Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was a web app. With a laptop, their compliance requirements required hibernation. So the workflow was: - Pre-boot authentication. - Windows sign-in - VPN two-factor sign-in - Web Portal access - Find your thing. Best case, that process took 7-9 minutes, at a customer site using guest wifi or air-card in an office building, with a potentially angry customer. Not fun. The typical user does that 5-10 times a day, and…
From your description it sounds more like process changes were needed rather than hardware. If the sensitive data is all in a web app, you don't really need pre-boot authentication, and could even allow windows to automatically sign in. I'm guessing you exposed your web app to the internet with 2 factor for the iPad, you could have done the same thing for windows clients and eliminated the VPN.
A better alternative in a laptop form factor would be a zero client laptop, but they are very niche devices.
I didn't really go into detail about the full use case, they get other benefits from the overall snappy iPad experience in terms of switching apps, etc.