Description
While the proliferation of branch and remote offices is a positive sign of company growth, it can be a challenge for IT staffers. Besides managing data centers, IT teams take on the additional responsibility of managing and repairing branch office assets like routers, switches, firewalls, WAN optimizers and servers. Employees who work in these remote locations typically do not have the IT skills to troubleshoot problems. To overcome this challenge, many IT staffers use remote access software to diagnose and repair branch office problems. However, these tools are only useful if the OS and network are functioning. If the network or OS is down, an on-site employee might be asked to go to the server closet and address the problem. If that doesn’t work, then additional costs in travel, time, and lost business might be incurred.
This paper addresses the added value (in terms of uptime and security) of out-of-band access and control tools for branch offices.