Remote Working

With an increasing number of people choosing to work from home, whether as a lifestyle choice or more for logistical or economical reasons, there is a need for businesses to provide a secure and effective remote working environment.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

A VPN is a secure connection between two points on the Internet.  Once the VPN tunnel has been established, devices at either end of the tunnel can use it as if they were part of the same local network to run applications and access files.

For instance, you can use VPN software on your laptop to connect to the office while you are out and about and use the IT resources at the office as if you were in the office.  However, due to Internet speeds being far slower than local area network speeds - you'll find that accessing data and applications in the office can often be frustratingly slow. 

Sharepoint

Microsoft Sharepoint is a web based system that allows for the sharing of files, calendars and task lists and the creation of team websites.  It can be used both internally and externally on a company's own server or can be supplied as a hosted solution in The Cloud.

Remote Web Workplace (RWW)

RWW is a feature of Microsoft's Small Business Server operating system which allows users to connect to the office network using their web browser.  Through the RWW interface, users can check their email with Outlook Web Access and connect to PCs on the internal network and use their normal desktop.  Connecting to their PC desktop in this way requires that they have a PC in the office that is left switched on and not used by anybody else.

Terminal Services

A server running Terminal Services can support multiple user desktops efficiently and cost-effectively.  As it is only the presentation of data that is transferred between the server and the remote worker, not the data itself, it is a lot faster than VPN solutions.  Terminal Services provides an easy method to deploy software and control settings for remote workers as there is no need to manage remote PCs and laptops - all configuration can be completed on the terminal server itself.  The only configuration required on the remote user's computer is a remote desktop connection - a single icon they click to connect to the server.

Terminal Services is not just a way of allowing remote users access to the company network - it can also be used to simplify management of the internal network.  Without having to worry about PC and laptop configurations, IT resources can be focused on projects that give your business competitive advantage .

Existing users of terminal services may be aware of the difficulties encountered when working with images or PDF files on remote desktops.  Images can take a long time to display properly and PDF documents do not scroll smoothly.  This is a known issue with Microsoft's own remote desktop client software that is built into Windows.  However, with the use of remote desktop accelerator software like Ericom Blaze, the user experience can improve drastically.