PRESSZONE
BLOG POST
28/07/2025
How Does a Cloud Workstation Work?
A cloud workstation is an alternative to a physical workstation at your desk - both feature a CPU to handle tasks and applications, GPUs to accelerate graphical and compute workloads plus storage for your applications and files. But a cloud workstation is accessed remotely from a lightweight device such as a basic laptop.
CLOUD WORKSTATION
So how does it work? Cloud workstations can be accessed via your preferred method, for example if you have an existing way of connecting to external networks, or by Scan’s default method. This is established using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a secure connection over the Internet, and then using a remote desktop terminal within Windows, or third-party software such as Parsec that is designed for accessing remote visual environments. Once connected, your experience is dependent upon the speed of your Internet connection but on most broadband services, should be the same as if you had the workstation under your desk.
On the first use you will need to install any applications and upload any data you want to work with - this is kept securely in containers so only you have access to them and to ensure your experience will always be identical no matter what device you log in with, or wherever you log in from. And just like a physical workstation, cloud workstations can be connected to centralised storage and other infrastructure such as printers etc.
Although there is no discernible user-experience difference from a physical workstation, cloud workstations offer several advantages.
| Cloud Workstation | Physical Workstation |
|---|---|
| ✓ No upfront hardware investment | ✗ Upfront hardware investment required |
| ✓ Can work from anywhere | ✗ Can only work in single location |
| ✓ No management or maintenance required | ✗ Management and maintenance required |
| ✓ Largely unaffected by local outages | ✗ Often affected by local outages |
| ✓ Specifications of cloud workstation can be changed as workload demands change | ✗ Specifications are fixed, so must be sized for most demanding workload |
| ✓ Pay only for what you use | ✗ Pay to own complete hardware |
| ✓ Costs are OPEX | ✗ Costs are CAPEX |
| ✓ High ROI | ✗ ROI depends on usage |
| ✓ Cloud workstations can be connected to Scan's clusters for on-demand access to a large amount of CPU or GPU | ✗ Can only improve performance through time-consuming and costly upgrades |
As such, cloud workstations are ideal for a wide range of scenarios. They are ideal for project work when you need access to the latest hardware but don’t have sufficient time or budget to buy and deploy new physical workstations.
Cloud workstations can help mitigate hardware investment as there is no upfront cost, just a regular subscription fee. Larger organisations also rely on cloud as part of a hybrid infrastructure where the most sensitive tasks are carried out in-house and cloud is used to burst when demands are high or when new processes / innovative ideas are being trialled or integrated.
That said, cloud workstations can be deployed in confidential computing or sovereign hosted datacentres where Trusted Execution Environments are employed and data is guaranteed to remain under UK compliance and regulatory standards.
Even in small companies the hybrid approach can pay dividends - imagine a self-employed content creator using a physical GPU-accelerated workstation to design, develop and edit animated video. The majority of the time the GPU resource is sufficient for multi-tasking though workflows, but when it came to rendering the entire resource is tied up (or may even struggle). Instead of waiting for complex renders and not being able to complete other tasks, a cloud workstation could be employed when needed (sized to suit the job each time), and the local hardware is freed up to move onto the next job.