"Parallels Secure Workspace just worked and that’s what we needed. A simple, straightforward application that accelerated our ability to achieve our goals."
IT Director, Exmar NV
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 liquified 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 on vessels out to sea.
The Сhallenge
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."
IT Director, Exmar NV
The Test
Will Parallels Secure Workspace be easier to maintain while offering a seamless user experience?
David was impressed that within 2 days of his conversation with Parallels, 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 Parallels Secure Workspace 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."
IT Director, Exmar NV
This was enough for David to decide to make the move from Citrix to Parallels Secure Workspace.
The Solution
Parallels Secure Workspace 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 25 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 Parallels Secure Workspace 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 Parallels Secure Workspace’s Support team was another deciding factor. A couple of minor issues popped up over the weekend and the Parallels Secure Workspace 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.
"Parallels Secure Workspace is very straightforward and easy to roll out. This was the driver to make the move from Citrix to Parallels Secure Workspace."
IT Director, Exmar NV
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 Parallels Secure Workspace 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 Parallels Secure Workspace 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."
IT Director, Exmar NV
