Cameyo offers Windows apps delivery on Chrome devices

Cameyo has integrated its virtual app delivery services with ChromeOS to provide IT departments with a way to repurpose older Windows devices.

Cameyo said that ChromeOS with Cameyo is designed to enable organisations to deliver any application – from software as a service (SaaS) to legacy apps – over the web, without the need for specific devices or virtual desktops to access them.

A study in May from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) for Cameyo found that over half (53%) of organisations feel that their company’s IT environment is more or significantly more complex than it was two years ago. ESG found that 40% of IT departments attributed this increased complexity in their IT environment to the surge of remote and hybrid work.

Other factors contributing to greater IT complexity include a changing cyber security landscape, the increased number and type of endpoint devices, new data security and privacy regulations and higher data volumes. ESG found that this increased complexity can have significant negative impacts on an organisation, including increased costs, decreased efficiency and reduced security.

Andrew Miller, CEO at Cameyo, said that the integration of ChromeOS and Cameyo will enable enterprises to eliminate the desktop and adopt modern, cloud-first computing while maintaining seamless access to all their apps.

“We realised that moving to ChromeOS devices would provide us with a more productive and cost-effective device strategy, so we decided to make the switch,” said Dan Morley, head of IT infrastructure and service at Village Hotels, a customer of Cameyo. “But we would not have been able to make the switch to ChromeOS without maintaining access to all the apps our people need.”

The hotel chain found that running its previous virtual desktop infrastructure, Citrix, on ChromeOS, was causing a disjointed “dual OS experience”. As its Citrix infrastructure was reaching end of life, the company decided to switch over to ChromeOS-based devices for desktop computing.

Morley said: “As part of our hardware refresh, we began by replacing our Windows laptops with Chromebooks. In the second phase, we began migrating our thin client workstations to Chromeboxes.”

ESG found that ChromeOS with Cameyo can be used to simplify an organisation’s application delivery process by eliminating infrastructure, streamlining business operations, and maximising resources. By virtualising applications, ESG said that ChromeOS with Cameyo keeps data and application files secure with a zero-trust security model, which prevents the need to expose firewall and server ports to the internet.

Cameyo is also a VPN-less solution that keeps employees off the corporate network and removes the possibility of misconfigurations or outdated software.

“Traditional VDI solutions can be difficult and costly to configure, implement and maintain, especially for organisations that have built their EUC [end user computing] strategy to take advantage of the benefits of ChromeOS,” said Gabe Knuth, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.

“This integration of ChromeOS and Cameyo provides a great experience for both IT and the end users, while combining the economic impact of both solutions to deliver even greater TCO [total cost of ownership] and accelerated time to value.”

Naveen Viswanatha, head of product, ChromeOS solutions at Google, said: “In today’s cloud-first world, users just need simple and secure access to their apps in a seamless way that optimises their productivity.”