Technology

At GranitePillar we hear a lot of questions—how do users interact, what does the content look like, how many virtual machines do I need— but the one we hear more than any other is the simplest—"How can your technology meet my needs?" In all the years we've been delivering online training we've been exposed to most of the questions and most of the use cases experienced by the industry. In this section, we'll try to answer some of the commonest questions and explain how our technology can help you meet your business needs.

THE CONSOLE

To provide the most scalable and manageable system we can, we use the Microsoft® .NET framework. This allows us to extend, support, and adapt our offering to meet your specific needs and accommodate your unique brand identity.

The graphic to the right is our GranitePillar console. The default console can be modified to use your logos and color scheme, so that your online offerings match your corporate image and existing training materials. The area surrounding the desktop image is all modularized and can be moved or changed to accommodate your unique needs.

CONNECTING USERS

Within the GranitePillar console, users access session virtual machines, lab resources, content, support materials, rich media, and almost anything that can be displayed in a browser. Because Internet Explorer is used as the main window, we enjoy the same flexibility as a webpage, even supporting rich media formats such as Flash.

When users connect to our system, we provide them with an isolated environment that's uniquely theirs—a configured sandbox, if you like. This provides our users with great flexibility in a safe and manageable environment. In this way, we can reset a single student instance and provide custom support. Any changes that a user makes are visible only to that user. The diagram below shows how several users can be connected to a single master virtual machine while remaining in a private "instance" of that machine.

Whatever users do within their user session is unique and isolated to them. This provides security for the overall system, and ensures a predictable, isolated environment for the user to work in. With administrative tools, we're able to share connections for tutorials or support if it's needed, and when the user is done with a session, it can be deleted to make a new session available for the next user.

As you can see, with this connection model, many different users can use the same configured host machine simultaneously, minimizing the amount of work needed to create new demos or labs for the market, and reducing the number of host machines required.

ADMINISTRATION

With our Verlay administration site, you can generate reports and session data for your content. With our easy-to-use online tools, you can see which virtual machine images are being used, and even interact with your users in real-time. The administration site can be as robust as needed, from full session management such as loading new content and materials or changing site wording to something much more simple, such as reporting access only.

When all the pieces come together, you have an extendable virtual machine management tool that can provide a cost effective method to support customers, students, testers, or a sales team. Launch a session now to see it in action.