How a Global Aircraft Manufacturer Secured 7,000 Remote Employees, Contractors and Suppliers – Without VDI or Issuing Laptops

One of the world’s leading aviation manufacturers was looking for a solution to help secure remote workers all over the globe. With over 7,000 internal and supplier-based remote workers, enabling secure work on personal laptops was essential – both to control costs and to simplify IT operations, as issuing laptops across the globe was quickly ruled out due to high-cost and complexity.

Previously, remote employees were faced with a patchwork of VPNs and invasive device checks to ensure compliance. This created friction when trying to empower a large contractor network while respecting personal device privacy.

While a VPN helped secure network access, it quickly became clear that it didn’t provide sufficient control over how highly classified contractor data was accessed and used. To tighten data governance, the firm turned to a VDI-based approach – but early testing exposed significant performance issues. Contractors struggled with lag, latency, and limited access to the software-based tools required to do their jobs effectively, resulting in a poor user experience and mounting operational friction.

The Challenge: Protect highly sensitive data while enabling thousands of contractors and employees to work productively on personal laptops – without the cost, complexity, or performance issues of VDI. 

The Challenge: Enabling Secure Remote Access for Contractors and Internal Teams Across Desktop and Web Applications

As a company that values quality work by top of the field engineers, the organization needed a secure compute model (tailored to a BYOD workforce) that didn’t slow work or expose sensitive data. Existing access methods – VPNs and VDI were fragmented, high-friction, and unable to effectively support the mix of native (thick) applications and web apps.

To move forward, the organization required a solution that could:

• Unify secure access for internal employees and supplier contractors
• Support BYOD across both browser-based and installed applications
• Protect sensitive data without cloud-side decryption or intrusive device controls
• Enforce granular, content-aware policies for downloads, storage, and data movement
• Isolate work and personal activity within encrypted workspaces
• Enable rapid access revocation and remote wipe when needed

Without a solution that met these needs, the company would have remained locked into a fragmented access model that was expensive, complex, slowed contractors, and constrained global operations.

Venn’s Blue Border™: Increasing the Efficiency of Secure BYOD Workflows

The organization discovered Venn when researching ways to seamlessly integrate a secure BYOD compute model into existing workflows. After going through Blue Border in a demo setting, they immediately saw the benefit to their day to day operations.

Instead of relying on VDI or shipped laptops, Blue Border creates a secure enclave (visually indicated by a blue border around approved applications) – protecting sensitive data while allowing contractors to work natively on their own laptops. The team quickly noted it was “much better than what we have today.” No VDI meant no lag, latency, or backend infrastructure to manage.

They also saw how contractors could be onboarded and productive the same day, eliminating delays and improving time-to-productivity. This was especially important given that securing third-party contractor devices is one of the organization’s most common use cases.

Onboarding was simple: IT shared the Venn agent with the user, contractors installed it on their personal laptops, and authenticated through an MFA-protected login. Before access was granted, Venn verified required security controls on the local device. Contractors then accessed approved applications inside Blue Border™, where work activity was fully isolated – taking the endpoint out of scope for security and compliance.

Key Benefits with Venn

Fast BYOD deployment
Install Venn in minutes on contractor-owned devices – no VDI or hardware shipping required.

No virtualization, no data stored locally
Blue Border secures applications directly, delivering native performance without virtual desktops.

Built-in identity and device checks
MFA and local security verification are required before access is granted.

Consistent performance anywhere
Reliable, low-latency access for remote contractors worldwide.

Granular policy control
Enforce security policies in and around applications to fit specific workflows.

Clear work-personal separation
Blue Border surrounds all work activity, isolating company data from the personal device.

The Result: Flying High Without the Need for VDI!

The organization successfully enabled secure BYOD access for its global workforce without relying on VDI. Concerns around application compatibility, latency, and workflow disruption were eliminated as employees and contractors continued working natively within Venn’s Blue Border™.

What began as an evaluation quickly became validation. The team concluded that Venn was “significantly better than what we have today,” allowing IT and security leaders to shift focus away from access challenges and back to supporting core aviation operations.

Ready to see Blue Border for yourself? Book a demo HERE.