WHY STRONG NETWORK
A Virtual Workspace Infrastructure That Provides IT Efficiency, Security, and Governance
What Is a Virtual Workspace Infrastructure?
At Strong Network, we have created a multi-cloud platform that we call Virtual Workspace Infrastructure (VWI). The Virtual Workspace Infrastructure accelerates the code stage of DevOps by streamlining the use of software containers as coding environments. Organizations can quickly provision and provide access to containers running on Kubernetes through a well-known Cloud IDE (VSCode, JetBrain IDEs, etc.), a CLI terminal or straight from any machine via an SSH connection. The use of the platform has no impact on the rest of the tools used across DevOps stages.
Deployed containers provide fine-grained, monitored Zero-Trust access control to all the organization’s development data: GIT repositories, S3 data buckets, TCP/SSH/HTTP services deployed on any public SaaS, private cloud or even on corporate premises.
Any SAML-enabled web application used along the DevOps lifecycle such as GitHub, GitLab and others can be accessed from a secure Chrome browser instance (Remote Browser Isolation) so that the organization’s data is protected and access monitored even when sent to third party applications.
What Problem Does It Solve?
The central goal of the Virtual Workspace Infrastructure (VWI) is to address the problem of provisioning, maintaining and securing IT infrastructure for developers. This allows organizations to swiftly and quickly create development environments that are portable (i.e. not associated with a particular laptop) and accessible from any web browser, as well as secure by implementing all necessary enterprise-grade data protection mechanisms.
The Benefits Are Three-fold
Provide development environments that significantly improve developers' comfort, reducing any burden attached to their provisioning and maintenance, while not putting any restrictions on their customization.
Simplify and secure access to all data and resources necessary to a team of developers to create software and perform data science.
Implement and deploy policy-compliant DevSecOps practices across a workforce that reflects the complexities of today's development landscape.
How Is It Different From Other Providers?
Because the Cloud IDE executes in the browser, it is essentially local code execution in contrast to approaches based on Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) as used by Microsoft Remote Desktop, Citrix's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and VMware Horizon desktop. Importantly, local code execution requires very low bandwidth because only text is transmitted and does not create discomfort for developers.
| Feature | Virtual Workspace Infrastructure | Virtual Desktop Infrastructure |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of Use | Coding and data science IDE | General-Purpose OS or Applications |
| Collaboration Features for Developers | Included | Application dependent |
| Strong Authentication (incl. 2FA) | Included | Included (Citrix and VMWare Horizon) |
| Continuous Process Auditing | Included, process-wide | Included, user terminal only |
| Attribute-Based Access Control | Included | DIY |
| Micro-Segmentation | included (and fully automated!) | DIY |
| Data Loss Prevention: Clipboard Monitoring | Included | Included (Citrix and VWWare Horizon) |
| Data Loss Prevention: Network Monitoring | Included | DIY |
| Dynamic Security Policies | Included | DIY |
| Full Zero-Trust Architecture | Included | DIY |
Strong Network's Workspaces in this way compare to solutions such as AWS Cloud 9, RedHat OpenShift, GitHub Codespaces, Coder, GitPod and others. Functionalities for efficiently managing containers might differ from one platform to another but in essence the technology rests on the same fundamentals.
The activity of code development is not confined to the use of an IDE. It also requires access to third party applications that enable the building, testing and deployment of code. Hence to go beyond the benefits of IT efficiency and bring data security, Strong Network's workspaces combine, in addition to the IDE, a special browser that enables secure access to third party apps for the development. This is where the Virtual Workspace Infrastructure clearly departs from the lookalikes mentioned above.
Seamless Integration With Your DevOps Pipeline
The Virtual Workspace Infrastructure (VWI) platform is an integral component of your DevOps process and doesn't replace existing CI/CD tools. No need for integrations with existing tools and applications.
Supported IDEs
