Information Technology Consulting & Solutions

You’re probably hearing more and more about home offices and "telecommuting", i.e., accessing company data from home. Ever wonder how this is done? Here’s some information that can help you see how you can take advantage of this for your business.

There are essentially three methods for accessing applications and information remotely. These are remote control, remote connection and intranets. 

Remote control allows you take control of a computer that is in the office. That is, your computer at home, controls the computer at the office. Remote connection allows you to access your company’s information as if your home computer is physically connected to your company’s network. Intranets allow access to company information through your web browser and Internet connection.

Each method has advantages and disadvantages depending on how it’s set up. Let’s take a look at each.

Remote Control

Remote control has the advantage of better responsiveness when you are connecting to your company by telephone line and modem. The disadvantage is that, while you are remotely controlling the computer at the office, no one else can use that computer. This means your company will most likely need one or more computers that are dedicated to remote control access.

Another advantage of remote control is that, should the connection be broken (a common occurrence with modems), the computer at the office will remain in the state it was in at the time the connection is broken. This means you can reconnect and continue to work at the point where the connection was broken with no loss of data.

Remote Connection

Remote connection does not require computers dedicated to remote access. However, to realistically implement this, both the company network and your home computer need to be able to connect with a broadband connection. Popular methods for this are digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable modems.

You need a broadband connection because your computer must request and download information to your computer at your home. That is, if you request a document, the document file must be downloaded from your company’s server, through the connection and finally to your home computer’s memory or drive. When you request a save, the same is true but in the other direction. Even a 56K modem takes a substantial amount of time to transfer this much information.

Generally, it's desirable for the remote computer to have all of the applications needed installed locally.  This way only data needs to be transmitted between the host and remote machines.  However, this will usually mean some additional cost as each remote machine should have its own licensed copy of the software.  

This can also create a bit of a headache when it's time to upgrade applications.  Since the remote computers are not on site, upgrading the software becomes the responsibility of the remote user rather than your IT professionals.  A bit of planning is needed to prevent this from being a problem.

Intranets

Intranets are used to provide information in a much more timely basis. For example, suppose a sales representative inputs sales information into an Intranet site. Once the input is complete, that information is immediately available to the entire organization.

To see the advantage of this, consider the more traditional method. The sales rep generates a document that has the sales information and emails, mails or faxes it to the home office. Here it must be input in the system by a clerk and only then is it available to the organization. The Intranet eliminates the double entry of the information by the clerk, which saves time and eliminates one source of error. It also eliminates the time needed for transmittal and distribution of the information.

Intranets are also handy for disseminating information that would otherwise need to be printed, an employee handbook for example. When a change is needed, rather than making the change and then incurring the cost and time loss of printing hundreds or even thousands of replacement handbooks, it can simply be published on the intranet site and is immediately available to all employees accessing the Intranet site.

Intranets are viable for modem connections because the information is transmitted as an HTML page to the remote computer's Internet browser just like any other web site.  This minimizes the amount of data transfer necessary and increases performance to the extent that modem connections are an adequate option.

Intranets are very easy to upgrade.  Generally, all that needs to be done is an upgrade to the hosting server's intranet site and the change is immediately implemented on all remote computers.  Even if additional components must be installed on the remote computers, this will be done automatically the first time the revised intranet is accessed by the remote user.

The disadvantage of Intranets is that they are generally complex to establish and usually require some degree of custom coding to implement. Take that sales rep’s situation as an example. For the sales rep to be able to enter his sales information, he must have a web page developed on the Intranet that accepts the entry. That page must also know what to do with the data once it’s entered. 

Since all companies generally have a different way of doing business, they must be able to customize these pages to fit their unique business model. This means that a comprehensive Intranet is expensive to implement and is cost effective only if there are a substantial number of remote employees. For smaller companies, today’s Intranets are generally overkill.

Security

Any remote access opens up your company to the possibility of security breaches. Security issues must be taken seriously and should be a primary concern when considering remote access options. The first step towards proper security is a comprehensive password policy. Users have a terrible habit of using easily guessed names or dates for passwords. Your password policies should address this issue and prevent it from taking place. Obviously, passwords should not be told to others and should definitely not be written down.

The second issue is a security breach that occurs after a valid connection is established. Encryption is the solution to this problem. Remote control software now provides sophisticated encryption to help with this and the best way to prevent this with remote connection schemes is to implement virtual private networking (VPN). A VPN connection creates an encrypted "pipe" through which your secure data is transmitted. The two computers on either end of the pipe are the only ones that can read and decrypt the data being transmitted. This prevents others from being able to tap into the pipe and access your confidential information as it is being transmitted.  Security for intranets requires secure socket layer design and user authentication at the entry point.

Remote access is the wave of the future but implementing a remote access scheme is generally beyond the capabilities of most companies’ personnel. This is where some professional help is best utilized. A professional IT consulting firm like Data Systems can help you determine which strategy best fits your needs and can help you to implement that strategy with comprehensive security.

Want more information? Just call us at 405.495.9900 or email us at support@datasystemsokc.com! We’ll be happy to help you.

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