Connecting Laptops

A VPN connects the laptop directly to the corporate network. The laptop becomes a part of the network and anything "bad" on the laptop will immediately find its way onto the corporate network. Consequently, IT departments must implement numerous solutions to protect the network from these potential threats.

While a VPN gives the users the experience of working directly on the network, this convenience is undermined by the security measures. Laptop users around the world may spend hours every day trying to connect and waiting for the security tools to do their work.

Here's list of reasons why mixing VPNs and laptops is a very bad idea in the first place:

• Laptop users will connect the laptop to the Internet from different places around the world. An active VPN is an effective way to protect the laptop, however, users only activate the VPN for short amounts of time while connected to the Internet. Most of the time, the laptop is simply used to browse the Internet. Once they launch the VPN to connect to their company, everything bad that may have ended up on the laptop while browsing the Internet can now float freely onto the corporate network.
• After travelling the world or working at home with their laptop connected to the Internet, laptop users return to the office, walk directly through the reception, go to their desk and connect their laptop directly to the corporate LAN. Anything bad on the laptop will now have free access to the company network.
• Users are generally very happy about laptops. It means they can copy documents and data off the corporate LAN and work locally and off-line on their laptop. Unfortunately, it is also the single biggest source of loss of data. People forget their laptop in taxi's, in airports, on the plane and cars get stolen with people's laptop in them. This isssue is worsened by the fact that most laptop users are higher level managers and executives with access to company confidential data and who also copy this data onto their laptops.
• Some laptop users, contractors and consultants, for instance, may have a need to connect to multiple company networks. Coexistence of VPN can be extremely challenging and may leave a potential risk of short circuiting VPNs.

Contrary to a VPN, G/On does not make the remote PC part of the company network. G/On creates individual virtual connections for each application launched by the user on the remote PC.

Here's the list of reasons why G/On Desktop is the perfect solution for laptop users:

1. Because G/On connects users to applications via virtual and encrypted connections, it is not possible for malware to float freely onto the company network. Users can browse the Internet while working securely in applications connected to application servers inside the company.
2. When laptop users return to the company they should continue working as if they are connecting remotely. Users should always connect to corporate applications through G/On and never connect their laptops directly to the corporate LAN. That way, nothing bad on the laptop will ever hit the company network. As many businesses today implement wireless networks (WiFi) inside their offices, they should use G/On to connect to corporate applications via WiFi through G/On.
3. In general, users should never be allowed to copy company data onto a laptop and take it outside the company network. Because G/On does not connect the laptop directly to the company network, it is not possible for the user to directly copy data between the laptop and the network. Rather, G/On should enable users to connect to company applications and work with data while data stays on the network. If, for some reason, data must be copied onto the laptop, it should be done via G/On upload and download options where each event is logged and recorded for subsequent auditing and control.
4. Consultants and contractors can have multiple G/On connections open at the same time to different companies. As each appplication has its own separate connection users can work on many different tasks without them interferring with each other.

G/On and G/On Desktop are the ideal solutions for laptop users.