Getting Remote Workers Behind the Firewall, In the Cloud

The IT professional's job is increasingly difficult thanks to mixed-device environments and the surge of remote, mobile workers. The latter group needs easy access to behind-the-firewall resources (or those stored in the cloud) from any location and across multiple devices.

In fact, according to a recent Spiceworks survey on remote access trends, 75 percent of IT professionals serving small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) say the number of remote and mobile workers grew in recent years, and that 96 percent of these workers need access to behind-the-firewall resources. This represents a new set of network and security challenges for IT organizations: 42 percent of SMB IT professionals cited mobile device security as a top concern, and more than 60 percent are spending more on networking and security than before.

Pertino can help these IT professionals virtualize their offices -- or even virtualize just a few employees without interrupting the in-office network. When workers are in the office, for example, and accessing resources locally, they are bypassing Pertino altogether.

Pertino helps companies create secure, optimized cloud networks in minutes, to add people and devices instantly and deploy network services. The Pertino app can be downloaded on all devices so that workers can instantly connect to their company's private cloud networking -- while still giving IT the ability to add and remove workers instantly. Pertino VP of Marketing Todd Krautkremer gave this editor a demo of the product last week and the end-user experience was really just as simple as receiving an email from IT, while Krautkremer says that for companies, it's literally like you picked up a LAN switch in the office and dropped it in the cloud.

Additionally, Pertino's new app store (AppScape) is part of a completely redesigned cloud management console, which provides IT professionals with a way to monitor and manage users, devices, policies, services, and activities across their Pertino networks. Using Pertino AppScape, customers can buy and activate network services in just a few clicks and for an affordable price (up to 10 devices is $29 a month, 20 devices is $49 a month and so on). Because services are user based, they automatically follow Pertino network users across the globe and across multiple devices. The first available app, GeoView (pictured below) - a real-time network-mapping tool - is available now with additional Pertino and third-party apps starting to roll-out in early 2014 for network visibility, security, optimization and more.

AppScape - GeoView App