What Is This:
It is a combination of hardware and software used at the remote location and corporate office to provide a secure Internet connection with an easy to use interface on both sides. It can be used at remote office locations including home offices of remote workers (teleworkers/telecommuters).
How Does It Work:
The IP phone gets activated on the corporate office line when the remote worker connects to the Internet. Remote users will connect directly to the corporate LAN with their computer. This provides a secure connection for the remote workers to use and help protect the corporate network at the same time.
Remote Location Set-Up:
The remote location will have a Cisco 800 series Integrated Services Router and 7900 series IP phone. The Integrated Services Router also has 4 Ethernet ports.
When used in a teleworker's home office, other users in the home can still connect to the Internet but will not be connecting via the VPN connection. This ensures that the corporate network is kept secure from other traffic.
Requires a broadband connection at the remote office with a minimum of 256Kbps downstream connection, which is pretty much standard for broadband Internet access.
Corporate Office Set-Up:
At the corporate site the VPN will end at a Cisco 720 series VPN aggregation router. It will use Cisco Security Manager for policy control, Access Control and Identity control and an engine which will provide the configuration automatically to remote routers. This makes it possible to set up remote workers quickly and easily.
Cisco themselves use this set up with their remote workers and have approximately 12,000 employees who telework.
This was initially an in-house solution which because of demand is now being made available for commercial purchase by companies wishing to provide a more secure and stable remote work environment for their teleworkers.
Find Out More:
White papers and specifications of the hardware used for the Virtual Office bundle can be found on the Cisco web site.Just My Thoughts:
This is exactly the type of product which should make more companies look seriously at creating remote work programs. One of the biggest concerns voiced by companies when asked why they don't implement remote work programs is they are concerned about security and having a method of easily setting up remote workers.The Virtual Office bundle by Cisco seems to cover both of these issues and allows for a company to add more remote workers as needed in an easy fashion as well.
I look forward to hearing from those who are using or will be using the Virtual Office bundle in their workplace to learn how well it does work.