Development of a Secure Cloud-Managed Application Deployment Platform with GDPR Compliance

Organizations face significant challenges maintaining third-party application updates on managed Windows devices while ensuring user privacy and data security in compliance with GDPR. Existing solutions often lack integrated security measures, multitenancy support, or scalable application management features, resulting in increased risk and operational inefficiencies.

A mid-sized managed service provider offering cloud-based workplace solutions to enterprise clients, specializing in application deployment and device management.

• Design and develop a cloud-based platform facilitating secure, GDPR-compliant application deployment and management for Windows devices.
• Enable multitenant management allowing Managed Service Providers to oversee multiple clients seamlessly within a single platform.
• Implement user role and access controls, including customer registration, customer management, role management, and tenant auditing features.
• Incorporate centralized connection string storage and secure communication mechanisms leveraging cloud security best practices.
• Develop an Application Store featuring over 950 pre-packaged applications, support for custom app uploads through an intelligent packaging engine, and version control.
• Automate application packaging, upload, and installation processes via integration with device management services such as Microsoft Intune or equivalent.
• Provide functionalities for adding new applications based on customer requests, validating security, and ensuring application legitimacy.
• Ensure scalability and security through cloud services such as Azure Front Door, CDN, and Web Application Firewall (WAF).
• Facilitate user-based application assignment, background app updates, update testing, and historical reporting for installation attempts and failures.

• Customer registration with Azure Active Directory integration.
• Customer invitation and management functionalities.
• Role-based user access control and permissions management.
• Tenant activity auditing and comprehensive logging of user actions.
• Secure storage of connection strings utilizing cloud Key Vault services.
• Application Store featuring search, filter, and subscription management.
• Upload, version control, and secure deployment of custom applications.
• Automated packaging engine for creating deployable app packages.
• Integration with device management solutions for app installation (e.g., Intune).
• Support for application requests, application approval workflows, and security validation.
• Multitenant capable, with seamless switching between organizational tenants.
• User-based application assignment and cross-organization app sets.
• Automated background updates and failure logging.
• Predefined reporting with filtering by date ranges and status.

• Microsoft Azure Active Directory for identity management
• Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) for static content caching
• Azure Front Door service for global load balancing and security
• Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) for protecting against web exploits
• Device management platform such as Microsoft Intune for app deployment
• Client request systems for application upload and approval workflows

• Scalability to support growing customer base and application catalog (targeting 950+ applications and multitenant environments)
• High security standards including GDPR compliance and secure communications with Azure services
• Performance optimization with minimal downtime (aiming for 99.9% uptime)
• Secure privilege management with role-based access controls
• Auditing capabilities for all user actions within tenants
• Reliability and robustness to handle multiple concurrent application deployments and updates

The implementation of this secure, scalable cloud-managed application deployment platform is expected to improve operational efficiency through automation, reduce security vulnerabilities with GDPR-compliance and advanced security measures, and enhance user experience via a streamlined app store and update process. The platform aims to support over 600,000 users and manage a comprehensive catalog of applications, enabling rapid scaling and providing Managed Service Providers with tools for effective multi-client management.