SPEED OF IMPLEMENTATION
EASE OF USE
COST SAVINGS
CHALLENGE: Provide employees and external contractors seamless access to business assets quickly and efficiently without continuously needing to maintain the environment.
TEST: Will Awingu be easier to maintain while offering a stable user experience?
SOLUTION: Awingu enabled the bulk of Exmar NV’s workloads to shift from twenty-five to five remote desktop machines by assigning more resources to them than their Citrix solution could handle.
RESULT: Moving away from Citrix was critical to realizing significant cost savings and improved user experience for both IT teams and end users.
Exmar NV is an energy supply chain provider with 2500 employees offering tailor-made energy solutions to the gas industry. The mission is to serve their customers with innovations in the fields of offshore extraction, transformation, production, storage, and transportation by sea of liquefied natural gases, petrochemical gases, and liquid hydrocarbons.
Prior to 2019, Exmar was utilizing the Citrix solution in tandem with VPN for their employees to access business files and applications. This was a sufficient solution for the most part, but it was complex and costly. Also, accessing large files was problematic. The load was heavy and extra traffic added an additional challenge, especially when traveling end users went to remote locations in Asia, Africa, or vessels out to sea.
THE CHALLENGE: Provide employees and external contractors seamless access to corporate files quickly and efficiently without the need to constantly maintain the environment.
Exmar was looking for:
- Simple workspace management
- Seamless implementation
- Uninterrupted access to business files and applications
The arrival of COVID in 2019/2020 resulted in a shrinking IT team at Exmar. This made maintaining the elaborate Citrix environment increasingly difficult. After a 2.5 year struggle, David De Roock, IT Director with Exmar, went back to the drawing board for alternate solutions.
“Citrix was too complex with a lot of virtual servers, layering storage issues etc. I lost count how many times team members would mention in meetings that ‘Citrix isn’t working again’. This was disruptive to our day-to-day business and we couldn’t continue this way”, David De Roock (IT Director, Exmar NV) says.
THE TEST: Will Awingu be easier to maintain while offering a seamless user experience?
David was impressed that within 2 days of his conversation with Awingu, the pilot was off the ground.
The following week, David’s team conducted extensive testing with both external and internal users.
Positive user feedback included:
- The testing process was easy and straight forward.
- Accessing resources through a web browser—without the need to install anything—was an immense benefit.
- Speed was impressive; the startup time of applications was drastically reduced since no plugins were required.
- The support efforts needed from their desktop team were reduced since a modern HTML 5 browser is the only requirement.
- A much better user experience – the server didn’t crash and browser updates didn’t interfere with plugins.
- Users can use any device so laptop distribution was eliminated.
“The overall sentiment of those involved in the pilot was that Awingu was simple. The time previously used to maintain the Citrix environment shifted to focus on how we can improve our processes and environment to positively affect our customers’ bottom line”, David mentions.
This was enough for David to decide to make the move from Citrix to Awingu.
THE SOLUTION: Awingu enabled Exmar to shift the bulk of their load to five remote desktop machines, assigning them more resources than the Citrix solution could handle.
David was pleased to see that the number of virtual machines reduced drastically from twenty-five to five.
Plus, the need for Exmar-provided laptops was eliminated for external agencies. Not only was this advantageous for their budget but it also enhanced security as there is always elevated risk when you have laptops traveling to every corner of the globe.
The simplicity of Awingu is what made the biggest impact. The learning curve was minimal, and it only took two weeks to decide that a full roll out was the best choice for their business.
The personal attention of Awingu’s Support team was another deciding factor. A couple of minor issues popped up over the weekend and the Awingu Support team was available and willing to help. By Monday, issues were solved, and it was business as usual without any interruption for the end user.
David explained that “Awingu is very straightforward and easy to roll out. This was the driver to make the move from Citrix to Awingu.”
THE RESULT: Moving away from Citrix was critical for Exmar to realize significant cost savings and ease of use for both IT teams and end users.
Moving to Awingu was the solution Exmar needed to strengthen their budget and reassign resources where they were needed.
In summary, the main benefits they experienced were:
- Reduction of infrastructure footprint: What once required twenty-five virtual machines now only requires five. A reduction of 80%.
- Zero complexity: The learning curve was minimal thanks to the easy-to-use and secure unified workspace. Their pilot was rolled out in two days. Full deployment and testing with 100 users spanned an additional 2 weeks.
- Cost savings: Licensing costs were reduced by 66% annually.
“The overall picture? The Awingu experience is a lot better, simpler, and easier to maintain. We haven’t looked back and an expansion of the solution is in the works”, David concludes.
About Version 2
Version 2 is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company develops and distributes IT products for Internet and IP-based networks, including communication systems, Internet software, security, network, and media products. Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About Parallels
Parallels® is a global leader in cross-platform solutions, enabling businesses and individuals to access and use the applications and files they need on any device or operating system. Parallels helps customers leverage the best technology available, whether it’s Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android or the cloud.
