Remote Access: Measuring Return-on-Investment

In general, the value of a solution designed to provide users with remote access to enterprise resources can be judged on four criteria:

1. 1. Who can gain remote access: This includes factors such as:

   • How many users can gain access in total?

   • How many users can gain access simultaneously without severely degrading the performance?

   • How complicated is the remote access technology? Will non-technical users be able to use it?

2. 2. Where can they access from: This includes factors such as:

   • From how many different types of machines can remote access be achieved?

   • Are there any technical requirements at the endpoints (e.g., for special hardware or software) that would preclude access from specific types of locations or devices?

3. 3. What can be accessed: This includes factors such as:

   • How many different types of resources can be made available remotely using the particular remote-access technology?

   • Are the systems fully available or just in limited form?

   • Will security...