For years now we have seen many industries start to transition more and more of their workload into remote setups, with the COVID-19 pandemic certainly accelerating those trends. The construction industry, however, has traditionally lagged behind with these types of technological advancements, but we are seeing more in the industry recognize what can still be done without physically going to the work site on a daily basis. Increasingly, software and other products are entering the market to improve the ability for work to get done remotely between stakeholders, with that kind of collaboration being a key to delivering projects on time and within budget. One of the biggest software names just recently released their own collaboration tool, with HP announcing HP Anyware, a digital workspace solution for IT teams to keep company data secure and employees productive regardless of location, has come out of beta.
HP Anyware made two highlighting announcements in their latest release, 22.07, coming out of beta, and it is essentially the combination of two previous HP products, Teradici CAS and ZCentral Remote Boost. In the release of this news, HP noted that the product is “designed to help businesses create secured hybrid work environments that allow employees to work anywhere they have a network connection.” Teradici CAS is an award-winning management platform built to “configure, manage, and monitor brokering of remote workstations.” That is combined with ZCentral Remote Boost, which is HP’s collaboration tool to enhance work between stakeholders wherever they are located.
As mentioned above, along with the program simply coming out of beta and opening up for public availability, HP Anyware is also introducing some key new features in this latest release. Number one, it now supposed ARM-based Apple silicon M1 chips, including complete end-to-end support for PColP agents and clients for Macs. They’ve also improved compatibility with a wider range of devices, adding more native functionality for the program on macOS to create a “more seamless experience” for Mac users. In addition, HP Anyware will now be compatible with hosts and endpoints running Windows 11, as they’ve seen their users start updating to the new Windows operating system.
All of that ties into the theme of collaboration as well, with HP Anyware being an option regardless of the device and/or operating system a user prefers. The program can be run on just about any host environment, be it Windows, macOS, or Linux, along with any workstation and network infrastructure without needing to use a VPN. End users also have that kind flexibility as well, with virtually every operating system – mobile included – and device combination being compatible with Anyware. Being able to connect users of all these different devices allows for that key collaboration without having to potentially purchase more computing hardware just to be able to do it. On top of that, Anyware also works to keep data secure, with everything being encrypted in the server to ensure raw data never leaves the internal servers.
Although Anyware is now out of beta, there are still more updates to come, with the company announcing improvements coming shortly with their next update to be released in September. In that release, users can expect a revamped user interface, one that will both improve the look of the program but also make some strides in usability and interaction components. They are also expected at some point down the road to increase the number of users with whom screens can be shared.
The AEC industry is shifting much more towards collaboration in remote environments, and in order for that kind of work to be done away from the worksite companies need secure and easy ways to share data and models remotely in real-time. We’re seeing a growing market for this kind of software, with HP’s Anyware being one of the latest, and from one of the biggest names.
