Organizations are continuing to adjust to the challenges and hurdles that have been ongoing since the beginning of the global crisis earlier this year. Shifting users from on-premises corporate environments to working remotely and from home brings many challenges from both a management and technical perspective. IT service desks are having to rethink remote support for end-users working from home.
IT professionals can no longer swing by someone’s desk and grab their desktop or pick up a laptop to work on an issue. Due to public health concerns and social distancing, remotely triaging and resolving issues is the new normal, and IT workers have to consider how to install monitoring software remotely. The shift towards working-from-home has spiked the demand for endpoint remote management tools among organizations. Most businesses simply have not been prepared to face a sudden mass transition to remote operations and social distancing. However, the benefits of utilizing cloud-based remote monitoring and management tools have been known for as long as remote work has been practiced.
Benefits of Cloud-Based Remote Management and Support Solution
Meanwhile, the IT helpdesk worked around the issues by using free or paid tools for accessing remote desktops; now IT teams have to approach the question of remote management from an efficiency standpoint — what tools are needed and what vendor can offer all necessary functionalities within one platform and preferably for a fair price. Optimizing costs is as critical during the disturbing economic climate as ever. That is why cloud-based platforms are the most favorable for organizations of any size.
The cloud-native approach is a go-to solution for both internal IT teams and MSPs. It eliminates the need to maintain on-premise infrastructures, which is particularly advantageous for organizations with offices in multiple geographical locations. Companies stepping away from the legacy IT maintenance to the cloud will benefit greatly from:
- Cost reduction — cloud-based technology does not require servers, physical space, hardware investments, software licenses, and it minimizes IT resources required to handle the maintenance and operations workload;
- Security and reliability — keeping track and management of hardware and software assets is simple with cloud-based platforms allowing for automated patching, updates and vulnerability alerts;
- Increased productivity — automation of IT maintenance allows the helpdesk staff to administer a bigger load of essential tasks;
- Reduced downtime— cloud-based RMM platforms allow to scheduling maintenance works, gain unattended access desktops, and optimize bandwidth utilization to handle endpoint support without interrupting employees’ productivity;
- Scalability — whether the company is subject to seasonal changes of exponential growth, the cloud-based solution can adjust according to the organization’s need to accommodate the number of employees working for the business.
Cloud-based RMM solutions for IT management offering built-in feature of remote desktop access are the must-haves of any business with an internal IT infrastructure. It serves well to any organization interested in maintaining endpoint security, increasing teams’ productivity, and reducing costs radically. When it comes to the technical support of remote employees and the corporate endpoints, Action1, a cloud-based endpoint security solution platform, offers by far the most cost-effective solution that includes secure remote desktop access and assistance feature that allows the IT helpdesk to increase their efficiency and productivity tenfold.
The Action1 platform empowers an organization’s IT departments to have the tools required to support the distributed workforce. Being cloud-based, Action1 is not bound by the challenges and other restraints of traditional and legacy support infrastructure and tooling that have been used on-premises for decades.
As organizations cater to the new requirements and concerns that will linger post-pandemic, we are likely to see a paradigm shift in the carrying out of business operations. Adjusting to a mainly remote workforce requires organizations to leverage tools that no longer depend on a corporate office or network. Action1 allows organizations to leverage cloud technologies effectively, which helps break through the limitations of on-premises environments.
In case of Action1 platform, the remote access boasts many excellent capabilities and benefits for IT support teams supporting remote employees:
- No need for VPN connections — VPN is a legacy, cumbersome, and insecure way to connect end-users to the corporate network;
- Remote machines use one outbound TCP connection to the Action1 cloud — Action1 uses its proprietary protocol for communication between the endpoint and the Action1 cloud;
- Communication with Action1 is fully secured with TLS-based 2048-bit RSA private key encryption;
- Unattended remote management and remote assistance — Even if the user is not logged in, Action1 will show the standard system logon prompt allowing system admins to login to PCs and perform the necessary remote management tasks;
- Screen sharing and keyboard/mouse control — If the remote user is logged in, Action1 will prompt to accept the remote assistance request and then begin a screen sharing session with keyboard and mouse control;
- Action1 charges no additional subscription cost for the free remote desktop access feature.
Importance of Security and Usability of Remote Access Management Tools
Two crucially important aspects of any solution leveraged now with the highly distributed workforce are ease of use and security. With workers spread across various locations, networks, and different experience levels with technology, any solution used to interact with end-users must be easy to use.
With the Action1 remote access and support capability, there are no plugins or software components for the end-user to install as the functionality is offered as part of the default capabilities of the Action1 agent. Additionally, no network ports need to be opened for inbound communication from the Action1 cloud. All communication is outbound. This eliminates any need to troubleshoot or configure specialized exceptions across the wide range of various end-user home networks and allows making use of public Wi-Fi. From a security standpoint, Action1 uses a secure TLS-based protocol with an organization-specific private key and signing certificates to provide end-to-end encryption and authentication for all remote access connections. This fully protects computers from unauthorized access and ensures all sensitive data is safe during remote support sessions.
Wrapping Up
Leveraging cloud-based IT management, support, and security solutions help ensure that no matter how heavily a distributed workforce is used, your organization’s IT department has the tools and solutions needed to support and manage remote end-users effectively. As the pandemic wears on, Action1 platform helps to empower organizations with a modern, cloud-based toolset that overcomes the remote workforce’s challenges.
Action1 solution is straightforward to use and touts iron-clad security features. There are no complicated steps for an end-user to follow for IT support to connect remotely. Also, there are no complex network requirements or VPN connections needed for access. There is no additional fee for the service included as part of the Action1 offering, and the entire Action1 platform is free to use for up to 100 endpoints.
Sign up for a free trial to test the Remote Access tool in action along with other solutions such as automated Patch Management and Software Deployment features.
