If you’ve used Amazon WorkSpaces, you know that creating a large WorkSpaces fleet can be a time-consuming and challenging task. Load limits, notifying new users, and the need to individually populate each user account can lead to a logistical nightmare – especially if you’re onboarding many WorkSpaces in the same day. AWS native tooling, which is programmed to accommodate a variety of unique scenarios across accounts and platforms, makes sense in many use cases. But it can become a hindrance when you are trying to scale up your WorkSpaces fleet.
So how is it possible to launch 10,000 WorkSpaces in one day? You need to have the right tools at your disposal. That’s why SynchroNet developed CLICK, an automation platform for WorkSpaces that makes launching 10,000 WorkSpaces – or even more – in a single day a breeze.
The Challenges of Launching Multiple WorkSpaces
When it comes to launching or making changes to multiple WorkSpaces, one of the biggest challenges is that you can’t see all your WorkSpaces in one place. In fact, with native tooling, you can only see 10 WorkSpaces at a time. This isn’t a problem when you have 50 users, but quickly becomes challenging when you have hundreds or thousands of employees – or if you need to launch an entire fleet of new users at once.
You also won’t be able to view WorkSpaces across accounts or regions. If you have several production accounts, for example, you’ll need to log in and out of those different accounts to access all your WorkSpaces. When it comes time to individually populate configurations for your users, that means a lot of time spent hunting for the right account. And if you are trying to generate data on your entire fleet, you’ll need to compile that data in a spreadsheet and review it manually.
Your second major challenge is managing your time. Each new WorkSpace takes 20–30 minutes to populate, and you’ll need to manually send notifications to users once their WorkSpace is ready. With load limits restricting the number of WorkSpaces you can create at one time, that means a lot of time spent waiting. This slows down onboarding across your organization, especially because creating a WorkSpace is only one small step in what is likely a labor-intensive process.
Despite these difficulties, it’s more than possible to launch a large fleet of WorkSpaces using native tools. But just because it’s possible, doesn’t mean it’s a good investment of your time. We like to think of it like mowing a 3-acre lawn: you may have the skills and basic equipment to make it happen, but that doesn’t mean you want to spend 10 hours every Saturday doing it. This is where CLICK, with automation tooling and easy-to-read data analytics, comes into play – and we’re not talking about lawn mowing.
How CLICK Makes Launching 10,000 WorkSpaces Easy
When you are trying to launch 10,000+ WorkSpaces in one day, automation is essential. Even basic features like automatic notification to users when their WorkSpace is complete can save you hours of time when you are launching a fleet of this magnitude.
CLICK addresses many of the challenges that you’ll find with native tooling, including:
1. Scalability
CLICK scales up to meet your needs, with Active Directory groups that allow you to create categories based on user personas that can help you easily and quickly provision a large number of WorkSpaces at once. For example, all the employees in your accounting department might require the same set of tools. By associating the appropriate WorkSpaces Image with an Active Directory group, you can simply drag and drop users into that group to provision WorkSpaces for them with the tools they need.
There are also options to differentiate within your Active Directory groups, so you can make exceptions for users with unique needs. For example, a manager who needs additional project management software can receive that tool without impacting the other users in Active Directory.
CLICK also allows you to create WorkSpaces based on locality. If you have remote users or many geographically separate offices, for example, you can create WorkSpaces in the closest region, which improves speed and functionality.
2. Provisioning
Whether you are migrating to WorkSpaces from an old EUC platform or onboarding many employees at once, you’ll want to limit downtime. With CLICK’s provisioning tools, a WorkSpace is automatically generated whenever you create a new user. CLICK also automates notifications, so users know when their WorkSpace is ready. And these notifications also include relevant setup information, so users don’t need to rely on tech support to launch their WorkSpace.
The Right Tool for the Job
When you are taking on a massive project like a launching thousands of WorkSpaces in a single day, you need the right tool for the job. Though it’s possible to launch and manage your fleet without automation tools, it’s not easy – and it’s not an efficient use of your time.
CLICK makes it easy to launch thousands of WorkSpaces at the same time – but it also makes managing WorkSpaces much easier. To learn more about how CLICK makes WorkSpaces management much easier, read our related blog post, Managing Amazon WorkSpaces With SynchroNet CLICK.