Remote access ensures secure workflow across places

BANGALORE: HelpAge India, a non-profit organization, working for the cause and care of older persons, has gone a step ahead in deploying IT solutions to enable connectivity through remote access and stay connected with its groups across the country.  

Baljeet Asthana, Deputy Director (IT), HelpAgeIndia, gives more details on the right kind of IT solutions and infrastructure in place at HelpAge India that has helped the organization in easy accessibility to its work groups and work processes.

Excerpts from an interview with Baljeet Asthana by Ambika Prakash of CIOL:

CIOL: Do you have the right infrastructure in place for handling Remote Access? If no, what steps are you taking to upgrade your infrastructure?

Baljeet Asthana: Incorporation of Aventail’s SSL VPN in our infrastructure has enabled us to have right infrastructure in place to access remote network. Earlier, we didn’t have any traditional or modern means of communication to access the data from remote area of the globe. Since we are deploying a remote access solution for the first time, we approached a security consultant. Based on his suggestion we have deployed Aventail’s product to have a secure and easy accessibility of data. 

CIOL : With the right infrastructure in place, what has been your strategy for enabling remote access for employees/customers? 

BA: Our employees are spread across the country. We have several numbers of applications that run on the server. With Aventail’s SSL VPN connection in place, it is feasible for our employees to work from anywhere at any point of time easily and securely.

CIOL: Which particular product have you deployed and how does it support in scaling up your organisation? 

BA: The Aventail® EX-1500 SSL VPN appliance meant for mid-sized organizations provides secure remote access control. Easy-to-use, clientless access to network resources from any Internet-enabled device is what drove us to deploy the solution. The product provides employees to enhance productivity with fast, transparent and secure access to a full range of critical Web and client/server applications-including e-mail and collaboration programs such as Microsoft Outlook. 

At the same time, the Aventail EX-1500 increases security while making control easier, reduces the cost of deploying and managing your remote access VPN. Aventail 1500 provides secure, clientless remote access to our Web-enabled applications in addition to a cost-effective alternative for traditional IPSec VPN clients.

CIOL: In your view, how beneficial is remote access for the success of small and medium businesses? 

BA: With enterprises looking forward to extend their business operations to various parts of the world, IT as a key factor could be of tremendous help in leveraging the business by preserving and protecting data from virus attacks.

HelpAge India is an organization that that runs business with limited resources. Deploying VPN connections to get access to remote network enables employees to be productive even when they are away from the office. Apart from these, the Remote Access brings transparency in the business process.