As a business owner, you know that the difference between successful and unsuccessful days often comes down to make-it-or-break-it moments. We like to think that with enough meetings, planning, presentations and brainstorming everything will go smoothly. But no matter how hard we try, that’s almost never the case.
For most businesses, issues small and large arise faster than you feel you can solve them. It’s in these exact moments that remote access can swoop in and save the day.
For many remote workers and organizations, there can be concerns about the safety of remote access and how does remote access software work? Simply put, remote access is a way to connect to other devices, networks, or platforms that are in different locations, so that work can be done effectively and efficiently. This can be done using several different software and hardware tools, or with consolidated solutions that are compatible with multiple platforms and devices. The following sections outline the advantages of remote access:
1. Successful Troubleshooting from Remote Locations
One of the advantages of secure remote access is the ability to troubleshoot from across the world, or just across a desk. Help desk technicians can field calls from users and quickly identify problems thanks to remote desktop tools that give them access to a user’s device. With remote access, everyone saves time in troubleshooting, and the organization will cut down on travel costs. What may have taken a technician a day or more to do with travel, can potentially be done in a matter of minutes. This ensures that production can continue with little delay.
Resolving issues quickly and efficiently is not only important for the organization’s workflow and productivity but may be required by service level agreements (SLAs). Having a reliable, comprehensive remote access solution will help organizations and their vendors to maintain those agreements and ongoing partnerships.
2. Streamline Remote Work for Employees
No matter what size organization you have, remote work is more common than ever. And with the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more businesses are having to rethink the way they operate. With remote access, employees can safely work from any device, platform, or network at their home office or abroad. Remote desktop functions allow them to remotely access important files and share their screen for meetings and troubleshooting.
3. Remote Access Makes Collaboration Easy
Whether you have clients on the other side of the country, or you simply need to communicate with a colleague across town, remote access gives you the tools to do so quickly and securely.
A few features of remote collaboration include video conferencing, chat functions, shared word processing, and file sharing. While all of these functions also may happen in an office, ensuring these capabilities can safely continue when working remotely is important and can make those work-from-home days far more productive.
4. Logs of All Activity Promote Network Security
An important feature of remote access software is the ability to log all activity occurring in a network. From video sessions to individual user authentication, these logs provide details about who is accessing your network, when, how, and what they’re doing there. They also provide logging that is necessary for auditing, which is common practice, especially for organizations that need to remain compliant with regulatory guidelines.
The State of Remote Business
The reality for today’s global economy is that organizations are having to manage in-office work and remote work simultaneously. Many organizations have created work-from-home (WFH) policies that establish workflows and processes for employees to effectively conduct business no matter where they’re at–but remote work extends far beyond just a single employee working from a home office.
Global Organizations are Moving Towards Remote Access to Improve Efficiencies
A global example of remote work looks a little different. Consider an organization that has a server running a production line in Asia, but another office in Miami. If a crucial process running on the server suddenly fails, it threatens to halt all production in that location. Without remote access, a local technician would have to troubleshoot the issue in-person. As a global operation, though, there may not be technicians available at every site. This leads to costly trips and reduced productivity during the time it takes to resolve the issue.
Rise in Mobile Devices Necessitates Remote Access
In addition to computers and laptops, more organizations are seeing the use of phones and tablets, potentially complicating remote access if not properly attended to. Finding remote access solutions that work across different types of devices is crucial for keeping business moving, especially in retail environments. Even technicians can work from mobile devices by logging into a secure remote network to troubleshoot.
More Businesses Are Relying on Vendors
For organizations to operate efficiently, they often use the help of vendors who offer services, hardware, software, and other products that support operations. Naturally, these vendors require some level of access to certain parts of an organization’s network–but how can they do that securely, and what if a problem arises?
Remote access allows vendors to safely access devices and networks within an organization’s ecosystem to conduct maintenance on retail PoS devices. Instead of giving them access to the entire network–presenting potential security threats–remote access gives the organization control over when, where, and just how much access each vendor can get. It also eliminates the need for a vendor to travel to a specific location to make the fixes, saving everyone time and money.
Impero Connect: One Remote Access Tool That Does It All
As organizations make the shift towards efficient remote work, it’s important to look for a few specific functions that will up-level security even more. The more remote workers, the more attack surface there is for bad actors. The following four features of Impero Connect provide organizations with the most comprehensive, secure remote access:
Centralized Authentication for Proper Access
An advantage of remote access that offers superior security is one that integrates with other directory services and authentication providers like LDAP, AD, ADFS, Azure, and more. Having a central hub for authentication and services decreases the attack surface that malicious actors may try to access.
By centralizing security controls for endpoints, the entire network is protected. This makes management for an organization’s IT department much simpler and efficient.
Whitelisting Applications Give You Control
In cybersecurity, there is blacklisting and whitelisting. While blacklisting can be effective, it’s important that secure remote access solutions offer whitelisting too. Whitelisted applications allow users to access a remote device by only using the applications specified by the administrator.
Video Logging Captures All Sessions
Text-based logs can be helpful, but there are aspects of a screen sharing session they don’t capture. Video logging is a major advantage of remote access where every aspect of the session is recorded, which can help identify network issues, potential vulnerabilities, compliance violations, and where breaches may have occurred.
Closed User Groups Recognize Approved Users
Using a security token that’s built into the license record of all clients, remote access software can identify which users and devices are an approved part of the community. User group licenses can be issued to clients, but no one else can access the network simply because they have the same software.
At Impero, we’ve been building industry-leading remote access solutions for more than two decades. We are committed to offering each organization one solution that is compliant and thorough, giving granular control over all aspects of network management. With superior control from a centralized location, organizations can rest easier knowing that they chose the right remote support to protect them and their stakeholders from cybersecurity threats.
If you’ve been wondering what is remote access software, now is the time to find out. Try Impero Connect’s free trial today.