The Leading Edge - Spring 2010 - PKF - 14

technology

network nightmares avoided:
supporting remote and branch office workers
By Andrew rubin, CEO, Cymtec Systems

AS A nETWOrK SECUrITY InCIDEnT gOES, nOT MAnY THIngS COULD BE MOrE SEVErE THAn An InFECTIOn THAT STArTS On OnE MACHInE AnD EnDS Up InFECTIng MOrE MACHInES.

ork doesn’t take place only in the office anymore. Although the main office continues to be used as the primary place of work, many professionals are spending at least part of their working week outside of that main office. As connectivity continues to improve, professionals are finding new places to work and professionals expect to be able to access the information they need, consistently and efficiently. Remote workers hold the network and the IT department to higher standards, and in the process put the network under a more significant strain than ever imagined. The level of access end users demand in today’s corporate environment and the requirements to ensure that access at all times are driving a new standard for the IT department and network infrastructure. In the long term there needs to be an underlying communications infrastructure in place to support this ever-more-distributed workforce. A successful distributed work environment necessitates a dependable network infrastructure, so tasks like network performance, remote troubleshooting and bandwidth management all must be adapted to ensure they continue to operate optimally.

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The “new normal” office environment
For	decades,	organizations	have	based	their	 infrastructure around a network of buildings that house employees, but that is no longer the case. This “new normal” office shift is because of the ability to support remote employees, allowing easier management of workforces from afar. There are several benefits to running a highly distributed	firm.	Both	organizations	and	 employees suffer if the technology put in place to support a remote workforce does not deliver. With the right support and strong connectivity, management tasks do not need to take place within the main office and can instead be done from anywhere. This makes working or providing support outside normal work hours more practical. For IT staff, it allows them to carry out fixes when and from wherever they happen to be. Distributed	organizations	typically	have	three	 main groups of remote workers: those located

in branch offices, those who are mobile and the external partners. Because the groups are disparate and have different needs, the support they need also tends to be wide-ranging. It’s often the network infrastructure and the tools that have been put in place to manage both the network and the end-user resources that determine the efficacy and success of remote workers. This includes how data can be shared between remote workers and the success of the widespread use of mobile devices. When many remote workers must access large amounts of information, it can put a strain on the networks. Such situations can be extremely frustrating to employees who are trying to efficiently conduct business. While most IT staff agree that 10 seconds is too long for any remote worker to wait for an application to respond, there is typically an understanding that moving documents around takes longer with the inclusion of remote offices. External users who understand less about the network are likely to be less understanding when problems crop up. Organizations	that	rely	on	the	Internet	for	both	 internal and external transactions must ensure that acceptable end-user performance is being delivered across the system. Furthermore, it is essential to give workers access to the applications they need. Today, this means software applications and numerous, large data files	running	in	centralized	data	centers.	

Assessing your network’s performance
Several culprits commonly lead to poor performance in remote and branch networks: •	 End-user activity—End-user activity has an impact on network performance, especially in remote locations that have limited IT oversight. With the desire to give end users unfettered access to the Internet, the network and applications, comes tremendous strain on the remote network. Nonessential network activity further aggravates the situation. Driven by policy enforcement, many	organizations	now	realize	that	tighter	 enforcement of end user behavior is a significant step towards getting more bandwidth and network performance out of less.
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 3 • SprIng 2010

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The Leading Edge - Spring 2010 - PKF

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