This Hong Kong-based public sector organization needed to enable secure remote working in the wake of a COVID-19 lockdown. As part of a wider Nutanix deployment, Fujitsu developed a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) platform with secure two-factor authentication. Now, most employees can safely access their applications, tools, and desktop via any device, while the customer can easily manage administration via a simple portal.
Challenge
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, this public sector organization needed to quickly enable secure remote working. It asked trusted partner, Fujitsu, to propose a VDI solution that would incorporate two-factor authentication.
Solution
- Nutanix VDI platform by Frame
- Cisco Secure Access by Duo two-factor authentication
- Fujitsu provided a complete solution for design, deployment, integration, and managed service
- Total 2,500 accessible users with 600 concurrent users
Outcomes
- Enhanced business resilience
- Smarter user experience and a trusted digital workplace amid COVID-19
-
Enhanced security with two-factor authentication (2FA) protection
- Automatic scaling to meet business expansion
- Simplified and single management portal
Fujitsu empowers us to sustain business continuity through a secured digital workspace.
IT Director, Public Sector Company in Hong Kong
2500
users can securely access their desktop remotely
- Industry: Public Sector
- Location: Hong Kong
- People: 4,800+
Customer
This public sector organization in Hong Kong is responsible for optimizing land resources and maintaining an effective land administration system.
Enabling working from home in the midst of a pandemic
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, this public sector organization, like other companies, faced the challenge of enabling secure, reliable remote working for thousands of its employees. It was particularly difficult for this company because it had no existing work from home protocols in place due to the nature of the business.
The company had engaged Fujitsu to deploy 21 nodes of Nutanix Enterprise Cloud on FUJITSU PRIMERGY Server, together with a mix of hybrid (SSD and HDD) and All-Flash (all SSD) servers in multiple hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) clusters. The success of this project encouraged the company to ask Fujitsu for a suitable remote working solution.
At the same time, the organization needed to ensure optimal security, regardless of location, so wanted to introduce two-factor authentication. Again, it asked Fujitsu to propose the most effective solution.
A virtual workspace for all
Fujitsu created a VDI built on the existing Nutanix platform, which provides each user with an always available desktop where they can access all the tools and applications they need to do their jobs effectively. To enable security, Fujitsu has integrated Cisco Secure Access by Duo two-factor authentication to provide an end-to-end virtual workspace solution, meaning any iOS or Android device can access via app push. The solution supports a total of 2,500 users with 600 concurrent
users at the same time. Fujitsu provided a total solution for the solution design, deployment, implementation, and a managed service.
As part of this second phase of the wider Nutanix HCI project, Fujitsu also introduced a flash HCI cluster to handle higher workload and resilience, an enhanced backup solution, and an upgrade to Nutanix Prism Ultimate for better visibility, capacity planning, and anomaly detection for the Nutanix HCI clusters setup.
Simple, secure, and scalable
Now, users can easily and securely access their desktop from any device, anywhere, while user authentication prevents sensitive data leakage. Fujitsu has also added Nvidia graphics cards to the existing HCI farm, which enable vGPU and 3D graphics support for workstation users.
The new design can flexibly scale to allocate resources depending on the project size, saving on infrastructure costs, while on-premises integration speeds up delivery time. To make administration of VDI accounts simple, Fujitsu and the company co-created a VDI account administrative portal, which leverages Nutanix native DevOps technologies to build without additional software costs.
The company is delighted with the outcome and how easy it is for its staff to work seamlessly from home. It has made enduring the pandemic much more sustainable and ensured everyone has the tools they need to thrive, while providing the back-end administration tools to make management simple. “Fujitsu empowers us to sustain business continuity through a secured digital workspace,” concludes the company’s IT Director.
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