File Server Synchronization
The solution synchronizes file server network shares to your data center for business continuity and remote access.
How do your customers send files in and out of your hosted desktop environment?
Do they have invoices or other types of scanned documents they need to access from the hosted applications?
Do they need to access documents created with the hosted applications while on the road?
Do you want to increase the scalability of the terminal server by adding more hosted sessions?
Remote desktop is a very efficient way for hosting service providers to offer certain application services to their customers. Admittedly, not all applications are suitable for Remote Desktop deployment. For example, email services and Office 365 are well suited as cloud-native applications. However, for applications that are more difficult to migrate to the cloud for whatever reason, hosting via remote terminal server or remote desktop is a good way to bridge the gap. These applications include financial software such as QuickBooks, ERP software, and other software that is generally complex to set up and migrate.
Take QuickBooks as an example. Many hosting service providers make QuickBooks available via remote desktop. However, when it comes to invoices, accounts receivable and accounts payable, many workflows are started outside of the hosted environment. For example, an employee receives a paper invoice and must scan it in digital form at a local desktop and later send it to the hosted file server so that the hosted application can access the invoice from the hosted environment.
If you take QuickBooks as an example of a hosted application, many workflows extend beyond the hosted environment. For example, executives may want to review QuickBooks output such as the P&L report, balance sheet and various other generated PDF reports on their cell phones or laptops when they are at home, at a conference or generally at a mobile location. The remote desktop process is too cumbersome for them to access files. They want files sent directly to their fingertips.
For accounts payable teams, the workday begins with them receiving either paper invoices or email attachments. For paper invoices, they use a local scanner connected to a local Windows machine and scan them to a folder. Without a VPN setup, there is a drive letter on the Windows desktop machine that represents a network folder from the hosted file servers. The team member responsible for accounting simply scans and saves the documents to this drive letter and the files are saved directly to the hosted file server. When the other team members work on QuickBooks via remote desktops, they can now see these scanned documents and work on payment scheduling from the hosted environment. This use case can also be extended to users who generally need to send documents to hosted file servers without the need for a cumbersome site-to-site VPN setup.
Remote desktop is not the best user experience hosted applications can provide for mobile users. When it comes to executives, many of them are mobile warriors who are constantly on the go to either close deals or form business partnerships. What was last month's total spend? What was this month's total payroll expense? These are the questions they often ask themselves to get answers from business reports that can be easily created with QuickBooks. It's very convenient that they can access these PDF reports via mobile apps on their phone, without having to turn to a laptop connected to a hotel's wifi system.
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CentreStack provides secure remote access and file sharing solution for your terminal server hosted application and hosted desktop environment. It's the real mobile file access solution you have been searching for your hosted offering!
CentreStack bridges file servers and cloud storage for secure remote access without the need of using a VPN.
CentreStack provides direct access to network shares through a modern web browser, such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox and Apple Safari browsers.
CentreStack leverage cloud storage for secure mobile file sharing from a web browser or from a mobile application.
CentreStack sets up access to hosted file servers using the HTTPS protocol. No complicated per-client site-to-site VPN setup is required to access file servers.
"CentreStack saved my business by improving user experience while significantly reducing server costs for our hosted legacy applications."
RUDY YONKOV
Solution King
Rudy Yonkov is a Gladinet partner who runs a IT solution provider called Solution King. His services include enterprise-level software development, hardware infrastructure and hosting. Prior to becoming a Gladinet partner, his company built a practice that hosted Quickbooks, ERP and other legacy applications on Azure virtual machines for customers. They initially offered published desktops for remote access, but then ran into the following issues.
One of the issues Rudy faced was that customers needed to transfer files between the local desktop and the remote desktop, so the published desktop was one of the applications customers had access to. However, within the published desktop, customers were not only accessing files, but also using web browsers within the published desktop sessions, which contributed to the saturation of terminal server sessions. After Rudy moved the use of mobile file access to CentreStack, the need for file access was shifted to CentreStack and there is no longer a need for published desktops. With the deployment of published applications and the elimination of published desktops, non-critical, resource-intensive applications such as Google Chrome and web browsing were shifted back to the user's local desktop. As a result, the average number of sessions dropped from 40 to 12 per terminal server and scalability increased by 300%.
As we have worked with more and more business use cases, we have been asked to focus on solving remote file server access issues. Specifically, they want us to modernize their file server access without a VPN. Modernization includes web-based access, access without VPN, desktop drive access, and mobile application access.
The cloud drive brings in files from the cloud repository only when necessary and only when permission allows.
Encrypt files sitting in the local cache and backup local files and folders to a company-designated cloud location.
Inside the cloud drive, users can revert the files under version control to specific dates and times when necessary.
Provide a cloud network drive to the company-wide cloud network shares or the hybrid local file server network shares.
Provide a global file locking feature for employees that may need to work on the same set of documents.
Employees may prefer to work on files and folders in an offline detached mode (such as doing work during flights).
The solution synchronizes file server network shares to your data center for business continuity and remote access.
The solution adds web-based secure file sharing features to locally hosted on-premise file servers
The solution adds snapshot cloud backup and version control to files and folders. This feature provides additional business continuity to your clients.
Users enter existing Active Directory (AD) user name and password on any supported client.
Credentials are passed securely over HTTPS to the CentreStack server.
The external firewall only needs to open port 443 for HTTPS traffic.
CentreStack finds the user's tenant and passes the credentials to the corresponding AD domain controller.
CS uses the authentication token from the domain controller to access internal file shares.
How-it-works Diagram
Files are cached locally so access feels instant without the tedious setup of remote desktops or VPN file sharing. Users get the benefit of local performance while working remotely.
Legacy applications may continue to use the original file shares, which remain unchanged as CentreStack provides remote access to the same file shares from any device.
Minimize user training with a mapped drive that works the same on-premises or remotely. Provide a seamless local experience for users even when they are offline.
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