There are several problems in dealing with remote users:
1. They tend to buy software, equipment and service plans on their own. The biggest challenge in dealing with remote users is not being able to control their buying decisions. If they want a new printer, they buy a new printer. If they need a new cell phone calling plan, they go out and sign up for it. If they want the latest version of Adobe Acrobat for a project they are working on, they go get it. Usually, the network team doesn't even know that a user has purchased equipment or services because he submits it for reimbursement through his department. Network managers often have little to no control over their users' individual inventory.
2. If there's a problem, they want you to fix it. Even if you were not involved in the initial decision to purchase a product or service, your users want you to provide instant support for them. If their software isn't working, you're expected to diagnose and fix the problem. If the calling plan isn't accurate, you're supposed to renegotiate for them. This takes time and effort because you first have to figure out what hardware, software or service you're dealing with.
3. If you try to tell individual users what they can and can't do with their devices and the network, it might not go over so well. In most cases, they've been managers of their own personal networks for years.
Not dealing with remote users causes even more trouble -- problems with software licensing, budget planning, inventory control -- you name it. Network teams have to gain control over remote environments to truly protect and manage the enterprise as a whole. Over the next few columns, we'll discuss steps for gathering up the reins of the remote-user environment.
First, you need to know what's out there. You can do this in two ways: manually or with automation. I recommend a combination of the two.
In the manual approach, you reach out to remote employees and ask them what they have on their systems. Do this in the form of a survey. Gather up your entire team and brainstorm what information you need, then turn that into a questionnaire. For instance, ask about software, hardware, memory, wireless networking, mobile devices and cell phone plans. Also make sure you ask users details about what security programs they have running on their machines. Do they have instant messaging installed? Finally, ask them what they download onto their computers: music, software, files? You can get more detailed and talk about firewalls or routers or other networking terms, but don't expect everyone to respond. They might not know what is in their network on that level. Keep your survey user-friendly so you can get the best possible view of the remote environment.
With the automated approach, you use discovery software that sits at the enterprise gateway to inventory computers as they try to come onto the network. These tools -- from BMC Software Inc., Consul, LANDesk Software Inc. and others -- are fantastic at quickly checking configurations, software versions, security status and other information about devices. They can tell you if a computer is lacking the appropriate security patches, etc., and keep that device from logging on until it gets updated. They can also assimilate information into reports so that you can see what software versions are up to date and what hardware needs to be retired.
However, there are often devices that never make it onto the network that you still need to know about. For instance, it's important to know if users have BlackBerries or other handhelds that access e-mail. There are security and compliance issues surrounding unprotected corporate data. You'll also want to know the effect on your mail server or other network devices from forwarding all those messages to the device (if it's not done through the Exchange Server or other centralized mode).
While cell phones may seem like they don't fall under the network team's purview, think again. More and more cell phones are also becoming vessels to send and receive data. This means that you need to know which users are employing their cell phones in this way. Also, if there are a bunch of remote users that have inflated rates for voice/data usage with the same carrier, and they are expensing those rates to the company, you might want to renegotiate a volume-discount plan.
In the next column, we'll discuss centralization of equipment and service purchasing.