Digital Resources is exploiting rapid technological developments to benefit its Architectural Hollow Metal Products customers. We are creating an entirely new generation of web based forms and reports, but this article explains how we using new cloud offerings from Microsoft to deliver many of the benefits of new architectures to our customers enjoying the performance, comprehensiveness, reporting power and flexibility of desk top implementations.
Azure is Microsoft’s offering for delivering cloud based (off-premises) computer services to customers. It has many options, including database, domain administration, storage and backup, and much more. Virtual Machines allow one to create and use computers that are accessed remotely as needed.
Microsoft 365 is a new subscription product that includes the substantial capabilities of Office 365, adding security, operating system and other benefits.
With a suitable Microsoft 365 subscription, one can deploy any number of a new Azure service called Multi-User windows. Each instance has its own Windows 10 Enterprise based personal computer installed with the latest 64 bit Office 365 applications. You do not need to buy individual licenses for Windows or Office for each instance.
We have updated our Office based data entry products to work in this environment. We can create a base instance for a customer that can then be copied and individualized on a user, or even a job by job basis.
Any computer – even a Mac or Chrome based system – with an internet connection and a browser can access interact with the virtual computer. The power is provided in the cloud. Therefore, on-site computers can be totally generic and require no special installation.
And since the computers are cloud based, they can be accessed from anywhere – and we can easily collaborate with you in the support.
We are exploring the possibility of virtualizing processing servers – the computer the reads the opening schedule and generates bill of materials, drawings, flat layouts, and other documents. However, in the meantime, we have added the ability to release a job from the virtual computer in the job to a processing queue hosted either on our customer or our premises.
This new virtual offering will greatly simplify the management, deployment and scaling of the Digital Resources Desktop system, and will significantly extend the useful life of this incredibly productive application.