The working environment in an office (or home office) has changed, and employees now rely on specific applications to complete their tasks. Just like a smart phone, a computer is just a way to deliver applications in an efficient manner. As we progress through time, we will see more application interaction. Naturally, this prompts the inquiry, “Do we even require a traditional operating system such as Windows anymore?” I’m not going to say that we can completely eliminate an Operating System, that’s simply not possible. The purpose of this blog is to demonstrate how a fully interactive Operating system like Windows 10 or OSX is not really necessary to fulfil your duties at work. Also, if we practice the principles of least privilege, why do we want to give access to tools that can change configurations?
The general concept of a graphic based operating system is to enable users to access, and use applications directly from their own device. Windows (Microsoft PC), OSX (Mac), Android (Google), iOS (iPhone), and Linux are the most widely used operating systems. Fundamentally, they all do the same thing – give you some personal preference options, provide a file system for data and give the ability to install and launch applications. Under all the nice graphics are a lot of software that needs to be maintained and can be potentially vulnerable to malicious attacks.
In a business, a network is connected to a directory (such as Active Directory/LDAP) that helps administer policies to the end users that are commonly on a computer. In order to enforce policies that lead to security best practices, the Directory is crucial. Directories can also be used to serve applications to specific users. To run locally, powerful applications require powerful desktop computing, so costly local resources cannot be shared. If we could move the Directories to the Cloud and Steam the Applications from the Cloud, do we really need to worry about a traditional Operating System?
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Virtual Applications in the Cloud
Virtualizing applications and delivering them in a fully containerized workspace is a new trend in the IT industry. This means, engineers have the ability to serve any application from the cloud and stream it to a workstation anywhere in the world. An example of this can be anything from basic apps like Microsoft Word and Email to more complex tools like 3D Graphic rendering. They provide exclusive access to the application that is actually running on a server in the Cloud and can be accessed by users from any device with an Internet connection. This helps with network infrastructure efficiency, scalability, and security.
Citrix Workspace and Cloud Citrix is the global leader in application virtualization and their Workspace technology has the ability to streamline operations by centralizing it all in the Cloud. In the Cloud, the business must maintain a Directory and a Citrix Cloud Controller. The internal policies are managed by the Directory, and the application delivery over the Internet is managed by the Citrix Cloud. Users will be able to access the designated applications required to do their job, all they need is to access a menu from a Cloud gateway. So, how do we get around an OS? Well, you still need something basic to stream the applications, but it doesn’t have to be a big clunky OS like Windows or OSX. Instead, we can set up a very basic Linux operating system that is designed simply to speak with the cloud and steam the applications.
It’s just like a smart TV that streams cable, you turn it on and get a menu of applications that you can use to watch movies, shows etc. You could select the appropriate application with Virtual Apps, and it would immediately open in a new window from the cloud. Multiple users will have the same access to Microsoft Word and a Graphic Processing tool as well as the same performance because you can have a lot of shared resources on the server. Even a smart TV has a very lightweight OS built into it, but it is designed to deliver streaming content – nothing more, nothing less.
The million-dollar question is, why would we want to get rid of a traditional Operating System? The answer is all about creating operational efficiency, and eliminating unnecessary system maintenance. For instance, Microsoft Windows is used by almost all businesses, most of which use conventional workstations (PCs and Laptops). We wouldn’t have to worry about the following if we could get rid of Windows and the machines that came with it:
New software and hardware purchases Maintenance of Hardware
User/Desktop Support
Protection against viruses (at the server level) If we just changed the way we look at this, we could save thousands or even millions of dollars annually in costs associated with that. NoTouchOS
The NoTouchOS is a super light wight Linux operating system that has 2 basic capabilities – run Chromium Browser and securely connect to Virtual Apps and Desktops. In the end, all this basic operating system does is connect you to your applications. NoTouchOS can run on the simplest of computing systems, such as a Raspberry Pi. A user simply turns on the machine, NoTouchOS runs, and users can launch all of their applications from the Workspace browser. From the Cloud, everything will run in a window, including SaaS applications like Microsoft Word, Outlook, and 3D Graphic Rendering.