Kasm Workspaces:
The digital revolution has totally changed the world allowing mass opportunity and migration to the “work from anywhere” paradigm. With this shift businesses, small and large, are faced with a distributed workforce operating potentially vulnerable networks and systems. The question of how to provide the tools to our workforce in a secure, enterprise-integrated, and administered, highly customizable platform has become prevalent across industries. The lack of such platforms has been shown to be abundantly evident as, unfortunately, we are faced with a dark side of the digital revolution that has been seen. Ransomware and malware attacks have become commonplace in recent years. No organization is safe from these kinds of attacks and even the biggest companies have been affected.
Kasm Workspaces is one of the most innovative and customizable platforms on the market today. It has been developed to answer the needs of today’s remote workforce. Kasm is led by a team with a wealth of experience in cybersecurity and their passion for their trade is demonstrated by the Community version to individuals and non-profits as well as a rich library of open source Workspaces images and rendering technology.
Kasm Technologies:
Kasm Technologies was founded in 2017 with a focus on providing data loss prevention for high security Federal andDoD programs. With this core technology in mind, they built the Workspaces platform which brings remote desktops, application streaming, and browser isolation capabilities. Their Workspaces platform and open source projects were developed with a focus on security, privacy, and use of a modern DevOps approach. Team Kasm’s experience in offensive/defensive cyber operations, rapid prototyping, and cutting-edge technology provide them with a unique perspective on how to provide reliable, private, and secure communications.
The Workspaces platform strives to bring the best security and privacy solutions. Kasm supports customers across a wide breadth of industries, including the Defense Sector, Financial, Accounting/Legal, Industrial, Energy, Education, Health Care, Law Enforcement, Data Warehousing, Artificial Intelligence, and Technology Startups. Kasm also has multiple industry partners that white-label Kasm Workspaces and use the platform as the underlying engine for their corporate and distributed workforce offerings.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) Solutions:
There are five primary use-cases for Kasm Workspaces:
- Browser Isolation
- Remote Workspaces
- Classroom & Training
- Legacy App Isolation
- ML/AI Development
1- Browser Isolation:
Kasm provides browser isolation by streaming a remotely hosted browser session to your endpoints browser. This allows interaction with internet services, but the risk is removed from your client device since your browser receives a stream of the remote browser, rather than directly interacting with untrusted content. Any malicious code that may be installed or executed on your client device is contained within the Kasm session. If your browsing results in malicious software (ex: RansomWare) being executed on the session, simply delete the session and create a new one.
Recent ransomware and malware attacks, such as those on the Energy, Wastewater, and Health Care industries, are clear signs that the signature and heuristics-based detection is no longer enough. Kasm browser isolation doesn’t require any special clients or software to be installed. Further, Kasm seems to have thought of the total user experience providing passthrough support and integration of most commonly used devices and use cases (i.e. upload/download, audio/microphone). IT Managers will also be interested in Kasm’s Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Content Policies for upload/download, audio/microphone, and clipboard rate-limiting to prevent data exfiltration and web content filters to restrict unauthorized websites.
2- Remote Workspaces Platform:
Kasm uses its Containerized Desktop Infrastructure (CDI) technology to create work environments that are easy to set up/maintain, but also scale to meet even the most complex enterprise requirements. Kasm provides a cost-effective and modern DevOps-enabled approach to traditional Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) or Desktop as a Service (DaaS) environments.
The Workspaces environment is fast and simple to deploy, since users stream desktop, browser and Linux applications directly to their web browser, without needing an agent or application install. Your Remote Workspaces are customized with your applications, configurations, and security controls, providing your workforce with the resources that they need, while still maintaining the same control as if they were in the office.
Workspaces, like Kasm’s Browser Isolation solution, can be integrated into your current enterprise solution set. Containerized desktop images that are fully customizable. Use our library of offering or create your own with the applications that your users are used to using. Customize, build and maintain your own golden image library. Integrate automated nightly image builds into your DevOps workflow to ensure your users are always up to date with patched images with no user downtime or admin intervention.
3- Classroom & Training:
Kasm Workspaces simplifies the training experience by providing students with a sharable environment that comes pre-configured. These environments are accessible from all modern web browsers. The setup is really simple as the files, installed software and configurations are pre-configured. You can also share a Workspace session with other users which motivates a collaborative experience. For accessing a Workspace session, you don’t need any special software. A user only needs the internet and a browser to access the session. This makes setup and accessibility to the platform available to anyone with a modern browser.
4- Legacy App Isolation:
You can easily host legacy apps such as Java, Adobe Flash on Kasm Workspaces. There is the facility to host any app that you want in a secure container and then stream that specific app to the user’s browser. Kasm Workspaces runs legacy software that is potentially riddled with vulnerabilities in a safe environment. This paradigm allows the organization to remain secure at all times.
Vulnerabilities present in the legacy software present no risk to the organization as the software is run in a sandbox that is isolated. In this way, the organization remains protected. You can also use the Developer API to customize the Workspaces according to your needs. If you have your own web applications then you can integrate Workspaces into those web apps.
5- Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence Development:
Kasm provides an open-source containerized desktop focused on Machine Learning (ML) development. The desktop comes loaded with common tools, Python packages, and IDEs. The open-source desktop is a starting point for teams to develop their own environments tailored for their needs. Kasm supports the ML development community through open-source projects and by further developing the platform to meet the demands of the community.
You can easily manage different resources using Kasm Workspaces. If you are using a multi-GPU system then you can also limit the systems to only use a single GPU. You get native support for NVIDIA GPUs on Kasm Workspaces.
Benefits:
- Kasm Workspaces is flexible and scalable enough to be deployed almost anywhere. In the cloud, on-premise in your data center, or even on your laptop.
- Workspaces protect your endpoints as well as keeping your Enterprise IP secure while providing your team the tools and data access they need to continue to be a productive “Work from Anywhere” workforce.
- The platform is easy to set up and manage. Following the online documentation, I had Workspaces up and running within 20 minutes. Most of that was waiting for the packages to download.
- The modern UI and Streaming technology makes the user experience simple and intuitive.
- Your Enterprise will benefit from an increase in productivity due to simplified secure remote access and a reduction in time spent on cybersecurity defense.
Drawbacks:
- File upload lacks drag-and-drop capability when selecting files.
Pricing:
There are three pricing plans to choose from. Determining the right license and deployment type is simple using the pricing calculator on the website.
- Community – Free for individuals, non-profits, and testing (Limited to 5 sessions)
- Professional – $5 per user/month or $10 per session/month
- Enterprise – $10 per user/month or $20 per session/month
Kasm Workspaces is very cost-effective as compared to alternative solutions within the Browser Isolation, VDI/DaaS, and Application Streaming marketplace. We found the pricing to be lower than all other major competitors, likely due to the cost reductions through the use of containerized workloads and leveraging open-source technology.
Contact:
- Website: www.kasmweb.com
- Demo: https://www.kasmweb.com/demo.html
Final Verdict:
Kasm Workspaces makes it easy to build and maintain a highly secure and cost-effective remote workspace for your distributed workforce. The platform provides industry-leading technology in Browser Isolation, Desktop as a Service (DaaS), and Application Streaming. Workspaces provide an excellent option for organizations looking for an on-premise or hybrid solution and the Developer API along with custom branding allow customers to tightly integrate the platform into their applications and services. We would highly recommend that businesses consider Kasm Workspaces for secure delivery of services to their remote workforce.
