The hidden cost of legacy access
To let remote workers, contractors and BYOD staff reach internal and SaaS apps safely, many organizations run some combination of legacy VDI (virtual desktops), VPN appliances, and device management (MDM). These were designed for a desktop-app era. For browser-based work they're expensive to license, slow for users, heavy to operate, and frustrating on personal devices.
The irony: if the work is happening in a browser anyway, you're paying to stream a whole desktop — or tunnel a whole network — just to deliver a few web apps.
The shift: the browser as the access layer
Mira includes built-in zero-trust access (ZTNA). An identity-aware broker connects people to approved apps directly, without a flat VPN tunnel or a virtual desktop image. Access is bound to identity and scoped to least privilege — workers reach only the apps they're allowed to, and everything else fails closed.
- Sign in through your enterprise identity provider — with MFA enforced before access. SAML/OIDC, SCIM provisioning and LDAP/directory integration are supported.
- Least privilege by app, not by network. No lateral movement across a flat tunnel.
- SASE coexistence. Run alongside an existing enterprise SASE estate, or stand alone.
BYOD without managing the device
The biggest win is on personal and unmanaged devices. Mira is the controlled corporate surface that lives inside the browser, not across the whole machine. Company data stays contained, encrypted with OS-wrapped keys and time-limited, and is wipeable on session end or revoked remotely by an admin — all without enrolling the device in MDM.
- Data containment — downloads, uploads, clipboard, printing and risky sites are governed so data stays in the managed browser.
- Lightweight posture checks — verify OS, patch level and disk encryption at sign-in, without taking over the device.
- Session isolation — the work surface is separated from the rest of the personal device.
Where the savings come from
Replacing legacy access for browser-based work removes several recurring costs at once: per-user VDI licensing and the servers behind it, VPN concentrators and their maintenance, and the overhead of imaging or managing laptops for contractors and seasonal staff. You also reduce onboarding time — a new BPO team can be productive in days, on their own devices, with least-privilege access and full audit.
Because Mira is priced per seat at a fraction of comparable enterprise browsers, the math usually favors consolidation for any workload that's genuinely browser-based.
What stays the same
This isn't "rip out all your security." Mira complements your identity provider, endpoint security, CASB, DLP and SIEM — it's a browser-layer control that plugs into them. For workloads that truly need a full virtual desktop (heavy native apps, specialized drivers), keep VDI for those and move the browser-based majority to Mira.
A sensible first step
Pick one group that's painful and expensive to serve today — remote contractors, a BPO team, or field staff on personal devices. Stand them up in Mira with ZTNA and a tight app allowlist, prove the access and audit, and measure the infrastructure you can retire. Then expand.
Want this applied to your stack? Book a 30-minute walkthrough and we'll show Mira on your real SaaS apps — or see pricing.