/ Glossary / What is a Digital Workspace?

What is a digital workspace?

A digital workspace is an integrated technology framework designed to deliver and manage app, data, and desktop delivery. It allows employees to access their apps and data real-time—on any device, from any location, regardless of whether the information is stored through cloud services or in the data center. The most successful workspace solutions provide a unified, contextual, and secure experience for IT and end users.

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What does a digital workspace include?

Key components of a unified, secure collaborative workspace include:

  • App and desktop virtualization that gives employees easy remote access to day-to-day resources from outside the office
  • File sharing and content collaboration tools that let teams create, edit, and review content from any device while giving IT teams greater control
  • Unified endpoint management that brings all personal laptops, corporate PCS, smartphones, tablets, and more into one central management console
  • Single sign-on (SSO) for fast, secure access to all apps employees need for the day

What are the benefits of a digital workspace?

The modern digital workspace can benefit today’s workplaces in several key areas:

  1. A better employee experience
    A digital workspace solution can help transform the employee experience by enabling a more flexible workstyle that attracts and retains the kind of talent needed to move business forward. Because business processes can be completed from anywhere, employees are able to choose the locations, devices, and times that are most productive for them.
  2. Enhanced security and data breach protection
    The digital workspace improves security by giving IT a complete view into network traffic, users, files, and endpoints, making it easier than ever to stay ahead of both internal and external threats. Machine learning and artificial intelligence built into the digital workspace protect company data from hacks, malware, and end-user mistakes—long before they happen. In addition, SSO access to all apps and data ensure users have fewer passwords to manage—which means less risk to the business.
  3. Flexibility to choose any technology your organization needs
    A digital workspace makes it easy for organizations to embrace new technologies and the cloud without worrying about security or a compromised user experience. A digital workspace offers one place for people to access any app, whether SaaS, web, mobile, or virtual. And IT can manage it all in one unified console on the back end. Advanced security controls for SaaS and web apps mean IT can let people use the apps they know and love but in a controlled work environment.

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What are some use cases for a digital workspace?

Hybrid and remote work

A digital workspace lets remote workers use everything from legacy company applications to cloud-based apps like Microsoft 365, which must have business policies applied for creating and using sensitive data.

If a regulated call center supports hybrid work, for example, a digital workspace can help enforce the rigors of PCI DSS when people are working from home. Or if employees travel for business, a digital workspace lets them work with Wi-Fi on an airplane, in hotels, and at foreign destinations but only with apps and content that are risk-appropriate to each situation. And in healthcare, clinicians and doctors who roam across facilities have instant, secure access to the most sensitive information from wherever they need to be.

Knowledge workers

Workers with top-secret projects need to keep materially sensitive information and intellectual property for the private use of a small, defined team. A digital workspace can encrypt all content by default and make it accessible only by the team—even if it was accidently or maliciously exposed. This includes integrations with third parties, such as external legal counsel. Additionally, for M&A teams, a digital workspace can tie disparate organizations together, integrating resources where preferred, and isolating resources where demanded.

Contractors and contingent workers

Many organizations rely on contractors and contingent workers, but managing their unique requirements can be challenging. For example, providing access to company applications and data is tricky, as these workers may not be part of an organization’s Active Directory group and, therefore, are not well managed. They also may not have the time to learn how to navigate the necessary applications, as they may be different from those they’ve used in prior engagements. A digital workspace can simplify and streamline access in each of these areas.

How are digital workspaces evolving?

While the concept of a digital workspace began with providing unified access to apps and data, that alone is no longer enough to meet the needs of the modern-day worker. Most employees are constantly toggling between apps and tasks.

The digital workspace of the future must use machine learning and artificial intelligence to guide and focus work so people can spend less time context switching and more time tending to the job they were hired to do. Automation of routine tasks, personalized insights, and prioritization of top actions are just some of the ways digital workspace solution helps people work smarter and faster.

Citrix digital workspace solutions

With a complete digital workspace platform, Citrix makes it easy to deliver secure access to everything people need, wherever work gets done. Organizations can choose from a full range of solutions to:

  • Meet the needs of remote and hybrid workers with zero trust security and adaptive authentication
  • Work easily and securely with anyone and improve your client experience
  • Empower people to work from any device and location, even in the midst of disruptions

See how you can build your ideal digital workspace with Citrix DaaS.

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