Balancing the dissimilar needs of network security and employee productivity has long been a conundrum for IT professionals. Network threats, from malware to malicious attackers to data leakage, continue to grow unabated as criminals mine for sensitive business data that can be converted to cold hard cash. Meanwhile, employees are becoming ever more mobile, with the traditional workplace being reimagined as anywhere, any time the employee needs to work.
A recent study commissioned by Dell highlights the ‘great divide’ between network security and remote or mobile worker productivity. In a poll of medium to large enterprises, 91% of business users reported that their companies’ respective security measures had a negative impact on their productivity. Perhaps a key contributor to this discontent arises from another finding in the study: 85% of respondents needed to keep track of two or more login and password combinations to access files and applications required for their daily work.
Anyone who has worked in a corporate setting can probably attest to the difficulty of managing multiple passwords to access business applications like Exchange, Oracle, SharePoint, Citrix, VMware View and many others. If multifactor authentication is a part of the network security equation, it adds an additional layer of peace of mind for the IT staff but further compounds the difficulty for employees striving to get their work done.
Fortunately there’s a better way.
Array’s AG Series secure access gateways (SSL VPNs) have the unique ability to act as a ‘central gateway’ for both office-based and remote/mobile workers to access business applications and data. This method presents a single, unified and customizable login portal that serves to accept, authenticate, and pass network credentials to network resources behind the access gateway.
In effect, employees now have just one central point of login for all applications they are authorized to access, regardless of their location. They no longer need to remember multiple login points (local, remote, etc.) for their authorized network resources.
This method even works for Web-based assets such as application portals (SalesForce.com for example). Using SSL Post, the user’s network credentials are pulled from the AG Series’ cache and presented to the Web page that is requesting them.
It’s important to note that the AG Series allows role-based control of access via Active Directory groupings. This control can be extremely granular – right down to specific device ports, if needed. In addition, a range of access methods is supported, including clientless Web access; a pre-installed or Web-delivered client; or via the MotionPro native app for iOS and Android devices.
By using Array’s AG Series SSL VPN appliance as a single, unified, captive login portal for your company, you can have one user experience to rule them all while maintaining strong network security and boosting employee productivity – and remove a point of frustration as well.
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