Mikogo Cloud Desktop: Access Windows Through A Browser Window

The tool allows a user to access a remote operating system from the comfort of their own web browser, without needing to install any additional software or plugins. How is this done? By using the wonders of HTML5 of course. The software is browser-independent, and can work in popular browsers such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. In principle, this technology can be the ultimate solution to all "BYOD" security issues. Previously, the operating system was under the control of the user, which made it difficult for IT administrators to control the environment. However, with the cloud desktop, everything including the operating system

is under control of the IT administrators. Since it is accessible through a web browser, employees can login from any device, desktop or mobile.

Using Mikogo's cloud desktop tool

We were given a demo of the cloud desktop tool. First, we used Google Chrome 24 to log into the cloud desktop, which was running Windows 8. It was quite amazing to see a full operating system running in a tab in the browser. Once we switched on to full-screen mode, we were using the OS directly as if it was installed on the system. However, we did notice a lot of lag in response, perhaps because of server load or the delay in streaming of the remote desktop. We also did a test run on IE9, in which it was significantly slower in response. On Mozilla Firefox 18, it ran equally as well as it did on Chrome. Perhaps this is reflective of the level of HTML5 support, which we have benchmarked to be higher on Chrome and Firefox compared to IE. One glitch is that whenever we used a Windows 8 keyboard shortcut like the "Windows" key, it triggered an event both in the browser as well as locally, and this was quite distracting. A fast network connection and good hardware is necessary to have a smooth experience using this product.

We had a discussion with the brains behind Mikogo's Cloud Desktop, Marcel Maron, IT Operations Manager...

Q: Does the cloud desktop allow more than 1 user to connect at a time? If so, aren't there legal issues with this?

Maron: We will offer 2 modes of operation - a) we host a cloud desktop for you and provide everything as a service or b) you host the cloud desktop on your own premises and we provide the HTML5 gateway to use it through any browser. In the case of (a), we have to fully comply with Microsoft's SPLA licensing. As of now, we provide Windows Server 2012 configured to act like Windows 8 desktop to provide the service. However, if an enterprise hosts the cloud desktop on their own premises, they have to take care of licensing with Microsoft directly.

Q: What are the critical security measures protecting the system?

Maron: The external connection is SSL (HTTPS) encrypted and secured with an SSL certificate. The internal connection from our gateway to the actual Remote Desktop Server is also encrypted per session.

Q: Access was very slow during our trial run. Is Mikogo planning to address this in some way?

Maron: The server used is located in Europe. We plan to roll out more servers for that service in our already existing data center locations. That should improve the user experience.