Happy new year - unless you're a commuter

Sanjay Castelino looks at what is needed to secure remote staff resources

Some rail fares have almost doubled in the past 10 years, despite buying what many consider a lesser, more unreliable service. Some have suggested these rises are equivalent to eight per cent of the average salary.

These rises frustrate and disgruntle passengers, who have been a captive audience for decades.

But in recent years, businesses have started to see the potential of flexible working and many have equipped staff with the tools to work in different places and at different times.

Flexible working is more effective than ever, and a powerful business tool.

The rise of BYOD too may have gone some way to mitigating the stress of the daily commute, but having a remote workforce is not without risk. Companies seeking to alleviate the financial burden that travel can place on employees must take the necessary precautions.

For example, VPN sets up a secure connection only between the remote user and the network. An attack on any client device could expose the entire corporate network.

Additionally, remote access can hamper network performance and availability, with staff working remotely perhaps increasing bandwidth consumption by 10 to 15 per cent – simply due to the additional payload represented by VPN.

Automated tools should be used to monitor remote access and network traffic. Such tools can look out for unusual patterns to identify potential threats.

There are numerous hardware and software tools that can help customers monitor and profile network traffic, identifying how bandwidth is consumed.

These issues need to be addressed before any BYOD strategy is implemented, or increased rail prices could be the least of our concerns.

Sanjay Castelino is vice president and market leader at SolarWinds