Checking work emails on a private PC? This has not yet been possible for soldiers. In the event of a crisis, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of soldiers were unable to access their usual work IT environment when working from home.
In general, the demand for business IT for working from home is very high. Although many departments do everything they can to provide their staff with mobile IT or a teleworking workstation, it is often not possible to equip them with these. The demand exceeds the number of devices available.
Our Bootstick innovation project aims to close this gap and make it possible to access the official IT working environment using private IT. In compliance with security and regulations!
With the help of the Bootstick, a secure VPN connection can be established from private IT to a business terminal server or virtual desktop infrastructure. To do this, the boot stick starts its own encapsulated environment on the private IT, i.e. not the operating system of the hardware used. It does not access the hard disk or other non-volatile storage media. As a result, it feels like you are on the company computer with its desktop interface. This architecture is also known as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). The private PC becomes a terminal client.
Advantages of the Bootstick:
Ensuring the troops' ability to work in times of crisis
Very fast provision of an official IT environment without the lengthy procurement of different hardware components
BSI-certified up to VS-NfD
Replacement of OpenVPN
The bootstick is currently being tested on test computers together with the Bundeswehr Operations Command.