Multi-location connectivity is always extremely important to business establishments. If you have opened several locations, support a remote work staff, or are attempting to centralize your organization’s IT capabilities, multi-location connectivity is a must-have. To this end, it can be exactly what the doctor ordered to ensure continuity in your day-to-day operations regardless of where your team might be located. The finest office technology of this sort facilitates the stress-free transfer of data and even voice communications across far-flung locations. This way, you and your team will be in a good position of accessing, processing, and distributing business data, files, and even applications in a seamless manner. The best multi-site office technology also enables your team to collaborate with each other in real-time; thereby boosting their work efficiency and productivity despite the exact work environment they operate in.
So, the main question is with different locations across the nation or the world, how can you ensure your far-flung team can work, share information and communicate instantaneously, and effectively? Well, in the recent past, the only practical connectivity office technology solution that would be laid out for you would have been to invest in legacy IT infrastructure including onsite servers and databases. However, this solution is both cost-prohibitive, and in most cases than not, unreliable, especially when you attempt to connect multiple sites. Fortunately, thanks to the many advancements gained in office technology, there are more reliable and less expensive connectivity solutions that facilitate instantaneous sharing of business data. Here then are some of the most notable multi-location business connectivity technologies you might want to look into.
Virtual private networks (VPNs) solutions
Traditionally speaking, the only viable option for organizations that wish to connect remote locations is installing wide area networks (WANs). Essentially, a WAN is designed to link multiple local area networks (LANs) with each other.
Nevertheless, the installation of WANs and LANs plus the overheads you will have to foot to operate them over time can be quite exorbitant. Implementing such office technology also demands a lot of resources and time.
This is where VPNs come into the picture.
Running over the internet, VPNs are specifically designed to deliver highly secure links between multiple users and their company’s network. VPNs are well noted for the numerous value-added benefits they can offer when compared with WANs. in the first place, they can provide much more secure connections from one location to the other. Secondly, implementing VPN office technology is very affordable. This is simply because you will be able to utilize a single leased internet line for each of your different business locations, which substantially cuts down on broadband costs.
Remote desktop solutions
Remote desktops are a relatively new office technology connectivity innovation that is increasingly becoming very popular with many organizations.
Typically, all you will need to leverage this multi-site connectivity solution is a special operating system or even a special software application. Either of these will enable you and your team to run mission-critical applications remotely, but still have their interfaces displayed locally simultaneously and across different locations. The network server that executes all this will host all remote files or applications in a secure location. In turn, this can make sure all your sensitive business data or digital resources can never be lost even in the event the devices your users utilize get stolen or malfunction.
Cloud computing solutions
Cloud-based office technology connectivity solutions may be one of the best you could ever settle on. This is especially the case if you are launching a startup. As such, opting for physical legacy IT infrastructure might prove to be too limiting.
This is always so particularly if you and your team are still attempting to figure out what your projections will be over time. To begin with, you will need to make a wise decision when it comes to choosing how many legacy servers you should invest in. Should you purchase too few of them, then you will be significantly limiting your business’s capacity when it grows. On the other hand, when you purchase too many of them, you will ultimately overcommit your capital resources. Alternatively, cloud-based office technology solutions are renowned for their unparalleled scalability and flexibility and can grow with your organization’s future needs.
Additionally, not only is the cloud handy, but it may help you meet a number of functions, which may enable you to simplify your company’s IT management. This can include accessing 24/7 remote monitoring, email archiving tools, desktop management solutions, remote data backup, and workstation management, to name but a few. In the context of multi-site connectivity, all your employees, regardless of where they might be situated, will be able to access mission-critical information via any device they use including mobile devices. At the same time, rather than storing your business data and digital assets onsite, they will be stored for you on the cloud. Lastly, cloud-based office technology connectivity services are acclaimed for syncing data from all connected devices, which goes a long way in facilitating the real-time updating of all your business information.
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