Remote Working, Smartphones and VPN Solutions

There is a wide range of technical solutions available to support flexible working. The following represent some of the most common solutions for remote access to office IT services.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) is the technology employed to use a public network (usually the Internet) to provide a remote worker with secure access to their company’s internal network. Network traffic from the company is routed over the Internet in a secure ‘tunnel’ wherever the individual is working. The technology basically ‘extends’ the local area network in the organisation out to the remote machine. However it must be remembered that the network connection is now operating at the speed of the slowest link, which is most likely the Internet route between the office and the remote working location. This can be a problem when running certain applications over a VPN where a large amount of data is being transferred over the network.

Remote desktop is a generic term for software that enables a local machine to access and display the output of a server in a different location. Unlike operating with just a VPN, where the application is running on your local machine and accessing only the data in the remote computer, with remote desktop the application is running on the remote server (situated at your office for example) and only the screen/keyboard/mouse data is being transferred between the local and remote machines. It overcomes the problem of running applications that transfer large amounts of data when running, and has the added security advantage that the actual data is still being manipulated and held on the remote system, not on your local machine. Also the local machine does not have to be very powerful or have the required applications installed as the local machine is just a gateway to the remote system.

Smartphones or mobile phones with additional computer enabled features can dramatically increase their productivity by never being out of touch. You can connect to the Internet for email and web access 'on the move', or connect to your office network making it easier for remote workers, or a mobile workforce, to stay in touch with the business.

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