Remote security access has gained significant thrust in every level of organizations, as no. of mobile workers is shooting up rapidly. Remote desktop access in a maximum secured manner has always been a major challenge. This article brings up this new trend and its benefits.
With the recent worldwide swine flu emergency and the general trend toward office employees working remotely – as day extenders, business travelers, or simply when getting into the office is hindered by weather, strikes, or flu outbreaks – it is imperative for enterprises to provide all employees with some form of secure remote access. While using standard VPN solutions is sufficient for mobile employees, extending the same type of access to non-mobile (or “deskbound”) employees is not adequate. Giving these employees access to familiar applications and programs is necessary to maintain their productivity. Additionally, because non-mobile employees require remote access less frequently, an unfamiliar work interface will result in undue support caseloads. Thus, rather than VPN access, non-mobile employees need a different solution than mobile employees. This article discusses the emerging challenges for non-mobile employees to reach remote desktops to avail crucial information, while other side this article unveils its technological solutions also.
Personal desktops provide the most complete, intuitive, secure, and productive work environment—enabling full access to all authorized resources. Until recently, IT administrators have had legitimate security and compliance issues with remote desktop access, due to employees setting up rogue managed service accounts without the knowledge or consent of the IT department. Employees would download a free application which would enable access to their office PCs, creating uncontrolled access paths from the Internet into the corporate network. Further, these solutions require employees to leave their office computers running even after they have left the office for pretty long hours, thereby increasing power consumption costs.
Today, newly available enterprise-class remote desktop access solutions hand over control of these formerly rogue accounts to the IT department. For IT administrators, these solutions leverage the intuitive nature of desktop access, which greatly reduces helpdesk calls. Moreover, this type of desktop access leverages and extends existing security and compliance present on corporate networks and company-owned desktop PCs. One key advantage of these premise-based solutions lies in that they do not force compromises between security, cost, and productivity. The following paragraphs examine each of these areas and associated challenges therein.
Security
While IT managers ordinarily have adequate tools to minimize data leakage within networks, they often lack the capabilities they need to address the same issues for remote access users. Remote employees (day extenders or road warriors) typically have laptops to ensure compliance to corporate policies, in order to access their desktop PCs from a web browser on any computer. Without laptops, employees can run into connectivity issues. However, non-mobile employees typically do not have laptops, and issuing laptops to all employees increases the likelihood of sensitive data loss. In addition, without the right solution, users need to leave office PCs turned on in order to access them remotely, which creates significant security risks, since critical information can easily be obtained directly from unattended desktop PCs after office hours. With the rise of new enterprise-class remote access solutions, enterprises now have the means for providing remote desktop access that also maintains network security. Unlike other services, the information should be completely controlled by the organization, eliminating the need to trust security or risk exposure to outside entities. An ideal remote desktop solution should provides users with secure access by utilizing a combination of host integrity checking and client session clean up. First and foremost, host integrity checking ensures remote devices do not infect corporate desktops or networks.
Moreover, the remote desktop can be launched within a secure virtual desktop to completely eliminate potential data leakage. It not only provides end-point security for remote desktop users, but also eliminates the possibility of unauthorized and unmonitored connections to and from the corporate network.
(See Figure 1)
Cost
If employees need to leave their office PCs on for remote desktop access, there are significant costs involved. According to the PC Energy Report 2007 prepared by the
Alliance to Save Energy and 1E, “a mid-sized company wastes more than $165,000 a year in electricity costs for computers that have been left on overnight. Enterprises need to look for a solution that allows works to turn off their computers when they leave the office. When they are ready to access their desktops, they can turn on the computer remotely.
There are managed services on the market that charge a monthly fee based on user numbers. This can be a good choice for an SMB. However, it should be noted that these licenses are charged for access regardless of whether they actually are used. For larger businesses, cost per user can easily add up quickly. Enterprises should consider the one-time purchase of hardware and an appropriate number of concurrent user licenses.
Some services are able to run on the same VPN platform that already exists in the enterprise network. Appliance-based remote access incorporated in the VPN can eliminate overlapping infrastructure and license costs, which can result in significant savings for the enterprise.
Productivity
Increasing productivity is always on top of an enterprise’s list of concerns. Nowadays, enterprises are not able to afford any business disruption whether due to either natural or human factors. Finding a good remote desktop solution that provides power management boot-up, powered-down desktops, application transparency, and consistently delivers high Quality of Experience is the key. In addition, a solution that requires no user training will ultimately increase productivity since employees can securely and easily access their office desktop PCs from any Web-enabled device, whether they are at airports, hotels, copy centers, partner sites, customer sites, etc.
Another factor to consider is business continuity; should a user’s desktop PC become unavailable during an incident, the ability to switch over to direct network, Web or application access ensures key workers can continue to be productive.
Summary
Looking into 2010, businesses are in a different game with the need to stay competitive being more important than ever. With the growing number of office workers becoming remote users as well, it is important for businesses to provide an easy solution that meets remote desktop access needs. Because businesses are looking to maximize employee productivity by enabling employees to work from any location, anytime; implementing a secure and cost-effective secure remote desktop solution is a MUST for every business.
—By: Sunil Cherian, VP of Product Marketing, Array Networks |
