A system architecture for managing a group of heterogeneous workstations that may be widely dispersed geographically. A system according to the present teachings enables users to access remote workstations and run applications on the remote workstations transparently and enables seamless integration of remote desktop sharing and distributing desktops among heterogeneous workstations. The system also provides enforcement of protections among user and workstations, user account management and workstation allocation management. The present architecture is platform independent and enables workstations to be accessed from anywhere using a graphical user interface through the Internet.