Remote and hybrid work have become the norm for many organizations, and to support a distributed workforce, companies need to invest in the right remote work technology.
This post covers essential technology for remote work, how to manage company-issued laptops vs. employee-owned laptops, and what to consider when setting up your remote work infrastructure.
Remote Work Technology Fundamentals
When employees work in a centralized office, they can do things like gather in a conference room, brainstorm, and map out ideas on a whiteboard. Remote teams don’t have those capabilities, but the following remote work technology can help them collaborate and communicate:
Video Conferencing Apps (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet)
Video meeting tools enable face-to-face communication in distributed teams. Features like screen sharing, virtual whiteboards, and breakout rooms help remote colleagues collaborate and feel more engaged.
Managers can use video conferencing tools for performance review meetings or informal check-ins, and if you have external clients, video conferencing is a great way to touch base with them and build relationships.
Video conferencing apps are subscription-based, with different service tiers. You may find that employees get what they need from the entry-level service package, and only your managers or admins need the “pro” version.
Messaging Platforms (Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord)
Real-time chat applications enable quick questions, impromptu discussions, and team coordination without the formality of email. If you use Slack, you can integrate tools like Google Workspace and Asana and enable cross-platform notifications in Slack.
Messaging platforms can also serve as a virtual “water cooler” for non-work discussions. You can set up channels or threads that allow workers to chat, which can help boost team morale.
Cloud-Based Collaboration Tools (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Notion)
Cloud platforms for email, document editing, file sharing, and project management allow teams to work together from anywhere. Storing files and data in the cloud means employees can access up-to-date information and collaborate simultaneously on documents.
Other Remote Work Tools
If your employees work on client projects, you can use time-tracking apps like Toggl, Clockify, and Harvest to track billable hours. Most time-tracking apps integrate with project management platforms, so time records automatically sync to tasks and workflows.
Finally, you may need remote work technology that enhances security, like antivirus software and EDR agents, but that depends on how employees access your network and systems.
Laptop Options: Company-Owned vs Employee-Owned
One major consideration for remote work environments is the devices employees use. Some organizations provision laptops for every remote worker to standardize IT management and security. But purchasing, configuring, and shipping laptops is time-consuming and costly. IT teams might start to feel like they’re running a hardware business.
Allowing employees to use their own laptops for work eliminates the costs and resource burden associated with company-issued laptops, and employees may be more comfortable and productive using their personal laptops. This “bring-your-own-device” (BYOD) setup can be equally beneficial for employers and employees, but it introduces security and privacy concerns.
An unmanaged personal device increases security risks for businesses. Without direct IT oversight, employee laptops may lack critical security patches and software updates — vulnerabilities that malicious outsiders can exploit to gain access to business systems. Yet, employer monitoring of an employee’s personal laptop encroaches on privacy. Despite these challenges, BYOD provides an opportunity for businesses to reduce hardware costs, simplify device management, and offer employees greater flexibility, making it an attractive option for modern workforces. It’s all about striking the right balance between security and end-user privacy.
Methods of Enabling Remote Work on BYOD
If you want to enable BYOD for your employees, you need ecure enclave technology, VDI, or DaaS. Here’s how these solutions work:
Secure Enclave
A secure enclave is an innovative solution for BYOD that uses principles of mobile device management for laptops. Users install the company-issued secure enclave on their laptops, creating a secure, separate environment for all work-related applications and data.
Secure Enclave Privacy and Security
The secure enclave creates a separation between the user’s personal laptop and work applications and data, striking a balance between security and privacy. Employers manage the secure enclave, but they can’t “see” anything outside of it, which means the employee’s personal files, browsing history, contacts, etc., remain private.
Users can’t copy data from within the enclave and paste it outside the enclave, nor can they capture screenshots of anything in the enclave. A secure enclave also protects employer data from any security risks outside the enclave, such as an outdated operating system or the use of unsecure public WiFi.
Secure Enclave User Experience
Within the secure enclave, all apps run locally, which eliminates latency and significantly improves the user experience. The enclave is also OS-agnostic, so even if an employee uses a Mac, they can access and use Microsoft applications within the enclave.
Employees never have to worry about accidentally confusing their private and personal applications, because a secure enclave uses a visual barrier for work-related technology. For example, Venn uses a proprietary Blue Border™ to frame work applications on remote laptops, signaling to users when they are in work windows vs. in personal windows.
Secure Enclave Costs
A secure enclave is the most cost-effective and seamless BYOD solution. Unlike VDI, it doesn’t require a large investment in IT infrastructure or endpoint monitoring technology.
The onboarding process is quick and easy because employees can access installation and set up steps from a company-issued email with no IT help required. And when an employee leaves, IT teams can remotely wipe the secure enclave from the user’s device. By reducing administrative strain on IT teams, secure enclaves free up valuable time for other IT initiatives.
To see how much money you can save with secure enclave technology, use this simple ROI calculator.
VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)
With VDI, the employer hosts virtual desktops on centralized servers (either in an on-premises data center or a remote data center) and employees remotely access those desktops from their personal device.
The appeal of VDI is that all business applications and data reside on company-controlled servers — nothing is stored locally on employee laptops. While this setup can enhance data security and centralize IT management, it comes with notable drawbacks.
VDI Privacy and Security
VDI alone doesn’t solve the endpoint security challenge. This often requires that organizations deploy additional security software or remote monitoring (RMM) tools to protect endpoints and prevent data from being copied to unapproved locations. These tools are effective at mitigating risk, but they often extend their reach beyond the VDI session, monitoring the end user’s entire laptop just to protect the VDI session, which undermines the privacy benefits of BYOD.
VDI User Experience
For the end user, VDI can be extremely frustrating. All actions and data have to travel to and from the remote server, which can result in application latency, slow load speeds, and glitchy video performance. VDI is also dependent on the quality of the connection, so network congestion or sluggish internet speeds can make it difficult for employees to work efficiently.
VDI Costs
VDI may require substantial IT infrastructure upgrades, additional software licenses, and new technology for managing security. Many businesses just don’t have the resources to set up, roll out, and constantly manage VDI. Additionally, prices have been rising in recent years, increasing the VDI burden.
DaaS (Desktop as a Service)
DaaS is the cloud-managed version of virtual desktops. Instead of running your own data center for VDI, you subscribe to a service (from providers like Amazon WorkSpaces, Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop, or Citrix Cloud) that hosts the virtual desktops employees access for work.
The advantage of DaaS is that it’s easier to set up than VDI — there’s no big upfront hardware investment, and the provider handles most of the infrastructure management.
DaaS Privacy and Security
Service providers need to protect their data centers, which means they need to monitor user endpoints for security vulnerabilities. So DaaS doesn’t eliminate end-user privacy concerns, although employees may feel slightly more comfortable with third-party monitoring instead of employer-monitoring.
DaaS User Experience
DaaS might relieve IT of managing hardware, but it does not magically eliminate the network lag inherent to streaming a desktop. A remote user still has to remotely connect to a distant data center, and that can result in performance and latency issues.
DaaS Costs
Service providers usually charge a monthly fee based on the number of users, so as you scale up, your subscription DaaS costs may increase. DaaS providers can also change their pricing at any time, or restructure service packages and charge extra for certain features.
Discover Why Venn is the Best BYOD Technology
Venn empowers organizations to securely embrace BYOD for their remote workforces, with top-tier security, effortless implementation, and the best experience for end users.
Find out why 700+ customers trust Venn over VDI.
