In less than a decade remote network access has grown from a futuristic notion to a vital element of almost every corporate network. Thanks to the global reach of the Internet, corporations can now hire professionals from a talent pool that covers the entire country or even the world. Field sales people can use corporate network resources to boost efforts in their own territories. By sharing network communications, suppliers can strengthen their bond with customers, and consultants can remove more barriers between their services and their clients.
Analysts estimate that as many as eight million people telecommute in one way or another.
E-mail and World Wide Web services have become linchpins of corporate communications, and laptop computers are a simple fact of life for anyone who moves on the job. As these factors fuel the demand for remote access capability, companies are seeking ways to provide greater connectivity at lower cost and with fewer administration and maintenance hassles. All this, of course, without sacrificing the requirements of on-demand service from anywhere in the world. The traditional remote access model was simple enough. Have users dial into a bank of modems to establish a connection, and then have the modems route the connection through a port on a remote access server and onto the corporate network.