No one really likes to take work home, however sometimes it’s an essential part of managing a business or an otherwise heavy workload.

There are many ways to ‘take work home’. It could be that you take a laptop home and work on some data saved on the laptop. You might also save some files to a CD or USB storage drive in the office, and take that home to work with on the home computer.

Whichever method we use, it’s important to ensure that the work you do away from the office is then returned to the office and saved on your business network. The focus is that all your business’ data must remain central.

There are several systems that can help us to work from home but at the same time keep our data where it should be – on the office network where it is backed up and also shared with other users.

Virtual Private Networks (or VPN) are systems that allow us to connect directly to the office network from our home or other location. This means that you don’t necessarily need to take the data home (or otherwise off the network). You simply connect to the office network from home and work on your files directly – the same way that you would work on the files while in the office (possibly via a shared network drive). VPNs are much more popular today than they were several years ago, mainly because of the large increases in internet connection speeds and reduction of costs. A VPN between your home and office is simple to setup and means you can access your office data with relative ease.

File Synchronisation is a system where you actually take files out of the office (onto a laptop), but the files are automatically copied back to the office network when you return with your laptop. Only the files that you’ve changed are copied back to the network so synchronisation is quick and easy. In most cases the synchronisation can be configured to happen automatically – without you even knowing that it is happening. Microsoft Windows has embedded file synchronisation capacity, so besides asking your IT solution provider to configure it for you – is free.

Quite often I see home/work shared laptops with several identical copies of business files, all modified on different dates, with the owner of the files having no idea which file is most current or up to date. The above systems ensure that this confusion never occurs.

Another consideration when taking laptops home is that some home networks may not be as secure as your office network. The laptop is essentially hopping secure boundaries when you take it from home to office or other locations. The laptop may be infected when on another network, and then connected to your office network where it has free reign to spread it’s infection to other computers.

In some cases, other family members may be tempted to use your work laptop at home and install software that you wouldn’t normally install on a business laptop. It is not uncommon for us to see file sharing installed on a laptop to download what could be illegal copies of movies or music.

This is usually done by a younger member of the family not realising the flow on effects. Not only does this put the business at risk of copyright infringement, but often the software may automatically download large amounts of data ‘behind the scenes’. Internet access at home may allow for unlimited downloads, however when that laptop is taken into your office you may pay excessive amounts as the software happily downloads large movies and music. There are many known cases where internet users have been presented with excessive monthly internet bills (in the tens of thousands of dollars).

All of the above scenarios are often overlooked because on first thought they may not seem to present much of a problem. However knowing about these issues should hopefully prevent some headaches should you ever choose to work from home (just don’t make it a habit!).

If you have any questions about a VPN or remote access solution to suit you, or any of the above issues, feel free to give us a call on 1300 788 301 or email at: info@itechnique.com.au