How to Protect Your Network When You Have a Large Remote Workforce

What It Means to Protect Your Network

Every enterprise has a different pain point when it comes to security, whether it employs a large remote workforce or the company operates at a global scale. According to a survey by Gallup, 37% of U.S. workers have worked from home, which is up from 9% in 1995. This trend in an agile employee base allows companies to be competitive with one another when hiring talent, but it is leaving back doors and heightened risks to your network. With the right technology, you can protect your network from risks of all kinds.

Here are two use cases where NAC as-a-Service can help protect your network security. You can read more in the NAC-as-a-Service eBook.

Enterprises with Remote Workforces

As companies adopt work from home policies, it is raising security concerns for IT departments. Remote workers and co-working spaces aren’t just for startup entrepreneurs anymore. In fact, Fortune 500 companies like GM, GE, IBM and Microsoft all rent office spaces from WeWork. According to Gallup, the average U.S. employee works remotely at least two days a month. 9% of those polled work from a remote location for at least ten days a month, whether that is from their home office or a more public location.

Remote employees often connect to wireless networks that are also being accessed by other individuals whether the employee is at a coffee shop or traveling using their hotel’s guest Wi-Fi. Many companies require remote employees to authenticate their devices via a virtual private network, but enforcing VPN policies can be difficult. Using these connections may leave back doors open for hackers into the enterprise’s network.

With NAC-as-a-Service, IT departments gain visibility into their network endpoints from the cloud, giving network administrators the contextual knowledge to be confident their data and networks are secure. With strong authentication credentials, NAC as-a-Service prevents unauthorized access.

Global Companies Looking to Minimize Risk

With the growth of BYOD, IoT and companies scaling their business globally, the need to control network endpoints and streamline security practices for the network is higher than ever. Managing global networks with multiple regional offices can be daunting. With global corporations like GE, IBM, and Microsoft encouraging co-working spaces more IT departments are sitting down to minimize the potential risks to their network. If a vulnerable device is attempting to join the network at a regional office or a shared office space like WeWork, it may put the entire global network at risk. Many traditional NAC solutions are on-premise and some regional offices may have differences in their security policies. Streamlining these policies are crucial, and with a cloud NAC solution there is no requirement for any hardware or complex installation, and can, therefore, be streamlined across a global network from the cloud.

Whether you are managing regional offices or your IT department is authenticating your work at home employees, with NAC-as-a-Service small businesses and large enterprises can monitor their risks and protect your network with ease. Portnox CLEAR works to put IT department’s minds at ease with NAC via the cloud whether your company works at a global scale or you are retaining a large remote workforce.

Interested in reading more about the next generation of NAC? Read our NAC-as-a-Service eBook.