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Corporate culture has experienced a shift in recent years based around flexibility. Flexible schedules, casual dress codes, and telecommuting scenarios are rapidly replacing the more traditional nine-to-five mindset. This is partly motivated by corporations and economies becoming globalized, and by changed attitudes about work-life balance. Technological innovations have helped drive this transition, particularly in enabling […]
Corporate culture has experienced a shift in recent years based around flexibility. Flexible schedules, casual dress codes, and telecommuting scenarios are rapidly replacing the more traditional nine-to-five mindset. This is partly motivated by corporations and economies becoming globalized, and by changed attitudes about work-life balance. Technological innovations have helped drive this transition, particularly in enabling employees to work remotely on a temporary or even full-time basis.
You probably have heard of VPN (virtual private network) if your job requires travel and the occasional work-at-home day. If you’re not familiar, VPN enables telecommuting employees access to private company networks from remote locations. Through a VPN connection, employees access proprietary tools and information, including the company’s intranet, file servers, and application portals while keeping all data transfers and communications secure. The remote employee has equal access to the internal network as someone sitting in the office.
Conferencing software platforms, such as Cisco’s WebEx, IBM Sametime, and Skype for Business, allow employees in different locations to attend meetings using a mix of voiceover IP and live video feeds. Desktop sharing allows a presenter to display information to attendees open on his or her computer, such as a spreadsheet, presentation, or video. Furthermore, web conferencing provides a quick method to send files to other participants and allows them to send private messages to each other or to the group without interrupting the speaker.
Teams can share and access files from any geographic location using the cloud. Services like Microsoft Office 365 and Box enable employees to collaborate by storing project files in one central space. The project’s administrators can control access to who can view and edit a file, and participants can leave messages about the project or specific files within the user interface. Team members can access the files from any web-enabled device as well as mobile apps designed to integrate with these services.
Though these collaborative platforms are secure and rely on permission-based access, services like Skyhigh Cloud Security Platform add a strong layer of security and regulatory compliance to cloud sharing for especially sensitive material. Cloud security platforms aid in data loss prevention by dispersing data across redundant servers in different geographic locations. If one server goes down, another remote server continues to manage the files in a seamless transition. Cloud security can detect and block access to compromised accounts triggered by unusual changes to a user’s credentials, like geography, IP address, and device type.
Like any in-house employee, those working remotely or traveling need occasional help from their company’s IT helpdesk. Fortunately, remote access software like Apple Remote Desktop and GoToAssist enables an IT administrator to take control of a computer hundreds or thousands of miles away to run diagnostics, upgrades, and software installations.
Never take any of these technologies lightly when it comes to securing your data and communications. Though the makers of these platforms strive to keep their servers and data streams 100 percent safe, nothing is absolute. Take extra precautions where possible so your telecommuting is as protected from outside threats as it is seamless in working with your colleagues.
