Remote Desktop Access: Working Through Distant Mode

Today’s corporate environment besides being technologically enabled is a multicultural and multilingual one, spread across geographical boundaries. Though this enhances business productivity and corporate revenues, it also brings in a set of challenges. Business continuity in case of any disruptions, be it man made or environmental, in any of the locations world wide, is one of the challenges faced by these global organizations.

In order to mitigate the effects of such business disruptions and boost productivity, employees need access to their workstations and desktops from remote locations or from home. Technological innovations have paved for an appliance-based remote desktop access product, which leverages scalable technologies to enable users, a secure access to their office desktops.

This enterprise class solution for a secure remote access can also be used from any high-end hand held devices. This energy-efficient remote access solution allows users from far flung locations to remotely turn on to their office desktops when needed. This, when calculated annually, results in showcasing how any small and medium sized enterprises would be saving an average annual amount of $165,000 in energy costs besides contributing to the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

The remote access technology also ensures that the data never leaves the network, thus eliminating the risk of data leakage. The users from remote locations gets access to the full applications loaded on their desktops, thus ensuring maximum productivity. This remote desktop access solution runs with the help of a universal access controller series of high-speed hardware appliances. These appliances are SSL VPN encrypted and also features a built-in active clustering which accounts for its unmatched performance and scalability.

Further, with connectivity through low bandwidth, the remote desktop access solution has the capacity to work over high latency links making it easy for the mobile workforce and their Internet based communications. Thus ensuring business continuity come what may.

Other Links
Secure Access
Data Center Modernization

Secure Remote Working Made Easy with SSL VPN

Remote working is becoming a key factor for business, driving corporate success and resulting in reduced costs and increased employee productivity. Although there are a number of employees who would like the option and the flexibility of working from home, one of the main concerns that companies have with remote working is the security risk of employees accessing the company's network from home. The answer to such concerns is the Virtual Private Network or VPNs. They provide remote workers with secure access to enterprise resources via the Internet by encrypting all communications between company networks and remote user machines.

 

Prior to SSL VPN, remote access characteristically required administrators to install, configure, and maintain special software on the users' computers. And as VPNs were expensive and complicated to operate, remote access was customarily only offered to a few corporate employees. With the SSL VPN technology, all the drawbacks and concerns of remote access were eliminated and essentially any computer with a Web browser can be used for remote access.

 

Understanding how SSL VPN simplifies Remote Access? Remote desktop access to the network is possible from any location, not just from dedicated laptops or remote VPN sites. Companies can easily setup secure Extranets for business partners and customers and SSL VPNs provide fine-grained application level filtering, that permits easier usage and deployment. There is no necessity for remote users to remember the names or IP addresses of machines on the corporate network to access corporate servers and applications, as all resources are made available to remote users in form of bookmarks, favorites or web links.

 

The best security with SSL VPN applications SSL VPN appliances provide maximum security and control with unmatched safeguards for taking care of business-critical information. As all the data is encrypted over the Internet using SSL, the end-point security agent authenticates requests are based on user and device identity and the administrator's comfort level for a given device or access environment. Integrated compression, connection pooling and hardware-accelerated encryption, there is fast performance for each user, even under the heaviest load.

 

It is no doubt that SSL VPNs are evolving to meet the industry's requirements. Although they started as a dedicated VPN solution, they have become integrated with other network and security services. SSL VPN has taken its stance as the leading remote access mechanism for many organizations by permitting clientless access to web applications. VPN is the best way of extending physical boundaries of the corporate network when taking security measures.

Other Links

Site-to-Site VPN

Desktop Delivery

Firm Actions for Strengthening Business Performances

Improved performance of applications, reduced costs and stringent security controls have unquestionably become the salient requisites in an IT environment. Today businesses are seeking opportunities for reliable and structured network management processes so that efficiency is enhanced and expenses are reduced. Each day innovative models are being introduced to maintain business continuity irrespective of any precarious situation or natural calamity. Thus the concept of mobile workforce is gaining momentum as more businesses are modifying their standard policies for accelerated business continuity.

However these innovative modifications involve challenges and risks too. The encouragement shown in adoption of these mobile practices also entails providing remote access to business applications and desktops to the employees and users. To ensure that the employees are being provided remote access businesses have to employ virtualization solutions where on-demand access to applications is provided to the users on the cloud. Virtualization can definitely help in keeping a check on the excessive costs. Its integrating capabilities enable the business to make changes promptly as per the latest requirements.

Remote accessibility also attracts unknown entities that are forbidden but use force to enter and maliciously attack the sensitive and confidential business information stored in the IT systems. Thus it becomes necessary to implement a safe and fast acting SSL VPN solution that provides applications securely to only authorized users on the cloud using any device. The solution deploys processes for maximizing the resources available, and enhancing the performance of the applications with an enriching server load balancer.

The server load balancer provides 99.99% application uptime and unmatched data center scalability. It ensures uninterrupted delivery of critical business applications and IP services. It increases the efficiency and ROI by offloading the web and application servers. It optimizes configurations and helps in their deployment without wasting time. It fosters integration and leverages intelligent data center virtualization management and controls with excellent processes for resource allocation and reallocation.

Security breaches are rampant causing massive and irreplaceable losses to businesses. Every IT organization has to ensure a robust and competent security architecture with centralized management controls that provides powerful and supportive encryption, and prevention methods along with real-time information. The SSL VPN solution adamantly restricts all access requests that fail the SSL authorization metrics. Leveraged performance, improved business agility and a streamlined management process is what helps maintain the business continuity and the SSL VPN solution is a powerful tool that delivers precise results.

Other Links

Site-to-Site VPN

Cloud Service Delivery 

Business Continuity to Ensure Productivity At All Times

Unexpected business disruptions have potential to prevent employees from getting to work. The disruptions can range from public health issues, transit strikes, or cyber-attacks and can result in losses to productivity and revenue. With Business Continuity Planning, or BCP , it becomes easier to deal with such disruptions. Companies find themselves using up pointless cycles and resources to maintain rudimentary business continuity without a BCP implementation that automatically, securely, and cost-effectively accommodates surges in usage. A business continuity plan facilitates vital services or products to be continually delivered to clients. As an alternative of concentrating on recommencing a business after critical operations have ceased, a business continuity plan ensures that critical operations continue to be available at all times.

The importance of a Business Continuity Plan

Business Continuity Planning is a proactive planning process that ensures critical services or products are delivered during a disruption. A Business Continuity Plan includes plans, measures and arrangements to ensure the continuous delivery of critical services and products, which permits the organization to recover its facility, data and assets. It also includes the identification of required resources to support business continuity, including personnel, information, equipment, financial allocations, legal counsel, infrastructure protection and accommodations. Having a BCP enhances an organization’s image with employees, shareholders and customers by demonstrating a proactive attitude. Additional benefits include improvement in overall organizational efficiency and identifying the relationship of assets and human and financial resources to critical services and deliverables.

Making the most of the benefits to ensure productivity at all times

Business continuity support can provide specific expertise and services that ensure a company’s capability to cost-effectively maintain operations despite a crisis. Every organization needs to ascertain the appropriate types and service levels it requires. And once the necessary types of support have been selected, the business continuity solution can present considerable benefits. Some of the benefits include,

1. Business critical resources can be accessed by any employee anytime, anywhere.

2. The IT department will not be saddled with additional equipment costs just to enable users.

3. BCP ensures remote access gateway, with performance consistency for entire workforce on a single platform.

4. There is no need for any intervention from IT during an emergency. The business continuity plan will ensure that there is no dependency on a single person or process.

With a good BCP, there is no disruption of business in the event of an emergency, for both SSL VPN users and remote desktop access as well. Creating and maintaining a BCP helps ensure that an institution has the resources and information that needed to deal with any emergencies.

Other Links

Cloud Computing

Remote Access Solutions for a Well Established and Assured Future in Business

The modes of operating a business are undergoing sea changes with the help of technology. The internet has helped in the creation of virtual business environments for uninterrupted remote access controls. As the world is discovering more innovative technological breakthroughs conducting a business through web enabled devices and remote devices have become the most sought after option. This option has created good opportunities for the home workers and mobile employees to carry on their work through secure remote access solutions and leveraged new earning potentials for businesses.

The remote access option boosts business productivity as it helps the users access the business applications securely on any remote device. A high level of visibility is provided that helps in controlling the processes efficiently. The remote access solutions are cost-efficient and easy to deploy as well as manage thus dispelling all concerns related to application availability. The IT administrators have a choice of registering desktops manually or through dynamic self-registration by the users, and these processes are deployed quickly.

Businesses are guaranteed optimum performances and high availability due to the use of hardware appliances that belong to the Universal Access Controller category known for its high-speed hardware SSL encryption and built-in active clustering. The appliances provide clientless web based access for easy use and deployment, effective authentication and authorization procedures as well as auditing of accessed applications and resources that are identity based.

It provides businesses with a sturdy and reliable architecture with highly integrated capabilities and enforcement of stringent authentication measures to ensure a secured environment. The solutions encourage compatibility amongst the devices and applications and ensure secured end-point controls. Due to the increasing popularity of new web browsers and remote access devices the secure remote access solutions can easily handle any number of client platforms without affecting the applications’ performance thus ensuring high quality and consistent user experience. The remote access solution is an energy saving solution that helps businesses to reduce their costs and cause less detrimental effects on the environment.

Molding a business according to the changing dynamics of the business environment is essential and very challenging. Thus businesses have to implement solutions that can help attain exceptional scores in scalability, flexibility and availability so that productivity is enhanced leading to better performances and higher customer satisfaction levels. Remote access solutions have provided a platform with seamless integration and collaboration capabilities, and commendable security parameters for enhanced business continuity and prosperous returns.

Other Links

Cloud computing 

SSL Accelerators

Intelligent Load Balancing For Enhancing Network Efficiency in SMBs

In SMBs and distributed enterprise organizations, the need for greater bandwidth and reliable access is very important. While dependable internet connectivity has become imperative, it is load balancing that helps in achieving a greater bandwidth.WAN intelligence eliminates downtime and improves bandwidth efficiency in SMBs and distributed enterprises that need a worry trouble-free network.

An intelligent and effective load balancing solution

The significant components of an effective load balancing solution has to include a virus resistant real time O.S. and efficient software modules that reacts to a failed Internet connection, provide WAN bonding using adaptive load balancing algorithms, and dynamically manage bandwidth tasks. Once configured, the WAN management activities of the intelligent load balancer should be transparent to the end user’s experience. The result is an Internet infrastructure investment that quickly pays for itself through improved customer relationships and the allocation of bandwidth to support prioritizing of internal data communications.

The need for load balancing in SMBs

A number of SMBs and distributed enterprises are adapting intelligent load balancers to their networks in order to improve business productivity and decrease the risk of Internet service disruptions. With an innovative WAN solution, any congestion encountered during peak demands are managed efficiently and a single point of failure for Internet service is eliminated. The real efficiency experienced when implementing intelligent load balancing. It comes from the ability to combine the right service link mix to meet the demands projected by the business continuity, especially for SMBs where cost is a cost concern. A business may find their peak demands requiring only the incremental addition of bandwidth instead of adding a second leased line.

As the difference in cost between adding a standard T3 and a 1.5Mbps ADSL line can be considerable in SMBs, with the intelligent load balancer, there can be further business harvest the benefits of bandwidth management to increase productivity. This is particularly when the multiple WAN connections are aggregated. By facilitating network administrators to set the priority and amount of bandwidth for different user groups and for specific applications including FTP, Instant Messaging, and http, this can be achieved.

An intelligent load balancer needs to be a part of the Internet infrastructure for businesses that rely on their web based services as a critical component.

Other Links

SSL VPN

Cloud Computing

 

Choosing the Right SSL VPN Solution

SSL is gaining popularity as a remote access tool with the remote connectivity being crucial for the productivity of the enterprise. Many client side issues associated with remote access can be eliminated with SSL VPNs as a technology.  With an easy migration, SSL VPNs also offer a more cost-effective, easier to deploy remote access solution than IPSec. Its blend of flexibility and function makes it extremely competitive. There is a wide rage of solutions available in today’s growing SSL VPN market, and it is therefore necessary to consider many factors before making a choice to purchase the best SSL VPN product.  

Security and user experience are the two aspects that SSL VPNs have to be evaluated against. A successful deployment of a secured solution can be achieved only by taking into consideration security and user experience. As a SSL VPN needs to serve the organization’s long term needs, it has to integrate with the network architecture seamlessly and also provide powerful management tools.    

Security   
As SSL itself does not make a VPN, encryption is not enough to provide the security required for today’s applications. An ideal SSL VPN solution needs to have a combination of different levels of protection like SSL VPN Firewall, Hardened OS, Network Gapping, Client Side Security, AAA, Reducing Network Exposure (Various Access Modes), Application Level Filtering, Virtualization and Network Separation. It is also important that an SSL VPN appliance provide client side security facilities as it allows anywhere and anytime access. This introduces the risk of unsecured devices getting into secured network locations. It is necessary for a user to securely download any required content during a session knowing that this content will be wiped automatically when the session is terminated.   

User experience   
There are a number of factors that determine the end user experience like performance, user interface customization, and high availability. An important component in a good user experience is the overall user interface, which is also greatly significant for user productivity. Any access solution with a poor user interface, be it a design or lack of custom business logic integration, adversely affect the productivity of its users. As the different options can create confusion for end users, it becomes crucial that the use of these different modes to be intuitive and have minimal user interaction as possible. A consistent experience with minimum downtime can ensure the best user experience.    

With an understanding of today’s and future needs, as well as careful evaluation of the capabilities of the different devices under consideration, a proper selection of a SSL VPN device can be made. It is therefore important learn more about the existing SSL VPN solution and be updated about the future developments. This is the best way to make an informed decision regarding your company’s secure remote access requirements.   

Other Links

Load Balancing

SSL Acceleration

How to Ensure a Successful Cloud application Deployment

Network performance is said to be the key to application performance for many cloud services deployments. And this is because every business service accessed over cloud infrastructure is by definition a remote, network-dependent service. With proper cloud assembly there can be smooth deployment of core business applications.

Deploying a proven set of cloud core services like include storage management controls, hypervisors, security policies and security software including firewalls, disaster recovery and governance, and database administration and replication services etc., are imperative when building out the cloud computing infrastructure. Cloud service delivery should be consistent, reliable and most importantly fast in delivering those on-demand services that their customers desperately need.

The following are significant cloud infrastructure and application deployment characteristics essential to ensure a successful cloud application deployment

* Focus on Application Delivery

The primary focus needs to be on application delivery controller rather than the cloud infrastructure. As good business outcomes are built on these core applications smooth running applications are the driving force behind cloud systems. To make this happen, it is necessary for systems resources like computing, storage, network and application resources to get the same considerations

* Application Performance is of Prime Importance

The efficiency in your cloud environment does not stand a chance without true automation. There is no chance at efficiency in your cloud environment. Customer focus and communication needs to be on applications and not on server performance. It is therefore necessary to be direct and speak about application performance, app availability, and app scalability within the capacity plan. This way the deployment can be made both rapidly and reliably.

* Install consistent version control software

For the configuration of your infrastructure, complete visibility is necessary. Without it there is the possibility of repeating deployment and version mistakes. Ensuring compliance when it is not known which version of which application was installed can be difficult. It is therefore good to maintain a complete history of all of the systems and applications. With a centralized version control and configuration management, it is possible to manage today and plan for the future with much less stress.

Today’s cloud-based services are business-critical and ensuring their availability is vital and users need the performance of cloud-based services to be at least as good as what their current infrastructure delivers. By conducting a comprehensive baseline assessment of network performance you can ensuring a successful cloud application deployment. Organizations making the move to cloud services can enjoy the many benefits that include lower startup costs, lower total cost of ownership and on-demand scalability.

Other Links

Site-To-Site VPN

Business Continuity VPN

Firm Actions for Strengthening Business Performances

Improved performance of applications, reduced costs and stringent security controls have unquestionably become the salient requisites in an IT environment. Today businesses are seeking opportunities for reliable and structured network management processes so that efficiency is enhanced and expenses are reduced. Each day innovative models are being introduced to maintain business continuity irrespective of any precarious situation or natural calamity. Thus the concept of mobile workforce is gaining momentum as more businesses are modifying their standard policies for accelerated business continuity.

However these innovative modifications involve challenges and risks too. The encouragement shown in adoption of these mobile practices also entails providing remote access to business applications and desktops to the employees and users. To ensure that the employees are being provided remote access businesses have to employ virtualization solutions where on-demand access to applications is provided to the users on the cloud. Virtualization can definitely help in keeping a check on the excessive costs. Its integrating capabilities enable the business to make changes promptly as per the latest requirements.

Remote accessibility also attracts unknown entities that are forbidden but use force to enter and maliciously attack the sensitive and confidential business information stored in the IT systems. Thus it becomes necessary to implement a safe and fast acting SSL VPN solution that provides applications securely to only authorized users on the cloud using any device. The solution deploys processes for maximizing the resources available, and enhancing the performance of the applications with an enriching server load balancer.

The server load balancer provides 99.99% application uptime and unmatched data center scalability. It ensures uninterrupted delivery of critical business applications and IP services. It increases the efficiency and ROI by offloading the web and application servers. It optimizes configurations and helps in their deployment without wasting time. It fosters integration and leverages intelligent data center virtualization management and controls with excellent processes for resource allocation and reallocation.

Security breaches are rampant causing massive and irreplaceable losses to businesses. Every IT organization has to ensure a robust and competent security architecture with centralized management controls that provides powerful and supportive encryption, and prevention methods along with real-time information. The SSL VPN solution adamantly restricts all access requests that fail the SSL authorization metrics. Leveraged performance, improved business agility and a streamlined management process is what helps maintain the business continuity and the SSL VPN solution is a powerful tool that delivers precise results.

Other Links

Link Load Balancer 

Application delivery controller

Benefits of Link load Balancing Made Simple

Link Load Balancing looks at balancing out the critical resources on data networks with unpredictable requests issued to a server. It is also concerned with communications channels themselves to better distribute processing and communications demands more evenhandedly across the network so that no single a computer is beleaguered by the demand. The main purpose of link load balancing is to have a load-balancing failover between the two links at connection level. Some of the benefits of link load balancing include:

Increase in Reliability
Most networks and organizations prefer to implement link load balancing due to increased reliability. The failure of a network even for a few hours can cost an organization dearly in productivity and business. High uptime reliability can be achieved with link load balancing, and if a problem does occur and one of your providers does fail, switching from one provider to another is automated and immediate. In the event of a WAN link outage, link load balancing can redirect your network traffic to ensure continuous uptime for all parties that depends on your network and servers.

Cut down Costs
There are numerous reasons why an organization can cut down costs with link load balancing. The biggest advantage, however, is that link load balancing works with any type of broadband connection. All that is requited is a simple Ethernet handoff which establishes your WAN link. It is possible to keep non critical, economical broadband connections and more critical application on your more reliable connections, by being able to utilize various forms of inexpensive broadband connections.

Enhance Performance
By using link load balancers your organization can benefit with enhanced performance. The network can balance your incoming requests across your multiple WAN links, in most cases. This is can be achieved with an Active DNS module, that easily serves traffic between your broadband connections based on the best path available along with network metrics.

Manage Your Network’s Routing
Networking information routing can be easily managed with link load balancing. Most link load balancing solutions have software that offers advanced routing capabilities. Applications can be routed efficiently, when the organizations determine the critical and non critical applications. It is quite easy to split up your organizations network traffic by importance or application with link load balancing.

Link load balancing is the perfect technology for today’s organizations and can be implemented effectively with almost any network. It brings about an increase in reliability, a reduction in costs and added performance and management.

 

Also read on:

SSL accelerator

Link load balancer