage of the benefits of virtual desktops to improve their employees' productivity, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. However, managing legacy virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is costly, tedious, and time-consuming.

On the other hand, application streaming allows businesses to access their applications without having to purchase new hardware or install them on a server. By using application streaming instead of legacy VDI, businesses can save money on hardware costs while also benefiting from increased flexibility in terms of mobility and scalability.

Learn more: Application streaming: Where it has taken us

Create a Space on Neverinstall and experience the future of personal cloud computing with unparalleled performance, streamed directly to your browser. Reach out to us at sales@neverinstall.com to know more!

How Cloud PCs are making businesses more flexible

Abhishek — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 13:09:07 +0000

From the perspective of a business owner, imagine that your company was capable of the following:

Hiring talent across the world, irrespective of where they reside.
Running powerful, resource-intensive apps/tools on affordable devices.
Effortlessly scale up and down, depending on the number of employees/workspaces required.
Complete virtual control over all company data, no matter where employee devices are.
Simple security implementations that don’t need access to the employee's device.
Separation of device configuration/specs and employee productivity.

Needless to say, if a business could leverage the functions/attributes above, it would experience a significant amount of flexibility and, most importantly, much lower TCO. Fortunately, achieving such flexibility is no longer a great challenge for businesses, thanks to the emergence and popularity of Cloud PCs.

What is a Cloud PC?

Cloud PCs offer a native desktop experience, replicating the appearance, operations, and capabilities of a personal device OS. The difference is that the OS, desktop, and apps are located entirely in the cloud.

In other words, on a cloud PC, you log in through your browser (like you do on websites) and access a desktop with all requisite tools and features - but it runs off a remote server's resources and computing powers. The device used to log in only expends the resources required to stay on, connect to the internet and keep a single browser running. Imagine what this means for a business:

Employees can work on a cloud-based desktop that runs heavy apps like dev and design tools.

The desktop is completely customizable.
It is accessible on any device, including tablets and mobile devices.
No downloads are required.
No need for company-issued devices. As long as the employee has a device with internet connectivity, they can use the cloud PC to work.

Unsurprisingly, cloud PCs have become particularly popular since the pandemic, given the rise and prevalence of remote work.

Suggested read: Open your new office in the Cloud

Why switch to the cloud for business flexibility?

Hire talent from any location:

Since you no longer have to rely on a brick-and-mortar office to get work done, your talent pool is no longer confined to people who can come into the office. Cloud PCs ensure that individuals can access necessary technology for work. As long as they have an internet-enabled desktop, laptop, or mobile device, their location becomes a non-issue for hiring suitability.

Cloud PCs allow companies to employ the best possible people by eliminating what was once a pivotal barrier: location.

Lower cost of device purchase:

Typically, companies purchase or lease devices for every employee they hire. If these employees are power users, their devices will have to be fairly high-end (think Macbook Pro and the like).

However, with cloud PCs, the performance of necessary tools no longer depends on the device's software/hardware specifications. All heavy lifting is done by cloud servers, which means that resource-intensive apps can be run easily on less expensive devices with lower computing abilities.

Essentially, you won’t have to buy expensive devices for each employee. And even if you need to provide them, you could purchase affordable machines such as Chromebooks and send them across. Even on barebones, using heavy IDEs and design tools is effortless with
Cloud PCs. What’s the point of spending more money on Macbooks, then?

No boundaries to business growth:

Thanks to remote work quickly becoming a norm, we don’t expect businesses to maintain a physical presence in every geography they operate in. It doesn’t matter if your client is in the Netherlands and you are in South Korea; cloud PCs have made it possible to provide consistent, high-quality products and services across regions/countries/continents.

Faster, simpler, and smarter security implementation:

It is reasonable for business owners to worry about the security and integrity of corporate data. With employee devices scattered across locations, it makes sense that data may be exposed if the employee loses/misplaces their device. Confidential data may also become exposed to malicious elements or unethical competitive practices if the device is lost.

Cloud PCs eliminate this concern by ensuring that no company data needs to be downloaded or stored on the employee’s local device. Everything they use - tools, data, downloads - remain on the cloud PC. The cloud PC itself is secured, and that too remotely.

Let’s say an employee reports that their laptop was lost. Instead of worrying about any files stored on the device, someone from the IT team can simply disable this particular employee’s login credentials. That way, even if someone tries to log into their cloud desktop and has the employee’s credentials, they cannot touch the data.

Companies can also set up these cloud desktops to log out automatically after certain periods of inactivity. Therefore, even if the employee does not log out, their data is secured nonetheless.

Reduced maintenance and support costs:

With all apps and tools running off remote servers, employee devices wouldn’t suffer the usual wear-and-tear of running those apps. Consequently, devices last longer and require less maintenance, repair, and support.

Companies spend a lot less on employee devices because they malfunction less frequently. They also have to pay less for hardware or software vendors' support services, which frees up money for more important investments.

If there are any issues with the cloud desktop, IT teams can remotely handle them since the entire setup is device independent. Employees don’t have to go to a support center or ship their devices for examination, further driving down costs and preventing breaks in productivity.

Easy scaling up and down:

With in-office setups, every new hire means time and money spent on purchasing a new device and waiting for it to be shipped - which can take days or weeks.

With cloud PCs, no such thing. Your cloud vendor can trigger a new, personalized, customizable cloud-native desktop in a few minutes. It will already have the required apps pre-installed and pre-configured. Hence, businesses spend no time installing apps, security monitoring mechanisms, and more.

The difference in time - from days to minutes - boosts productivity and flexibility. In many cases, the business won’t have to ship a device. Therefore, they can conduct business in distant locations if the employee has an adequate internet connection.

How Neverinstall makes a big difference in business flexibility

A quick glimpse at some of Neverinstall’s key features should display its efficacy in terms of expanding and empowering your business:

You get a functional Linux-backed desktop that anyone can use on any device with an internet connection. The experience is like working on a personal device, but access to the workspace is through a browser.
No downloads, setups, or configurations are necessary. All apps are pre-installed and pre-configured every time you launch a workspace.
Multiple popular applications to choose from, a few of which are:

Dev tools: VS Code, Android Studio, Neovim
Browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Brave
Utility: Obsidian. Slack, Telegram
Design: Blender, Gimp, Figma

Spaces optimized for mobile devices - responsive design, single-touch and multi-touch interactions across device classes, and a virtual keyboard.
Users can launch their cloud desktop to browse at higher internet speeds or use the platform as a VPN by launching in Europe or the USA.
Low latency application streaming thanks to our use of the WebRTC streaming protocol.
Hassle-free usage of input devices like keyboard and mouse.
A globally distributed server network that continues to expand. Current server clusters are in the US, England, Singapore, and India. New server clusters are coming up in Japan, Australia, Finland, Spain, The Netherlands, and more locations in the US.

Expand to Exceptional with Cloud PCs

Cloud PCs, without exaggeration, are on their way to becoming the workspaces of the future. Even beyond its other advantages, the cost savings alone (with no drop in productivity) give businesses an irrefutable reason to consider cloud-native desktops.

Add to this the fact that employees increasingly prefer remote work, and it becomes easy to find solid reasons to adopt tools like Neverinstall. Increased user retention, accelerated productivity, a larger talent pool, and a lower TCO are only some advantages business owners can consistently leverage for organizational flexibility.

Discover boundless flexibility and surpass the limitations of personal devices with Neverinstall. Sign up today or write to us at sales@neverinstall.com to know more.

Application streaming vs. Desktop virtualization

Abhishek — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 11:42:52 +0000

The rise of remote work has prompted organizations to actively revamp their toolset to facilitate remote access to their data and apps. However, since employees join work from multiple locations (global and regional), they have taken to accessing work data and requisite tech via their personal devices, which has raised additional concerns about security and data privacy.

Among the emergent technologies to help with these requirements, application streaming and desktop virtualization have particularly stood out. Both have emerged as battle-tested methods of enabling access to the tools required for day-to-day employee activities, including using resource-heavy design suites and IDEs.

In this article, we’ll take a cursory look at both these technologies and explore some key differences between the two so that you can make a more informed choice about which practice resonates with your team or organizational needs.

What is application streaming?

Application streaming allows users to access desktop-class applications through a browser. In this case, a device accesses apps hosted on a remote server via the cloud. The experience is similar to streaming Netflix videos, except you can interact with apps, tools, and a virtual desktop to accomplish tasks similar to an OS on your native machine.

In its simplest and most elegant form, app streaming lets users access a personal cloud desktop, equipped with everything required for a native desktop experience, entirely over the internet.

A big differentiator is that, in application streaming, the local device used to access the apps does not undertake the operational overhead of running the online desktop or apps. That responsibility lies with the remote server, on which all apps are pre-installed and pre-configured.

Leveraging application streaming allows you to run the most resource-consuming apps on personal devices with basic hardware and software capabilities, such as Chromebooks. All the device needs is an internet connection (with reasonable speeds) and an internet browser. The advantage of this feature is immediate and massive, i.e., user productivity is no longer dependent on their endpoint.

Benefits of Application Streaming

Companies no longer need to issue and ship thousands of devices to their employees. They can simply provide credentials to the app streaming portal, which the employee can access from their own devices.
Power users like devs and designers can use IDEs, collaboration apps, design tools, and other heavy apps without needing an expensive device with high processing capabilities.
IT security teams can get single-panel control over the app streaming portal. Anytime a device is lost/stolen/misplaced, they can simply disable those particular credentials or block access from a particular device eliminating all risk of exposing corporate data.
Security patches and updates no longer have to be applied to individual endpoints, just the app streaming platform - much easier to do since you can implement them remotely.
Every employee’s digital setup becomes accessible remotely and is device-agnostic. Consequently, IT costs (especially for vendor support) reduce. Coupled with the fact that heavy apps can be streamed and run without buying expensive endpoints, this significantly lowers TCO.

What is desktop virtualization?

Fundamentally, desktop virtualization provides the same feature as app streaming - access to a remote desktop independent of compatibility with the local device. It replaces dependence on the physical device with one or more remote computing environments. However, in this case, all computing components of a desktop are hosted virtually to simplify optimal functioning, management, and resource usage.

Providers host these virtualized desktops on virtual desktop infrastructure or VDI - the bedrock technology required to offer, run and manage remote desktop instances. They are hosted on centralized servers and can be deployed to end-users endpoints as required.

The aforementioned centralized servers contain desktop images. A hypervisor splits the server into these images that users can, in turn, utilize through their endpoints. The VDI provider makes these desktop images available to an organization’s IT team, who can further shape it as they see fit - install necessary apps, institute limitations on the data they can access, set up mechanisms to monitor traffic, etc. Once configured, these desktops are made available for employees, who can access them via any device as long as they have the requisite login credentials.

The VDIs, too, can be persistent or non-persistent.

Persistent VDIs act closely like a personal desktop/laptop experience. With the former, the user accesses the same desktop (with saved versions of their previous work/app usage) every single time. In this case, the provider allows users to personalize their desktop to save all changes before a connection resets.

Non-persistent VDIs are the opposite. They provide generic desktops where users cannot save changes, and the system resets after a user logs out. Users cannot customize these desktops, and the providers do not maintain their state between sessions. Non-persistent VDIs are simpler, cheaper to initiate, and useful for teams or organizations with multiple individuals who perform repetitive tasks, not necessarily needing to save a session.

At its core, desktop virtualization converts entire desktops, including installed apps, tools, browsers, and files, into virtually-accessible, cloud-based, device-independent functional clusters.

Primarily, virtualized desktops are deployed by major organizations that want significant control over employees’ digital work environment, particularly their interaction with company data. VDI providers also customize said desktops with relevant capabilities and safeguards to make them suitable for tasks required by an employee’s industry, role, and corresponding access level.

Benefits of Desktop Virtualization

As the list below will depict, some benefits of desktop virtualization mirror those offered by app streaming, while others are more unique:

Desktop virtualization enables remote access from any location or device.
Provides customized desktops for multiple teams (disparate requirements) across an organization, reducing the time, effort, and money companies would otherwise spend to do the same in-house.
Provides device-agnostic performance - making it possible to run heavy apps on basic devices.
Makes it possible to get work done with cheaper devices - cost savings for the company.
Lowers the cost of device maintenance and repair since the device does not suffer the wear and tear of running said heavy apps.
All corporate data resides on the server rather than the endpoint, thus ensuring increased security and closer control over data usage.
Easy to institute role-based access control by configuring an employee’s desktop so that it can only access the data they require at their level of seniority and security clearance.
IT teams can easily patch, update or configure all virtual desktops in a network.
IT teams can easily delete desktop instances of employees who leave, spin up new instances within minutes, or scale up the total number of virtual desktops if required.
Can provide completely customized desktops (OS, apps, storage capability, data security guardrails) designed to cater solely to the requirement and preferences of specific teams within particular organizations.

Application streaming vs. Desktop Virtualization

So, wherein lies the difference? Why and how should you pick one over the other to help with your remote team’s tech requirements?

Setup Effort: App streaming enables access to pre-installed apps.

That’s the whole point of the exercise - enabling users to access apps over the cloud without downloading, setting up, and configuring anything. An app streaming platform doesn’t require users to install anything; they simply select the apps they wish to use, and those appear pre-installed, pre-configured, and ready to use when the user launches them.

Customers of VDI providers, usually enterprises, however, do not (generally) have the privilege of leveraging pre-installed apps. The provider offers virtual desktop images equipped with specified computing capabilities - RAM, GPU, storage space, bandwidth, etc. - as requested by the customer.

However, once the virtualized desktops are made available, required apps, security partitions, access control managers, and other software configurations must be implemented by the customer’s (the enterprise) IT personnel. So, unlike app streaming, desktop virtualization cannot simply be triggered and operational in seconds. It requires a non-trivial amount of setup effort because it can be useful for employees.

In other words, desktop virtualization provides the infrastructure to use the software a team needs, regardless of device capabilities. While VDI will provide the backbone for it, the utilization of computing resources for setup/scaling/configuration lies entirely with the in-house IT folks.

Scaling: App streaming platforms are easily and flexibly scalable.

Since teams of varied sizes have gone remote and yet continue to hire, such platforms are the best possible solution for growing teams that don’t want to spend time and money on in-house IT efforts when hiring new people.

In other words, it doesn’t matter if your team has five people or fifty; app streaming is equally useful. As your team grows, you simply scale up by triggering more workspaces, all of which come with pre-installed apps.

Learn more: Elaborate Engineering with Neverinstall: Reactive and pre-emptive scaling

VDI providers, especially the market leaders, almost always cater to the infrastructural requirements of enterprise-level clients. Mostly, they won’t be catering to five or even fifty-person teams. Deploying virtualized desktop instances, extending customer support, and establishing configuration and cybersecurity protocols for small teams would be a massive resource sink for the provider, even if they could.

Simultaneously, purchasing such services for only a few employees is prohibitively expensive for smaller organizations. And perhaps completely unfeasible for small or mid-sized teams in the first place.

Due to the infra they provide, virtualized desktop vendors tend to work with customers who require a minimum threshold of desktop instance/infrastructure volume. This qualifying number of endpoints is usually within the mid-to-high range, which makes VDI a non-option for smaller clients. Their scalability and flexibility only kick in for customers who can start with a significant number of endpoint users in the first place.

Closing thoughts

As the descriptions and comparisons above reveal, the question of “when to use which?” between app streaming and desktop virtualization depends entirely on what you want to achieve with a remote work solution. When making that decision, ask yourself a few questions:

Is your team large enough and adequately funded to approach VDI providers?
Does your team require highly customizable desktops with RBAC?
Does your IT team have the bandwidth/personnel/resources to set up/configure virtual desktops from scratch?
Does an app streaming platform already provide your team's required apps in a pre-installed, pre-configured form? And if so, would this be a simpler, cheaper option to start with?
What specific features are you looking for in your virtual workspace regarding data security, usability, performance, stability, speed, and accessibility?

Upon answering these questions, you should understand your team’s requirements and the corresponding remote work technology that would serve it best. Given that app streaming and desktop virtualization share the fundamental philosophy of making top-shelf tech available over the cloud, they help achieve many of the same goals. Therefore, you can choose the more financially prudent solution (to start with) without missing out on too many of the features provided by the other option.

Still confused? Sign up on Neverinstall to experience unparalleled application streaming, or contact us at sales@neverinstall.com and let us help you with your needs!

Elaborate Engineering with Neverinstall: Reactive and pre-emptive scaling

Abhishek — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 13:02:09 +0000

Scale for power

We are a large software-driven world, dependent on complex pieces of code to make myriad tasks easier – and in a lot of cases possibly, which would otherwise be not. However, we need hardware (or machines) to run our software. Our hardware, composed of the necessary components, offers the necessary power and resources to execute the code of our software and, thus, yield desired results. These resources, which include compute, RAM, storage space, bandwidth, and more, are the fuel required to support our software as we hope to use them. However, like most others on our planet, these resources are limited – requiring scale to achieve more.

A limit to the escape

Traditionally, our machines are horizontally scalable, i.e. we can achieve more power by simply having more machines. In our case, we need more power to support more users on the platform to deliver a consistent user experience; and prevent system failures.

However, it is virtually impossible to keep a huge number of machines running at all times. We need to consider, that computing requirements keep changing throughout the day – as the number of users on the platform increases or decreases, we need to adjust the delivery of computing power to the platform to optimize for costs, performance, and sustainability.

What it means for us

The power available to us directly affects the time it takes to create a user application/container. Since we require hardware on our end to set up the applications for users on the platform, as the number of users increases we need more machines ready to go to support them and need to turn off machines to contain costs.

Any Space that a user creates on the platform is a combination of 3 containers clubbed together and run as a ‘Pod’ in Kubernetes. The Pods are then run on worker Nodes which is the ‘machine’ that we scale up or down depending on user traffic. So, we need to decide the number of worker Nodes running at any point in time while optimizing for cost and user coverage.

What we need as a platform is an intelligent solution to scale up and scale down our systems intelligently to accommodate and cater to fluctuating user traffic; where we need to push for more power during peaks and prevent the disuse of resources during troughs.

And this is how we do it! (insert a Montell Jordan voiceover)

Comprehending demand and supply - scaling up and down

When we discuss scaling, we look at it from both perspectives – scaling up and scaling down. And, to understand scale, we need to consider the following three scenarios:

Stasis

If the desired number of Nodes matches the existing number of Nodes, it means that the platform has adequate to serve all users. Therefore, no action is needed.

Scaling up

If the desired number of Nodes is greater than the existing number of Nodes, we need to scale up and provide the desired number of Nodes to the Kubernetes cluster in each region. Once the Nodes are added, the cluster takes care of provisioning and readying the new machine at some future point in time.

Scaling down

If the desired number of Nodes is lower than the existing number of Nodes, then we need to scale down takes place. This is where it gets a little tricky.

We use DaemonSets that run in the clusters to cache container images on the Node – it ensures that (all or some) Nodes run a copy of the Pod. As and when Nodes are added to the cluster, DaemonSets ensure Pods are added with them. However, this process takes some time. Therefore, while scaling down, turning a blind eye to the work done by these caching mechanisms and deleting any Node at random would be sub-optimal.

Consider this, if there are two machines (A and B) and the work done on them is X and Y respectively (where X>Y), then it would be better to delete machine B rather than deleting machine A or deleting them at random. We need to preserve the work already done on machine A to ensure optimal performance and provisioning.

To solve this, we first sort the machines based on the work done by the DaemonSets – which is essentially the running time of the said DaemonSets and then delete the Nodes with the least running time completed from the Node pool in all the clusters.

Understanding scaling

There are two ways to scale machines to cater to a changing requirement of resources:

Reactive Scaling

Reactive scaling allows us to scale up or down the machines as and when the user traffic increases or decreases. At Neverinstall, we have been using reactive scaling since we started developing the platform since it was one of the fastest possible solutions at that time.

We regularly checked the demand for Spaces and on the other end, we checked how many machines were currently running. Depending on the demand-supply curve we scaled up or scaled down the machines to maintain equilibrium throughout the platform.

The algorithm looked something like this:

Drawbacks of a reactive system

Although reactive scaling allowed us to deploy scaling measures immediately to the platform, it was a reasonably straightforward solution, and with drawbacks.

First off, the machines required some time before they were set up and recognized by the Kubernetes controllers. Typically, it would take 10 to 12 minutes to set up a machine, and until that time the user Pod cannot be set up. Simply put, let's say a user comes and requests an application, and we don't have enough machines at that time to service the user, then that user cannot be served until a new machine is completely set up or some other user pauses/deletes their Space.
Second, a reactive scaling algorithm becomes detrimental to the platform during events of occasional user traffic spikes. Since machines take time to set up, there is a gap between user traffic increasing and it being served. However, there are times when the user traffic spikes are short-lived. Therefore, in these cases, the spike may end even before machines are used, and the provisioning of machines is wasted.
Most cloud providers have a granularity of calculation of usage time in Hours. However, most machines (due to reactive scaling) are provisioned for less than an hour and deleted afterward. This way the number of unique machines that are provisioned skyrockets and as a result bills are raised for cloud costs for a whole hour. To put this into some perspective, if one machine ran for half an hour and another for another half hour, the platform will be billed for two machines (one hour per machine) which is eventually worse than keeping a single machine running for a full hour.

Pre-emptive scaling

As the platform evolved, we sought a better solution to optimize performance without raising costs. We needed to anticipate demand on the platform and have machines ready to go before users would appear on the platform. Therefore, we deployed pre-emptive solutions on the platform to scale the machines earlier on by learning from the trends and patterns of the historical user traffic data.

Essentially, we studied historical data of our users' usage information and deployed the algorithm to decide how many machines will the platform need at some point of time in the future. This information is then used to scale up/scale down the machines based on that well in advance of user traffic peaking or falling.

The algorithm looks something like this:

Keep in mind

We noted that the usage patterns can change over time and it gets difficult to continuously keep the algorithm/parameters updated. And although the approach enables better provisioning of machines – it is not perfect.

Further, we need to keep note of the fact that pre-emptive scaling does not protect us from unexpected spikes or dips in usage requirements and it can lead to unexpected over-provisioning or under-provisioning of resources if not monitored properly.

Our way forward

What we realized was that with over 250,000 users on the platform we need a mix of different approaches to deliver the best results. Coupled with this, we monitor our systems regularly to ensure optimal provisioning and maintaining resources required to maintain optimal performance.

Create a Space on Neverinstall and experience unparalleled computing performance. Sign up today!

The best way to run heavy apps on a Chromebook

Abhishek — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 05:41:44 +0000

The popularity of Chromebooks is no mystery. The minimalistic devices are reasonably priced, easy to carry, and fairly secure. Educational institutions, in particular, favor Chromebooks as the device of choice for students to access digital resources. However, even when they are a financially intelligent option for smaller businesses, especially with remote-first teams, they are seldom seen as enterprise hardware.

Despite their usefulness, Chromebooks do not fare well when it comes to computing power. Typically, the hardware and software specs of Chromebooks are not suitable for running resource-heavy apps for design and development activities. Such limitations render them fundamentally useless for tasks other than surfing the internet.

Given the above, Chromebooks don’t serve a far-reaching purpose for most university students and enterprise employees. Organizations have to reach deeper into their pockets and purchase more expensive Windows laptops or MacBooks, especially for power users like devs and designers. Or…do they?

Before diving into the solution, let’s take a closer look at the problem. What are the limitations of Chromebooks that prevent them from flawlessly executing heavy-duty apps as a workstation does?

Limitations of Chromebooks

Largely unsuitable for complex computing Chromebooks’ limited processing ability restricts users from installing and using far too many professional productivity apps. A few of the apps that a Chromebook cannot run (or run effectively) are Photoshop, Visual Studio, Maya, Pro Tools, After Effects, Figma, and most developer tools including IDEs.

Additionally, Chrome OS does not natively support Windows and Apple programs, so you face more limitations in terms of the apps that you can actually use.

Heavily dependent on the user’s internet connection The key characteristic of the Chrome OS, which powers the Chromebook is that it works primarily with cloud computing via a thin client. The OS and the device are largely optimized to run few to no resource-intensive apps offline.

Therefore, if you have a weak internet connection, the Chromebook is essentially useless. Without access to cloud storage, you can’t even retrieve required files, let alone the few applications that it may be able to work with.

Obviously, an offline experience isn’t great with other basic laptops either, but they still allow individuals to use a plethora of downloadable, offline tools in case the internet is unsatisfactory.

The Chrome OS itself The Chrome OS does a lot of things right, which is why Chromebooks are popular despite the restrictions described above.

However, Chrome OS is still essentially the Google Chrome browser and the extensions it supports. The OS has definitely matured, and now allows the option of running some Android apps. But, as mentioned above, most on-device programs cannot run on it.

Additionally, the Chrome OS also brings around all the disadvantages of the Chrome browser itself - split processes, prerendering, and the like. The very act of opening multiple browser tabs slows Chrome down, and users have to deal with the same overhead on a Chromebook.

All the above reasons contribute to making the Chrome OS experience noticeably inferior to using more established operating systems such as Windows, macOS, or Linux.

And yet, while the restrictions discussed above might make it seem impossible, it is quite effortless to run heavy apps on a Chromebook as long as you leverage the cloud. In this particular instance, we’re talking about application streaming.

What is Application Streaming?

Application streaming lets you use desktop-class applications through your browser in the form of a web app, almost exactly like how you’d stream videos on Netflix. However, the key difference here is that the stream is interactive. As against a video stream that offers only one-way communication, application streaming provides two-way communication that allows users to send inputs through their local machine and its peripherals and received
outputs as they would on a native computer.

In other words, you can access a personal cloud computer that will provide a native desktop experience as long as you have a device that can connect to the internet and support a browser.

How does it help run heavy apps on your Chromebook?

You work with apps fully on the cloud. We’re not just talking about lightweight web apps, but full-featured development and design tools that you can use exactly as you would if they were installed on your laptop.

The differentiator here is that, instead of running the computing power of your device, the apps are pre-installed and pre-configured on remote servers. For a low-spec device like a Chromebook, this is ideal, since it doesn’t have to deal with the wear and tear of running apps and tools. All it has to do is run a single tab on a browser.

So, if you have a Chromebook, you boot it up and log into a virtual workspace via the browser – and you get a native desktop setup with a full-fledged OS that you can use just like the OS on your local machine.

Why you need Application Streaming

When applications run in the cloud, their performance levels are independent of your device. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a Chromebook as long as it is internet-enabled. Irrespective of the device’s hardware and software specifications, you can seamlessly run resource-heavy applications.

A few major benefits of application streaming are:

Organizations and institutions no longer have to purchase expensive machines for employees/students just to use the apps required to complete their tasks. Instead, you just provision a cloud PC on a reasonably-priced Chromebook within a few minutes. Since users can still run IDEs, collaboration apps, and design tools without procuring high-end devices, you save significant expenses that would otherwise be incurred in buying suitable devices.
There’s no danger of work devices being lost or stolen and putting corporate data at risk. Since no data is stored on the device (all on the cloud), IT teams just have to secure the workspace in order to protect sensitive data.
IT teams don’t have to bother with implementing security patches and updates across multiple devices. They simply need to do enough to secure the cloud desktop, and organizational data will be completely secure from external threats or invasions.
Most importantly, your TCO (total cost of ownership) drops by a noticeable margin. Not only can you purchase affordable Chromebooks (typically two to five times less expensive than enterprise-grade machines), but you also don’t have to break the bank in order to make payments for vendor support. Since the entire setup is completely accessible through the cloud and does not depend on device health, most issues with the desktop can be handled by IT support remotely. (Psst! No need to take the device to service centers or ship it to support personnel for closer examination.)

Transforming Chromebooks into a performance powerhouse with Neverinstall

Neverinstall offers a unique cloud-based desktop experience capable of transforming any device into a high-performance workstation with a simple browser and internet access.

Create a Neverinstall account, log in, and access the best performance computing right on your Chromebook, regardless of its configuration – over the cloud. Here is what we have to offer:

A full-featured Linux-based desktop usable flawlessly on any device with an internet connection. You work as you would on your own device, except that the desktop you use is being accessed through a browser.
No downloads, no setups, and no configuration are required on your part. You just log in, select the applications you need for your work, and trigger the Space. All apps on the platform are pre-installed and pre-configured. Once your browser-based OS launches, you’ll see your apps ready for immediate use.

Neverinstall enables the use of multiple popular, resource-heavy applications that a Chromebook does not support or can not handle if they were installed on the device.

The Neverinstall touch

A mobile approach

The Neverinstall platform is optimized for mobile devices. Access desktop-class apps via mobile devices and experience native computing even on smartphones. We’ve equipped these workspaces with a responsive design for different display modes, as well as a virtual keyboard, and single-touch and multi-touch interactions across device classes.

A better internet

Your personal internet connection just has to do enough to support the browser. Once you choose the apps to be installed on your Neverinstall Space, you can launch it to initiate off our servers, which will offer markedly higher internet speeds.

Even for users in a low-internet area or using a low-bandwidth plan, Neverinstall makes it possible to work at optimal speeds, allowing to complete day-to-day tasks much faster than they would have been able to on their personal internet plans.

Streaming performance

We use the WebRTC protocol for application streaming. Known for its ability to reduce latency, WebRTC is at the core of our desktop streaming experience. There is little to no lag between your input actions, and their corresponding responses on our cloud desktop.

Accessibility

Using input devices like a keyboard and mouse for input actions is easy. You do just what you would with your personal laptop.

Network

Our cloud workspaces are powered by a globally distributed server network that we’re expanding rapidly so as to drive down operational lag. Our current server clusters are in multiple locations in North America, Europe, and Asia.

With innovations in cloud computing, hardware no longer poses any meaningful limit on performance. A Chromebook can, with Neverinstall in tow, be just as productive as devices with higher specs, available at much higher prices. You get the operability, efficacy, and stability of a powerful desktop setup, and pay much less for it.

Hardware limitations can hold you back no more. Turn your Chromebook into a high-performance machine with Neverinstall. Sign up today!