Parallels Archives - Version 2 Limited

Parallels Awingu introduces version 5.5

On June 21st 2023, we released Parallels Awingu 5.5!. The latest version of our secure unified workspace offers enhanced security options and other innovations that further enrich your investment.

What is available in this release and why should you upgrade to Parallels Awingu 5.5?

The key features delivered in Parallels Awingu 5.5 focus on security and maintenance.

New certificate settings for external HTTPS requests

Starting with Parallels Awingu 5.5, customers are now able to have granular control on the certificates used for external HTTPS requests used by the following features: audit logging, reverse proxied web applications, WebDAV with SSL, and SSO metadata.

External requests can now be granularly controlled by verifying identity and only allowing trusted services, or deliberately choosing to allow the connection to an unverified/untrusted service. In addition, administrators can now add certificates for identity verification.

Organizations that rely on internal certificates issued by internal certificate authorities or self-signed certificates can use such certificates for the HTTPS requests to external services. In addition, administrators can manage those requests either by allowing or disallowing external HTTP requests to internal services.

Maintenance

As with most minor releases, bug fixes are included in this release. If you previously reported issues to Parallels Awingu technical support that were deemed to be bugs, they have likely been remedied as part of this release. Find an overview of all changes in the Parallels Awingu 5.5 release notes.

Upgrading to Parallels Awingu 5.5

Parallels Awingu 5.3 and earlier are no longer supported as of this update, so it is critical that you upgrade earlier versions immediately. Upgrading is a straightforward process and is performed right within the admin console. Consult the release notes for instructions on upgrading to Parallels Awingu 5.5.

Parallels Awingu 5.5 is a minor release, and product development is underway for an upcoming major release that will include a variety of enhancements. For further details about Parallels Awingu 5.5, please consult the admin guide.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited 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 Limited 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.

2023 Parallels

How to integrate Jumpcloud and Awingu

Cloud access management has become increasingly important for businesses of all sizes, as an increasing number of employees work remotely and rely on cloud-based tools to stay connected and productive. Azure AD is the most popular solution, but more companies are also looking at solutions like JumpCloud for managing cloud access. In this article, we will explore how easy it is to integrate Awingu and JumpCloud by using the custom SAML app.

Step 1: Create Awingu in JumpCloud via the Custom SAML App

The first step in integrating Awingu and JumpCloud is to create a custom SAML app in JumpCloud. SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is a protocol used for single sign-on (SSO) authentication, which allows users to log in to multiple applications with a single set of credentials. Awingu supports SAML 2.0, which means that it can be integrated with JumpCloud using SAML.

To create a custom SAML app in JumpCloud, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your JumpCloud admin console and navigate to Applications.

2. Click the “+ Add New Application” button and select the “Custom SAML App”

3. Enter a name for the app (e.g., Awingu) and on the SSO page set following parameters:

As Awingu only supports Service Provider initiated authentication, the following settings are also mandatory:

The last step is to create two attributes that can be passed on as claims to Awingu. The first one needs to correspond with the UPN of the user in Awingu’s local AD, and the second one will be used as the user display name in the Awingu user interface.

In this example, the UPN matches the email address of the user. If this is the case, you can also create a custom attribute for the user and pass this custom attribute to Awingu:

4. Before saving the application, make sure you assign the right group of users to this application and click “Save” to finish the creation of the SAML app in JumpCloud.

5. Once the app is created, select the app in the list of applications and download the XML metadata file by clicking on the “Export Metadata” button.

Once this is done, you are ready to configure the Awingu side.

Step 2: Enable Federation on Awingu

The second step in integrating Awingu and JumpCloud is to enable federation on Awingu. Federation is the process of establishing trust between two identity providers (in this case, JumpCloud and Awingu) so that users can log in to Awingu using their JumpCloud credentials.

Before you start the Awingu configuration part, make sure you know the username and password of the built-in management user. This is the user account that was created during the initial installation of Awingu. If you have activated pre-authentication or single sign-on within Awingu and you have a problem with the configuration, this is the only account that still allows you to login. All other (admin) users will no longer work as they will be forced to go over to the IdP, JumpCloud in this case.

To enable federation on Awingu, follow these steps:

Log in to your Awingu appliance with an admin user and open the system settings.

Go to “Configure” -> “User Connector” -> “Federated Authentication” and set the Type to “Pre-authentication” and the Protocol to SAML”.

Set the Entity ID to “Awingu” and upload the Metadata XML file downloaded earlier onto the Awingu appliance after switching the Metadata Type from “URL” to “XML”.

Set the Username & Display Name claim to the same names as set on the Jumpcloud side, in this example “username” and “displayname”.

Set the Workspace URL to your public Awingu DNS name.

Click Apply.

Once this is done, test your configuration by opening an incognito web browser window and go to your Awingu URL. If all is correct, you will be redirected to JumpCloud. After a successful login to JumpCloud, you will be redirected to Awingu, and Awingu will ask you to type in your password. This will be your local Windows AD password. No need to panic, this is normal behavior as we only have activated so far in the “pre-authentication” and not yet the full single sign-on.

In case something goes wrong, and the pre-authentication is not working you can still login to the Awingu appliance with the built-in management user. To do this, open a new incognito window and go to https://your.awingu.url/login?noPreAuth (be careful, this is case sensitive). This will allow you to login and make modifications to the configuration.

Step 3: Go full Single Sign-On in Awingu

Once you have a working pre-authentication and know the integration with JumpCloud is done correctly, you can go to the last step, which is switching the Federation Authentication type from “Pre-Authentication” to “Single sign-on”.

This last step is independent from the IdP that is used (JumpCloud in this case) and will remove that popup for the local AD Windows password. You’ll need to make Awingu a sub-CA of your Active Directory. By doing so, Awingu can generate user certificates and then via Kerberos and other standard Windows protocols, Awingu can let the user login to the applications and drives without the need of a Windows password or without the need to install any Awingu software onto the Windows environment.

Have a look at this video: https://youtu.be/8343EIAVHns or to the admin guide to learn more about how to generate those certificates. Be careful, because certificates and Kerberos are sensitive to DNS and other details. Follow the instructions to the letter to make it work.

Once you have uploaded the certificates to your appliance, your users can log in to Awingu with their JumpCloud credentials. This means that you can manage cloud access for your entire organization using a single platform (JumpCloud), while still providing your users with a seamless login experience.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited 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 Limited 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.

2023 Parallels

Gas transport company switches from Citrix resulting in an 80% reduction of their infrastructure footprint

SPEED OF IMPLEMENTATION

EASE OF USE

COST SAVINGS

“Awingu just worked and that’s what we needed. A simple, straightforward application that accelerated our ability to achieve our goals.”

David De Roock

IT Director, Exmar NV

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.

Try Awingu for yourself!

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited 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 Limited 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.

Parallels 2023

Awingu introduces version 5.4

November 28, 2022, Ghent (Belgium). Today, Parallels Awingu launches its new product release with version 5.4. As with every major release, Awingu 5.4 brings enhancements and changes in various domains:

Security: automatic logout

Quality of life improvements
Foundational updates

Automatic logout

Parallels Awingu administrators can enable and configure an inactivity timeout in the System Settings. When this feature is enabled and no activity is registered, the user will be logged out automatically. This ensures that inactive or “away-from-keyboard” sessions have a lower risk of getting compromised if their endpoint device gets accessed by malicious actors.

Quality of life improvements

Shutdown troubleshoot command: Administrators can now shut down the Parallels Awingu appliance via the troubleshoot menu in the System Settings. This way, it becomes easier to take a snapshot when upgrading to a different version.

Download packages more resilient: The number of individual downloads when downloading the packages for an upgrade has been drastically reduced. This will increase the reliability when network connectivity between the Parallels Awingu repository server and the upgrading appliances is weak.

Simplifying node options: As of Parallels Awingu 5.4, we made the management of nodes simpler by only allowing frontend/backend or frontend-only nodes.

Foundational updates

OS upgrade: the underlying operating system of Awingu has been upgraded.

REST API stability changes

For more information about Parallels Awingu 5.4, please consult the latest admin guide.

Upgrading to the latest version is easy and happens with a single mouse click. Forgot how? Check our tutorial. For support and knowledge base, please refer to my.awingu.com.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited 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 Limited 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.

2022 Parallels

Ensuring secure remote access at Hospital del Mar

The Hospital del Mar is a hospital in Barcelona (Spain) with more than 4,000 employees that is part of the group Parc de Salut Mar. This organisation is located on the Barcelona coast and brings together one of the city’s most dynamic health education, knowledge and research centers.

At the end of 2019, they started looking for a secure solution to replace their current remote access setup, and they found Awingu!

Punctual remote access and the impact of the pandemic

In 2019, Hospital del Mar used several solutions to be able to give remote access to virtual applications and desktops to a specific group of employees in an exceptional way. They needed a tool that would make this external access more secure, since the current solution did not respond to all of their needs.

After doing market research, they concluded that Awingu was the solution that suited their needs the best, due to its simplicity and affordable price. Thanks to Awingu, the hospital was able to ensure remote access to a group of 50 users in a very simple way and without high costs.

With the arrival of the pandemic in March 2020, the need for remote access grew exponentially and the volume of users increased to 400. Hospital del Mar managed to do it in approximately one week, since the implementation and ‘roll-out’ were very simple.

With Awingu, Hospital del Mar could fulfill its main objective: to have a portal where professionals could connect and have access to all the necessary information and resources in an easy and secure way.

Simple solution for both users and administrators

Prior to the implementation of the Awingu solution, the Hospital’s professionals did not often work remotely, but rather on a very occasional basis. However, due to the pandemic, everything changed and for the hospital it was essential to adapt to this new reality allowing this safe and easy access.

The SSII department highly appreciates several of the many security capabilities that our product offers. One of the features that they are using the most today is two-factor authentication (MFA). Regarding this, Albert Márquez Colomé (SSII and Communications Director at Hospital del Mar) commented that: “We trust Awingu; It is a solution that gives us security.”

Not only the IT team is happy with the tool, but also the users. As Albert explains to us:

“Users adopted Awingu in a completely transparent way. The product is easy to use, secure and it meets our needs (access to applications and desktop). It just works.”

Albert Márquez Colomé

SSII and Communications Director, Hospital del Mar

Another most notable advantage for Hospital del Mar was the fact that they could use the smart card reader (‘Smartcards’) and be able to digitally sign documents while working in the workspace of Awingu. This option was added in one of the recent versions that came out of the product and was necessary for the hospital, so they are very happy that the product continues to evolve and that they listen to their customers.

Furthermore, working with Awingu gives your employees flexibility: they can easily access applications or desktops from any device, even using their personal one (‘BYOD’).

These personal devices are not managed by the hospital, but the IT team is reassured that the connections are taking place securely through Awingu.

This is another notable advantage for the IT team of Hospital del Mar, given that they did not have the resources to provide new devices to all staff and did not want to install VPNs on personal devices either:

“For example, if someone has a virus on their own laptop, we don’t want it to spread to the hospital network, so we avoid using VPNs. Using Awingu, we respond to the need for connectivity and avoid security problems”

Albert Márquez Colomé

SSII and Communications Director, Hospital del Mar

Use of Awingu in the future

Since Awingu is allowing the access to legacy applications, the IT team is working on implementing remote access to these through our software.

In general, Hospital del Mar likes the ease of installation and use of the product. In addition, the team thinks that the solution is very profitable: “it does what it should do for an adequate cost and we really believe in the product”, they explain.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited 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 Limited 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.

2022 Parallels

Awingu introduces version 5.3

August 16th 2022, Ghent (Belgium),– Today, Awingu (now part of Corel, home of Parallels) launches its new product release with Awingu version 5.3. As with every version, Awingu 5.3 brings enhancements in various domains:

Security: HTTP headers updates
Scaling: Installing against existing external database
Various UX enhancements

Security: HTTP headers updates

Awingu is a solution that helps customers enable a Zero Trust secure remote access, and we therefore care deeply about our customers’ security. In line with security best practices, we’ve made improvements for HTTP headers:

Firstly, administrators can enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) headers. This way, Awingu ensures that its users are always connecting over HTTPS. By enabling HSTS, administrators no longer need to redirect users from http:// to https:// URLs.
Secondly, the Content-Security-Policy header (CSP) is applied. By using this response header administrators can control the resources the user agent is allowed to load.

Installing against an existing external database

To make the work of Awingu admins easier and to expand the database options, Awingu 5.3 introduces innovations with regards to using external databases.

Already before version 5.3, Awingu created a backup of the internal database on a daily basis and stored that backup on the appliance. As an admin, you can retrieve this backup and save it on another system via SFTP. Awingu enhances the use of external databases for this functionality: the existing ‘database backup and restore’ functionality has been updated to ‘environment backup and restore’. This means that it’s now also possible to install Awingu against an existing external database or install (new) Awingu environments from an existing backup.

This enhancement not only enables additional disaster recovery scenarios but also allows moving your Awingu environment to a different network or hypervisor. Furthermore, this enables you to duplicate environments for testing or validation.

Various UX enhancements

Awingu 5.3 adds capabilities to improve the user experience in the workspace.

Improved clipboard functionality

Many customers are using the clipboard in Awingu daily during their working hours. Awingu allows copying and pasting content between applications – however, users often experienced limitations (copy/paste between a streamed app and local device, not being able to use system copy/paste actions, etc.) We heard the requests for improving the clipboard functionality, and we listened to your feedback.

In Awingu 5.3, the clipboard functionality for Chromium-based browsers (such as Chrome and Edge) is refined:

Copy/paste actions from the context menu work as expected
Copy/paste actions from all formats between streamed apps are possible
Copy/pasting between a streamed app and the local device now works with more formats:
- Plain text
- HTML
- Rich Text Formatting (RTF)
- PNG images

File page improvements

We’ve extended the selection capabilities in the workspace. More specifically, two new actions have been added as file page improvements:

You can now select all files, bookmarks, shares, or applications.

You can now clear the whole selection.

The selection can also be modified using the Control and Shift keyboard keys, as is the default in e.g. Windows Explorer.

Support for mouse buttons 4 and 5

Several users have more than 3 mouse buttons, and use these to navigate (e.g. page forward/backward in browsers). The mouse buttons 4 and 5 (side buttons) can now be used within remote applications.

New Remote Application Helper

In Awingu 4.1, Awingu introduced the Remote Application Helper to support the use of Smartcards. In the version 5.3, there is a new version of the Remote Application Helper available which contains important bug fixes. If your users are working with Smartcards and thus need the RAH, it is recommended to uninstall the previous version of the RAH before installing the new one to keep on working smoothly in the workspace.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited 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 Limited 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.

2022 Parallels

The Municipality of El Prat de Llobregat enables teleworking with Awingu

El Prat de Llobregat is a municipality in the province of Barcelona with a population of 65,000 inhabitants. The staff of the city council consists of 800 people, and in a first phase the Awingu workspace has been implemented to manage the telework of 50 of them.

Like most of the city councils, the one of el Prat de Llobregat had to implement new systems to cope with the need to telework due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In this case, like in many other city councils and companies, the process had to be done quickly and immediately, since the measures imposed by the Government required an imminent confinement.

Remote access within municipalities

For the Municipality of El Prat de Llobregat, like many other public administrations, the digital signature is something necessary in their day-to-day work. The town hall had to make a rapid evolution to be able to provide access to the usual applications and digital signature remotely and securely.

“Using more traditional tactics like VPNs for example, is more complicated and not the best way to maintain high levels of security,” explains Adrián Russo Gallo, General Manager of Indigo, IT partner of the Municipality of Prat de Llobregat:

“You have to find out who is connecting and control the device that connects to the network. Nobody is prepared to suddenly have 800 users outside the organization, it’s very complicated to have all those laptops ready with Windows 10, a managed VPN and all the required security.”

Adrián Russo Gallo

General Manager, Indigo

That is why, when the Municipality of Prat de Llobregat presented its need to Indigo, Awingu was one of the candidates for a proof of concept.

Adrián Russo Gallo had known Awingu for many years, he was aware of the potential and innovative nature of the solution, but the solution was still at an early stage at a commercial level and still lacked expansion at a business level. The product was released in 2014, and at that time the demand was not quite clear. However, there were small occasions the years before, where Awingu was one of the proposed solutions. “I would say that Awingu today is the benchmark for remote desktop solutions, remote applications, … in every aspect!”

Indigo did proofs of concept in which different solutions were assessed, including Awingu’s. During the tests, since they wanted to meet all the requirements proposed by the municipality, the other solutions were gradually discarded, leaving Awingu, in which they saw numerous advantages: from the most technological part to the adaptability, security, speed of implementation, simplicity, … and a very important factor: the cost, which provides sustainability in the future. After the successful POC, technology partner Indigo bought the Awingu licenses for the municipality via the Spanish distributor MCR.

Flexibility, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness as key benefits

From the implementer’s point of view, one of Awingu’s advantages is that it is an integrator, highlighting aspects such as adaptability, rapid implementation, and its intuitive nature. That allowed the municipality to integrate certain heavy solutions from different vendors very easily. “With Awingu we found the perfect balance,” Adrian tells us.

Other advantages are the possibility of integration with Active Directory and MFA (multi-factor authentication), which is already included in the platform itself. They didn’t count on the latter, so they were grateful to have this added advantage: “It’s not that you have to integrate another MFA, because it’s already part of the product. However, if you want to integrate another one, you can do it too, because there is no impediment. Whatever you want, it fits – a great improvement!“

Another important factor is that thanks to Awingu’s adaptability, the Municipality of El Prat de Llobregat was able to set up the solution on-premise. This flexibility was not available with other solutions and was very important for the town hall: “With other solutions it is extremely more expensive to be able to do it on premise. In terms of cloud solutions, maybe there’s not that much difference, but when we set up on premise, the difference is huge.”

Another critical point had been to be able to do the digital signature, which is so important in a public administration. Fortunately, it was also possible to do it within Awingu.

Also, we can’t forget, as mentioned by Joan de la Paz, SiTIC services responsible of the municipality, that entities different from the town halls (such as sport centers, manors, etc.) are normally managed by outsourced companies or enterprises under concession with their own IT infrastructures. In this scenario, Awingu has been the perfect gateway to keep the high levels of security and control requested by the client, giving connection between the different entities under concession and their IT policies.

The advantages of Awingu not only for municipalities, but also for private companies. “If they do a good study of the technical and economic feasibility and the implementation time, Awingu will be the clear winner,” explains Adrián.

Next steps with Awingu

“You can see that it is developed from the customer’s perspective, adapting to the customer’s needs, not the other way around as it happens in most solutions. You buy a solution and you’re waiting to see where we need to modify something, with Awingu it’s not like that: Everything is easy.”

Adrián Russo Gallo

General Manager, Indigo

Users have certainly been very satisfied. Currently, the city council is in the first phase of implementation and will soon continue its deployment until it reaches 800 users.

Now, it is only used for teleworking, but later on, they are going to expand the project. It has been a change of philosophy and that took some time, because it is a big adaptation. Furthermore, usability has improved thanks to Awingu.

In conclusion, flexibility, speed of implementation and cost were the main reasons why Municipality of El Prat de Llobregat, together with the partner Indigo, chose Awingu to enable remote working within the public administration.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited 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 Limited 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.

2022 Parallels

Corel acquires Awingu, creating next-level remote access and workspace capabilities

I’m thrilled to announce that Canadian-based Corel has acquired Awingu. Awingu has experienced rapid growth over the last year as the global workforce embraces permanent remote and hybrid business models and this is a great time for the next chapter in our story. Awingu is known for its powerful simplicity, and is recognized as a Unified Workspace and Zero Trust solution by analysts such as Gartner and Forrester.

Corel is a leading provider of solutions that promote workplace creativity, productivity, and collaboration. It’s the home of Parallels, an award-winning virtualization and VDI solution that includes Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) and Parallels Desktop. The acquisition of Awingu strengthens Corel’s ability to deliver a secure, productive remote workspace for its millions of users.

This is good news for our customers and partners! Joining forces with Corel doesn’t replace Awingu, but rather enhances its capabilities. We truly believe that Parallels and Awingu are complementary technologies that build on each other and are stronger together. The combination results in a unified product that leverages the unique strengths of both solutions and meets an urgent market need for remote access and workspace technology. It also gives Awingu technologists more access to R&D resources to further expand and enhance the Awingu offering in ways that may not have been possible before.

While the Awingu technology isn’t going anywhere, the Awingu brand will be replaced by the Parallels brand over time. As much as we loved and are proud of the Awingu brand, no longer will our Awingurus need to explain that Wingu is the Swahili word for cloud. The Awingu teams will stay in place and will gradually be combined with the Corel and Parallels teams. I am also pleased to announce that I’ll be joining the Corel team moving forward, and I’m excited about what the future holds for our combined companies.

This acquisition means that Awingu will be part of a larger organization with more scale in customer success, sales, marketing, product development and support. Our commercial leverage will grow significantly. Awingu has strong and growing coverage in EMEA, which will be extended by Parallels’ global channels and vice versa. This opens the door for even stronger proximity to customers and partners.

On behalf of the Awingu team, I want to say that I’m really looking forward to this new chapter. I wish to thank all Awingu partners and customers who have supported and trusted us. Our journey is only getting started!

We will continue to communicate to our partners and customers, as plans take more shape and operational realities start to change.

Warm Regards,

Walter Van Uytven, CEO Awingu

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited 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 Limited 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.

2022 Parallels

SAVIA enables its customers’ secure digital transformation with Awingu

Savia (Soluciones Avanzadas en Informática Aplicada) is a Spanish specialist provider of payroll and personnel management solutions for the public administration. More than 500 public organizations digitize and automate human resources administrative processes with their technology, gaining in efficiency and focusing on boosting talent and public performance. Their projects go beyond the technological aspect and put people at the center by accompanying them in the process of change to achieve the digital and cultural transformation of organizations.

Currently, Savia uses Awingu to facilitate their clients’ access to their cloud platform. They achieve this with a simpler, faster login and all framed in a single point accessible through a browser. In the past, they used RemoteApp or a remote desktop connection, which fell far short of Awingu, as Javier Prieto, Head of Marketing at Savia, explains. The key role played by our technology partner Claranet, working together with the Spanish distributor MCR, helped them to identify how Awingu could support them.

The digitization of public administration

One of the biggest problems for personnel departments is the excess of low-value tasks and the need for strategic focus. Technology and specialized services digitize all these administrative processes in their department, resulting in a change that is transferred to the entire organization.

The public sector has been accelerating its digitization exponentially, and employees play an essential role in that transition. HR teams are a driving force behind cultural and digital transformations and must be the first to internalize those changes and the new ways of working.

Therefore, Savia’s technological accompaniment, advice and support, in combination with Awingu, is contributing to the efficiency, digitization and improvement of the Public Administration, ultimately impacting on public service.

In search of a secure and easy solution

To facilitate this, Savia was looking for another solution to provide access to their users. This solution had to meet several requirements related to security, simplicity, and scalability:

Bringing greater security to their cloud services: isolating their solutions with an additional layer of security between the applications and the user.
Provide a less vulnerable form of access: Such as a remote desktop, which is more susceptible to certain threats.
Accessibility for your users: Allowing your solutions to be accessible regardless of architecture, OS, or device.
Scalability: Being able to scale resources based on demand.

They looked for a browser-based HTML5 solution and found Awingu among different alternatives. After testing, SAVIA quickly confirmed that Awingu matched its aforementioned needs:

“We saw that Awingu offered intuitive, fast and secure access. We chose it because it covered everything we needed. Awingu was the only solution that offered file management within a web environment in a very intuitive way”.

Javier Prieto

CMO, Savia

Today, Awingu is in a production environment providing access to solutions for more than 200 customers. They have received good feedback from their customers about the look & feel and the user experience. According to them, they have not only gained in accessibility and user experience, but also in speed and elimination of steps to access the solutions. In addition, they have found the scalability and redundancy possibilities useful without any problems for their users.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited 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 Limited 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.

Parallels 2022

Awingu wins Data News’ “Digital Workplace Innovator of the Year” Award for Excellence

June 2^nd 2022, Ghent/Brussels – Awingu is proud to have received the Data News “Digital Workplace Innovator of the Year” Award at yesterday’s Data News “Awards for Excellence 2022” event in Brussels Expo. The awards are the results of a solid selection process by the editorial staff of Data News, its readers and a jury of ICT professionals and thought leaders.

datanews-awards-digital-workplace-innovator-2 — Proud Awingu CEO Walter Van Uytven received the award on stage

Back in 2016, Awingu won the Data News “Startup of the Year” Award. Hence, we see last night’s honor as a sign of recognition of our maturity and growth within the industry in the past 6 years. Given the fact that we were running against household names such as Delaware and Dell Technologies in the “Digital Workplace Innovator” category, we are all the more inspired to continue our mission to aid companies with their workspace transformation by making secure remote work available anywhere, on any device.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited 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 Limited 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.

Parallels 2022