On that first morning of shelter-in-place orders when remote work went from a nice perk to necessary for survival, one piece of technology dominated IT support tickets across the world.
Businesses found out the hard way that virtual private networks (VPN) were clunky technology, not built for what 2020 would throw at them. Employees that had never worked from home before spent most of the morning configuring their VPN client, while the veteran remote workers and road warriors became frustrated at the speed (or lack thereof) of the network.
VPNs that perhaps had a dozen workers using them now had hundreds or thousands. And, like any pipe, there’s only so much space for things to flow through it. Even well-known IT companies had to start rationing access to their VPNs and IP addresses in their scramble for now-precious resources.
Fast forward a bit, and you can see CFOs receiving the bill for all the upgrades IT needed to get remote work off the ground, including more licenses and bandwidth for their VPN. That technology has never been cheap — and it only becomes more expensive the more you use it. In this uncertain business climate, operating costs are going up for virtually everyone around the world.
But what’s the alternative?
Remote access through TeamViewer provides significant advantages to VPN technology that have always been available, but now turns out to be ideal — and practically purpose-built — for the unprecedented experiences of 2020 and beyond.
Performance concerns evaporate
In its simplest form, a VPN is a tunnel with only so much capacity. It’s designed to get data from one device to a secure environment and back. When there were only a few employees using it and they were not doing anything data-intensive, this was fine. But now, everyone in the company is using that same tunnel, including your engineers, designers, and other workers who rely on the performance of their computers.
When using TeamViewer for remote access, employees can leverage the processing power from the remote office workstation. The only data being transferred are the image changes on the screen. Employees have access to their usual robust workstations and network resources, while not having to transfer large amounts of data back and forth. This allows remote work to be accomplished quickly, smoothly, reliably, and securely.
No security trade-offs
Companies often invest in VPNs because of security concerns. (After all, the “P” stands for “private.”) Thinking about the security of your data is valid. Thinking you’re trading security for convenience with TeamViewer is not.
First, any data stays on the office machine behind your company’s firewall. The client machine is only receiving the image changes on their screen.
Second, TeamViewer’s industry-grade 256-bit end-to-end session encryption makes sure your remote connections stay private and protected. Because access is only gained through the proper credentials and a variety of additional security measures like maximum login attempts and two-factor authentication, even if a worker’s laptop is lost or stolen, an unauthorized user can’t gain access to your network.
Third, TeamViewer’s black screen functionality means the remote screen stays inactive during a session. No one near the computer can see what is being worked on remotely or take over an active session.
And you maintain compliance with security regulations.
For example, hospitals have thousands of employees on the front lines and even more working from home. IT staff can support frontline staff remotely without adding to the risk. Off-site medical personnel can remotely collaborate on cases and provide telehealth services to patients while remaining HIPAA compliant.
Saving time and money
As help desks around the world have discovered, installing and implementing a VPN solution on client machines can be cumbersome and frustrating — even more so when you realize that each of those installations comes with a separate cost.
Because of its unique cloud architecture, TeamViewer can be rolled out to 25 or 25,000 machines in a matter of hours, not days. Plus, there are no additional costs per installation to have TeamViewer on your employees’ computers.
On average, customers can cut their VPN costs by approximately one-third when they switch to TeamViewer for remote access.
Not only can employees use TeamViewer to access their office computers, but your IT staff can use it to help remotely support your workers, many of whom may be unfamiliar with the challenges of remote work.
Pandemic or not, remote work is part of the “new normal.” And companies can stay prepared for anything ahead with remote access that enables them to support their remote workforce, while keeping their businesses running smoothly in any business climate.
What’s your organization doing to stay prepared for anything ahead?
