Remote access is in huge demand across organizations all over the world — having the ability to centrally host desktops and applications helps to ensure that important data is kept secure, resources are optimized, and workstations are made readily available to the workforce. This is why we’re thrilled to announce our new RESTful API, which brings the benefits of the Leostream™ Platform to a wider audience, while helping customers and partners streamline the installation and configuration of our software to build more integrated workflows.
By design, the Leostream Platform is a highly adaptive solution that facilitates nearly any use case for VDI, Desktops-as-a-Service, hosted physical resources, edge computing, hybrid cloud environments, and more. As the provider of the industry’s most comprehensive and flexible vendor agnostic connection broker, Leostream has always placed significant importance on integrations in order to support the wide array of technologies found in enterprise IT environments.
With the introduction of the Leostream RESTful API, we are taking it a step further and making it easier to build and scale Leostream environments in conjunction with technology already in place throughout the enterprise. Through the API, Leostream is creating even more opportunities for customers, technology partners, and managed service providers to customize and extend the capabilities and desired functionality of our software to support key business initiatives like secure remote access and BYOD.
What can you do with Leostream and the Leostream API?
We are here to provide a vendor-neutral remote access platform that equips IT teams across all industries with the only truly flexible and secure platform for building hosted desktop environments today, that are future-proofed for tomorrow.
So many industries rely on virtual and hosted desktops, particularly to accommodate the increased demand for remote access. Artists at creative companies need high-powered workstations to deliver quality content. Colleges and universities must provide students with virtual resources to enable distance learning and hybrid learning environments. When it comes to hosting resources, all organizations, prioritize data security — particularly financial companies, healthcare practices, and government agencies. No matter what industry you work in, the Leostream Platform can connect your users to anything — anytime, anywhere, and from any device.
By harnessing the power of the API, customers and service providers will be able to script Leostream environments efficiently and at scale. The main benefit of the API is to better systematize the Leostream Connection Broker installation and configuration. This allows customers to automate configuration changes and makes it faster and easier for service providers to on-board customers.
A few specific use cases include:
Manage and maintain remote access infrastructure
Customers can include the Leostream environment as part of a DevOps workflow used to manage and maintain a remote access infrastructure. The command line installation (CLI) method and database CLI makes it simple for customers to build a new Leostream Connection Broker as part of the update and patch process for their environment.
Quickly modify remote desktop pools and policies
Using the pools feature within Leostream lets organizations create groups of desktops running shared applications. In cases where users often change projects, for example students switching classes or creative staff working on new shows, the API provides a way to update pools and policies from a script, without directly interacting with the Leostream interface.
Simplify customer on-boarding for solution providers
Along with easy installation, the API will ultimately allow the managed service providers (MSP) to script the configuration of the entire Leostream environment, allowing them to deliver new Leostream environments faster and with no manual intervention. For example, this could allow MSPs to create a portal where their customers indicate what protocol and hosting platform they plan to use, and then can generate scripts to configure the Leostream Connection Broker with those parameters.
API examples to boost productivity and automate workflows
You asked, we answered! The development of the Leostream API came at the request of our customers. We’ve heard our customers ask for more ways to automate on-boarding, make bulk changes to desktop environments, and roll out configuration settings across their organizations. As a customer-focused company — we truly partner with our customers and work closely to develop features within our product that will satisfy some intricate and complex use cases.
You can now use the API with programming languages to automate redundant tasks. The calls are made using a JSON representation and the data is returned as JSON formatted text. Here are some of the exciting ways our customers intend to use the API:
- Create a script for building and editing desktop pools, particularly around provisioning based on time of day
- Implement a master policy with multiple desktop pools and offer workstations based on the user’s attributes
- Report on resource status, such as pool usage and desktop status
- Add local or domain-authenticated users to the Connection Broker, to simplify on-boarding new users, particularly when using local users or when having domain users who will be assigned to their desktop
We hope this announcement inspires you to further build out your hosted or virtual desktop environment and get started with Leostream API. The possibilities are endless; so don’t feel limited by the ideas listed above. We’re excited to hear about your projects and see how you leverage the API!