August 25, 2022 Building a New Future for Manufacturing with Cloud PCs

Remote work trends are putting the manufacturing industry at a crossroads – Cloud PCs are tackling the challenge head-on.

By Amitabh Sinha, Co-Founder and CEO of Workspot

Historically, manufacturing has been an industry that has heavily relied on traditional technology, such as on-premises databases or paper-based processes. In fact, Manufacturing firms have often been reluctant to evolve entrenched, secured processes and manual workflows to cloud-based IT infrastructures.  The manufacturing sector has been slower than many other industries to adopt new operational strategies, including public cloud services and Cloud PC solutions. However, during the past few years, IT and business leaders have become more open to the possibilities that modernizing IT infrastructure can present. 

Previously, this hesitation was primarily due to security concerns, potential productivity interruptions, and lack of experienced in-house IT talent to help manage a successful migration to the cloud. However, the companies that have taken the leap toward digital transformation have emerged more efficient, flexible, productive, and successful.

With the pandemic forcing companies to rethink how to continue production, cloud adoption has grown, while misconceptions around cloud security and management are being broadly debunked. Today, manufacturing companies are increasingly embracing digital transformation, with a special emphasis on technologies that enable hybrid and remote work, with the goal of future-proofing their business. Additionally, employee response to hybrid and remote work models has been overwhelmingly positive, and the majority of businesses have seen increased productivity as a result. Given these significant business benefits, it’s safe to assume that remote work is here to stay.

Cloud PCs are the Next Big Thing for Manufacturing

According to third-party data, including the recent 2022 State of Remote Work report, cloud adoption is currently at an all-time high, with 35% of organizations expanding the scope of their cloud strategy and 47% accelerating timelines within their established strategy. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery models are well suited to provide the secure accessibility needed to support hybrid work environments, and their continued growth rate proves it. Time and again, on-premises enterprise applications have yielded to SaaS delivery, and the same is true for enterprise desktops. Cloud PCs and GPU-accelerated cloud workstations are now delivered as a fully managed cloud service from any cloud region to end users working anywhere, enabling seamless transitions from remote work locations to the office or manufacturing floor. 

Replacing traditional end user computing models such as on-premises VDI and physical PCs and workstations is a strategic move that delivers significant business value – fast!  As we talk about building a new path forward for the manufacturing industry through cloud and SaaS adoption, it’s important to understand the role of Cloud PCs in the current and future success of businesses. Legacy solutions, like on-premises virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and physical workstations have been a thorn in the side of many manufacturers for years – creating performance and latency challenges, while limiting the ability of employees to work remotely. The adoption of Cloud PCs and workstations has introduced a completely new end-user computing paradigm. These solutions empower organizations with both the performance and flexibility needed to deploy a modern global workforce. 

But that’s just scratching the surface. Below are additional in-depth benefits manufacturing companies can expect to see when adopting Cloud PC solutions:

• High Performance and On-Demand Accessibility
  Long gone are the days when IT teams needed to continually review access controls, performance, and security, and perform costly and complex software maintenance updates on a regular basis. In fact, 61% of IT leaders agree that Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), – including Cloud PCs – would be beneficial to their business to increase remote worker productivity and enable seamless and real-time collaboration. 
  By leveraging Cloud PCs and cloud workstations, organizations can rest-assured that every employee has instant, on-demand access to the exact resources they need to get the job done. For contractor and third-party partner use cases, provisioning and deprovisioning is easy for IT management teams, as they can grant and restrict access in real-time, as needed. Cloud PCs can be spun up to address staffing changes and new business opportunities within a matter of minutes, eliminating the hassle of manually configuring physical PCs and workstations. Off-boarding employees is simplified and secured as well, removing the need to track down end points from former employees.
  
• Ease of Deployment and Operation
  Organizations no longer need to struggle with onboarding new talent and providing them with the tools and infrastructure they need to be productive right away, no matter where they are located. With a SaaS platform for delivering Cloud PCs and cloud workstations, manufacturing firms can free up a significant amount of time and resources for their IT team, so they can instead focus on new strategic projects that further business growth. This can include deploying new tools aimed at streamlining operations, developing new security protocols, and innovating on current technical processes.
  
  Cloud PCs also eliminate geographical boundaries that once hindered a company’s access to talent pools and new business. Manufacturing companies can now pursue new business opportunities, and quickly hire and onboard new employees anywhere in the world. Through a multi-cloud and multi-region approach, they can have peace-of-mind that their customers worldwide get the same high service standards that meet and exceed their expectations. Furthermore, now companies can recruit the best talent from all over the world, with no branch offices required, without sacrificing performance.
  
• Improved Security and Compliance
  Security risks can come from many different directions and having hundreds or thousands of physical PCs to keep secure only exacerbates this challenge. Ensuring operating systems and apps are updated and patched, and making sure each employee, contractor, and third-party advisor has a desktop that is secure and always available, no matter where they are located, can be daunting for any IT team to handle. 
  Improved security is one of the most significant contributions Cloud PCs offer. They enable the IT team to have complete visibility into the health of end user computing resources and they are able to regain control over end-user devices. Remote updates can be conducted automatically, and centralized access control allows businesses to protect their intellectual property and sensitive data, because it is safely stored in the cloud and no longer resides at the endpoint.

Beyond the cost efficiencies and ease of use, Cloud PCs open the door to innovation and business agility, while reducing operational complexity and positioning companies for faster growth. SaaS delivery of enterprise desktops is here to stay because Cloud PC solutions provide manufacturing firms with the agility, scalability, and performance needed to increase productivity and maintain a competitive advantage. The future of manufacturing is in the cloud.

Amitabh Sinha has more than twenty years of experience across enterprise software, end user computing, mobile, and database software. Amitabh co-founded Workspot with Puneet Chawla and Ty Wang in August 2012. Prior to Workspot, Amitabh was the General Manager for Enterprise Desktops and Apps at Citrix Systems. In his five years at Citrix, Amitabh was VP Product Management for XenDesktop and VP Engineering for the Advanced Solutions Group. Amitabh has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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