If you are working from home for a company you will need to connect into the corporate network over a VPN connection. This is a secure connection that connects you into the office network and will let you access all of the resources on the office network.

If you are working from home only part time and you have a computer in head office, an alternative to using a VPN would be to use an application like logmein to connect to your head office computer. This would mean that you were able to work on the head office computer from home. This is something you would have to talk to your IT service department of company about as there are some security issues with this solution.

Some companies are now using Virtualization to improve the IT services that they are providing to their users. This means that you would be able to connect to a virtual computer and do your work from home with your laptop or home computer or even if you are out on the road.

If you are working from home and you have broadband in your home office, I suggest that you sign up for a VoIP telephone service.  There are many VoIP service providers and Google search will provide you with a good selection for your country. Large companies who have employees working from home provide them with VoIP phones to work from home with.

 
Another point to consider if you are using your home computer to connect to the corporate network, is that it is important to make sure that you have good Internet Security. I use Eset Nod and I would recommend this to my customers, as it provides excellent cover.

In addition, you need to have a system in place to backup your data if you are working from home. This is crucial. For people working from home, I recommend online Data Backup;if you would like some more information on this drop me an email.

E-mail has become indispensible now and if you are working from home you will need an IT service provider that will let you access your mail on your computer, online and on your mobile. If you work for yourself and are just starting up, I would suggest that you use the Software as a Service (SaaS) provided by Google Gmail for Business. This IT service will let you use Calendar, Chat, Blackberry sync etc. Your company may already use Microsoft Exchange to provide it’s e-mail service and you will need to contact your IT service provider to set your account up so as you can work from home.

For more information on working from home and the required IT services just give iPing a call.

Each computer that is running inside of the main server is called a virtual machine and each virtual machine is independent of the other virtual machines running on the same server. 

Being able to run many computers inside of one computer or server can offer businesses many benefits in today’s competitive environment and helps to give companies the edge over their competitors. Some of these advantages are:

Massive savings in power, hardware and administration costs as businesses no longer require a server for each application, thus the sheer volume of servers a business requires can be dramatically cut.

Every virtual machine is independent of the hardware it is running on. This is possible because each virtual machine is essentially a large file and can easily be moved from one location to another.  Transferring these files can be achieved over the internet, by saving it on a hard disk or even on a USB key. Once the file is in the new location it can be installed as a new virtual machine.

This process of moving the virtual machine can happen very fast over the internet. This lets us: (a) Move virtual machines off our servers for hardware maintenance (b) Move our virtual machines to more powerful servers as needs require. This could be during busy periods or if the demand has risen.

It is important to note that virtualization is not limited to servers. Many companies are now running a virtual machine for every employee that is working in their company. This virtual machine is then configured in one central site and the employee connects to the virtual machine using a standard PC, Laptop or a thin client.

The advantages of desktop virtualization are increased security; reduced hardware costs and a reduction in the management time required.

If you would like to talk to iPing about Virtualization just contact us. iPing provide IT & Computer support in Dublin & around Ireland.