Remote network

Building a remote network for the hybrid workplace

For many businesses, the temporary shift to work-from-home during the pandemic has evolved into a new paradigm for office culture. The hybrid workforce today encompasses everything from corporate offices and co-working spaces to employees’ homes and locations on the road.

In this new environment, businesses need remote network technologies to keep team members productive and data transactions secure. These solutions must also provide remote workers with access to the same resources they rely on in the office.

Spectrum Enterprise Managed Network Edge delivers flexible solutions for remote access, networking, security and complete visibility in one seamless package. With Spectrum Enterprise, you get connectivity, equipment and management in a turnkey platform that scales easily as your work-from-anywhere workforce grows.

The challenges of managing the remote network

IT teams must solve several remote network challenges as they strive to provide an in-office experience for work-from-anywhere employees.

Modernizing the network
Wherever employees are working, they need remote Internet access that can meet a variety of increasing requirements. Activity like videoconferencing requires high levels of bandwidth. Security solutions must provide secure remote access as well as protections for proliferating devices and business-critical applications and resources in the cloud. Multifactor authentication and secure virtual private network (VPN) tunnels are paramount as well. While most networks have incorporated technologies for these challenges in the past, legacy hardware and services are unlikely to meet the demands of a burgeoning remote workforce.<

Keeping pace with changing requirements and security risks
Security for a remote access network must be every bit as stringent as security in corporate offices. This requirement becomes even more challenging as work from home employees frequently access insecure networks from a variety of personal devices. Remote network security solutions must manage these risks by taking complete control of traffic allowed to enter the network from Internet-connected sources within remote workspaces.

Poor performance from cloud applications
Cloud applications are essential to business operations today. Wherever employees choose to work, remote networks must keep up with the demand for access to these tools across different channels and physical locations.

Time-intensive network management tasks
Many corporate networks rely on products from multiple vendors to support the remote network. However, these solutions often require competing IT workloads to manage disparate applications, cloud platforms, firewall deployments, endpoint protection and threat detection. Legacy solutions typically don’t integrate easily, creating additional network management tasks for IT teams that are stretched thin.

Spectrum Enterprise Managed Network Edge

Spectrum Enterprise solves the challenges of managing the remote network with Managed Network Edge, an all-in-one solution that simplifies deployment and management of on-premises and remote networks. Delivered with the Cisco Meraki platform, this fully managed solution simplifies network management, frees up resources, adds layers of security and delivers connectivity with the speed and bandwidth to meet your needs.

To secure the remote network, Managed Network Edge offers Remote Access, a secure, easy-to-manage VPN. Remote Access encrypts and directs Internet-bound traffic through your company’s network to ensure that it is governed by the same policies and security safeguards as on-site traffic. To extend network security protections to remote employees, an easy-to-install network appliance called Teleworker provides a secure hardware gateway between a worker’s devices and Managed Network Edge. This enables an in-office network experience with consistent security safeguards, network performance management and prioritization for voice and data bandwidth. Teleworker also extends the visibility, control and IT policy enforcement of the corporate network to an employee’s environment.

The Virtual Edge capability of Managed Network Edge offers simple and secure connectivity to business-critical cloud applications. This enables remote and on-site personnel to easily connect to the public cloud while leveraging management tools to enhance performance.

Managed Network Edge simplifies network management by bringing together a variety of hybrid workplace technologies, including dedicated fiber Internet, switching, routing, WiFi, cameras, security and other networking functions, managed with end-to-end visibility through a single online portal.

Key benefits of Managed Network Edge

With Spectrum Enterprise Managed Network Edge, you can:

• Simplify network management by working with single partner that delivers comprehensive support, simplified billing and faster resolutions.
• Get the connectivity and a service-level agreement that meets your needs.
• Add layers of security by incorporating firewalls and unified threat management with integrated security from the edge to the cloud.
• Access and manage your entire network from a centralized, intuitive and easy-to-use portal.
• Reduce expenses by minimizing capital expenditures and paying one monthly charge for consolidated and optimized networking components.
• Give remote and mobile employees secure, remote Internet access to your entire network from laptops, mobile devices and tablets.
• Strengthen security posture by relying on automated updates and resolving routing issues efficiently with application-aware routing.

Why customers choose Spectrum Enterprise

Spectrum Enterprise is a leading provider of scalable, fiber technology solutions that serve America’s largest businesses. Our wholly owned fiber network offers a nationwide reach with 245,000+ fiber-route miles. With over 100% uptime SLA ¹ and symmetrical speeds up to 100 Gb per second, our network is the foundation for everything we offer. Along with remote network technology, our solutions include:

• Networking services for wide area network, managed network services, managed IoT platforms and managed WiFi.
• Voice and unified communications technology that promote collaboration and enable workers to connect from anywhere.
• HDTV solutions that impress customers, build loyalty and enhance the brand.

FAQs

What is a remote network?
A remote network refers to connectivity solutions that enable remote workers to access a private corporate network over an Internet connection.

What are the challenges of supporting a remote network?
Remote access connections present several challenges for IT security teams. Work-from-home employees typically connect to a remote network with personal devices or computers that are less secure than devices within the office. Security teams have less visibility over user activity in remote locations, making it harder to identify potential threats and block malicious traffic. Ensuring that workers on remote networks have the bandwidth they need to manage large files, access cloud applications, and handle time-sensitive traffic can also be a challenge.

¹ 100% uptime SLA guarantee applies only to Dedicated Fiber Internet, Secure Dedicated Fiber Internet, Ethernet Services, Cloud Connect and Enterprise Trunking.