* Tech Tour to focus on managing remote offices
As Events Editor, one of my main responsibilities is to make sure we’re addressing the skill sets you need through our Technology Tours. Over the past year, one area that has cropped up again and again on the evaluation forms you fill out at events and in feedback you send me directly is the management of remote and mobile workers.
You’ve expressed frustration at how quickly this area of expertise has had to ramp up and how costly and time-consuming it can be. Yet your organizations expect you to support anyone, anywhere, anytime.
In June, we kick off our Remote Office Networking Technology Tour (to register: https://www.nwfusion.com/events/remote/index.html). We built this tour from the ground up to help you craft a savvy strategy for dealing with branch offices, telecommuters and mobile workers.
Keynoting the tour is James Gaskin, a member of Network World’s Lab Alliance. When we developed the tour, Gaskin and I brainstormed on the topics that need to be examined. Our shortlist (and trust me, much more will be on the tour): security, VoIP, wireless, broadband, network management, extended applications, remote access and disaster recovery/backup.
Sounds a lot like the issues surrounding main enterprise networks, right? Well, that’s because as networks spread out, they are becoming fiefdoms unto themselves. Every “device” has become its own network and therefore needs consolidated versions of what you would traditionally see on the desktop.
So that leads us back to the stress this puts on IT – take all the stuff that you used to be able to have physical control over and set it into the wild. The catch-22: You still need to have control. Why? Because everything you set loose is still connecting back to the network and still holds corporate assets – data, applications, etc. All that “stuff” still needs the same level of – if not more – protection than your traditional network-attached computers.
In his morning and afternoon keynotes, Gaskin will show you how to achieve this goal. He looks at technologies that are currently on the market and those that are emerging, and explains how to integrate them with what you currently have in place. In other words, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to support remote workers – you just have to have a good strategy in place.
Gaskin will be joined by yours truly and Net.Worker Managing Editor Toni Kistner. Kistner is an expert in this area in her own right and will bring to the tour her years of experience examining remote worker and teleworker trends.
Also on the tour will be leaders in this market, including 3Com, Cisco, EndForce, Fiberlink and IBM. Each company will show you the offerings they have for your extended workforce.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll share with you some more details of the tour and some information about managing remote and mobile workforces. Until then, please e-mail me with any topics you think should be addressed on this tour.
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Register now for these upcoming events:
Enterprise Security Technology Tour
Keynote: Joel Snyder, NW Lab Alliance member and senior partner at Opus One
Unfortunately, network security has become a costly catch-22. Just when the stakes to your enterprise are highest, you’re flooded with waves of security technology that are hard to evaluate fully, integrate properly, or deploy effectively. The typically “safe” response is to over-spend and over-build simply because you’re overwhelmed not just with what to buy, but how to buy, when to buy, and why to buy. Find out what you need to know at the “Enterprise Security: Failsafe Architecture” event.
https://www.nwfusion.com/events/security/index.html
Remote Office Networking Technology Tour
Keynote: James Gaskin, NW Lab Alliance member
“Remote office networks are our fastest growing need.” “A crucial competitive edge.” “The future of the enterprise.” This is the word from corporations. How can network managers meet the business demands of remote and mobile workers and avoid the downside? Balance costs with benefits? Protect data and profits, too? Attend “Remote Office Networking: Central to Success” to find out. It’s where you’ll see solutions that embrace far-flung networks and yet integrate with your architecture.
