Soccer, Football, Ballet, School Supplies, and Homework don’t stop just because you have a big project at work you have to complete. The busy executive can’t cut his hours because it gets hectic at home, but he can make the big game and still get that big deal closed!

Some businesses offer their employees the freedom to work from home, on the road, or through their smart phone. Work can’t stop at 5:00 and as organizations become lean, that often means doing more with less.  Some ways you may be able to work from anywhere include:

Smart Phones: Smart Phones can allow you to sync your email, or at least send and receive your email from your phone, making you accessible from anywhere. Most Smart Phones offer many Microsoft Office application support and online access to allow you to stay connected with your customers and team.

Who Can Use It: Those who just need to be accessible and stay in touch with their clients and team.

Remote Access: Some companies offer remote access into your desktop or network. This can be accomplished through

VPN – Virtual Private Network offers a secure login into the network so you can have access to all of the same files and systems just as if you were in the office. This can be done through software, hardware, or both.

Remote Desktop – This allows you access into your individual desktop and this is often done using software.

Who Can Use It:  Companies who have IT staff to support and maintain the internal network and individual home machines/laptops* this can be an easy and affordable solution.
*It is just as important to protect the home machine/laptop as it is the network connection, to prevent a home user from infecting the network.

Remote Network: Some companies choose to take their entire network into a data center where they connect remotely and securely in or out of the office. So, they just log into the network from anywhere and always have the same access and functions available to them. This is often managed and backed by a data center that can offer compliancy, support, and ongoing maintenance.

Who Can Use It: Small to medium sized companies who do not have an IT staff or budget to support and  manage an extensive internal network, yet need the features and ongoing support.  Many large companies can also benefit from the data center, support, maintenance, redundancy, and business continuity plans remote networks can offer

Cloud Computing: Some companies will chose to use Cloud Computing for all of their users, to get the benefits of a datacenter, and flexibility of virtualization, without the up front cost of building a network.

Who Can Use It: While there are many versions of cloud computing, fully virtual networks are often used for testing and development of networks and program applications, so it is great for programming firms. Other companies looking for flexibility who do not have highly sensitive information or mission critical data can benefit from the low entry cost, flexibility and capabilities to grow and managing their network from an easy to use online control panel.