"Parallels Secure Workspace today is the benchmark for remote desktop solutions, remote applications…in every aspect!"
El Prat de Llobregat is a municipality in the province of Barcelona with a population of 65,000 inhabitants. The city council consists of 800 people and Parallels Secure Workspace has been implemented to enable remote work for 50 of them in phase one.
The Сhallenge
Like many other public administrations, being able to provide a digital signature is necessary in the day-to-day work of the staff of Prat de Llobregat. In 2020, the town hall had to rapidly evolve to provide access to the usual applications and digital signatures 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 must find out who is connecting and control the device connecting 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" says Gallo.
That is why, when the Municipality of Prat de Llobregat presented its need to their partner, Indigo, Parallels Secure Workspace was one of the candidates for a proof of concept.
The Test
Gallo had known about Parallels Secure Workspace for many years, he was aware of the potential and innovative nature of the solution, but the solution was still in an early stage at the commercial level and still lacked expansion at a business level.
However, there were some occasions in previous years where Parallels Secure Workspace was one of the proposed solutions. “I would say that Parallels Secure Workspace 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 Parallels Secure Workspace.
Since Indigo wanted to meet all the requirements proposed by the municipality, the other solutions were gradually discarded during the testing phase, setting Parallels Secure Workspace apart from the rest. There were numerous advantages — adaptability, security, speed of implementation, and simplicity.
And a very important factor —the affordability of the solution, which ensures future sustainability.
After the successful Proof of Concept, technology partner Indigo bought the Parallels Secure Workspace licenses for the municipality via the Spanish distributor MCR.
The Solution
From the implementer’s point of view, one of Parallels Secure Workspace’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 Parallels Secure Workspace 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 must integrate another MFA, because it’s already part of the product. However, if you want to integrate another one, you can because there is no impediment. Whatever you want, it fits – a great improvement! “
Another important factor is that thanks to Parallels Secure Workspace’s adaptability, the Municipality was able to set up the solution on-premises.
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-premises. In terms of cloud solutions, maybe there’s not that much difference, but when we set up on-premises, the difference is huge.”
Another critical point was the need for a digital signature, which is so important in public administration.
Fortunately, this was also possible with Parallels Secure Workspace.
As mentioned by Joan de la Paz, SiTIC Services responsible for the municipality, different entities such as sport centers, manors, etc. are normally managed by outsourced companies or enterprises under concession with their own IT infrastructures.
In this scenario, Parallels Secure Workspace has been the perfect gateway to maintain the high levels of security and control requested by the client, providing connections between the different entities under concession and adhering to their IT policies.
The advantages of Parallels Secure Workspace are valuable for private companies and municipalities. "If they do a good study of the technical and economic feasibility and the implementation time, Parallels Secure Workspace will be the clear winner,” explains Adrián.
“You can see that it is developed from the customer's perspective, adapting to the customer's needs, not the other way around as happens in most solutions. You buy a solution and you're waiting to see where we need to modify something. With Parallels Secure Workspace it's not like that: everything is easy." says Gallo.
Users are certainly very satisfied. The city council is in the first phase of implementation and will continue its deployment until it reaches 800 users.
Currently, Parallels Secure Workspace is only used for remote working, but it will be extended in the future.
Furthermore, usability has improved thanks to Parallels Secure Workspace.
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 Parallels Secure Workspace to enable remote working within the public administration.
Curious about how other local governments or similar organizations use Parallels Secure Workspace? Learn more!
