Remote Access Technology

It’s easy to wax eloquently about the changes technology has brought about in the past 30 years.

A top contender for the one that’s had the greatest impact is remote access. It has given people the ability to work any place, any time.

Its influence is far greater than simple increases in productivity, which are quite substantial.  Other areas have benefited immensely from remote access, including the delivery of education and training, access to a greater pool of workers, the integration of smart phones into the workplace –  even something as fundamental as time management.

In fact, I would posit that because remote access makes it easier to navigate our lives, it makes us happier.  And what’s more important than happiness?

Chapter 9 of Roman Kepczyk’s Quantum of Paperless addresses remote access technology.  Here are some excerpts:

Desktop users in small firms get by with tools such as GoToMyPC, LogMeIn and others.  But laptop users or personnel working outside the office need a more robust solution. If the firm has ten or more personnel who want to work concurrently from external sites, it becomes more cost effective to utilize remote access server solutions such as Citrix, Windows Terminal Server or cloud-based applications.

Remote workstations are set up at “dumb” terminals that only display screens and send keystrokes.  The advantage to this technology is that once the remote user has gone through security screens to access the system, all work is done within the firm’s secured network, thus minimizing the risk of compromising data.  Today, a single remote access server can effectively handle approximately 18 concurrent connections; additional servers can be easily added.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is another option. This technology extends the network connection from the main office to the remote site via the Internet while securely encrypting all communications.

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For 31 other solutions to improving your firm’s productivity, Quantum of Paperless   is a must-read.