West Thames College needed a solution which would extend the traditional operating hours at the college outside regular nine-to-five hours, giving staff and students the flexibility to work remotely with controlled access to shared and personal data files and college resources, and enabling key IT personnel to provide out-of-hours support remotely.

 

Network Defence custom-designed a secure remote access solution to meet the specific ICT requirements of the college. Using a clientless VPN solution from AppGate, management, staff and students now have flexible and secure remote access to authorised data files.

 

A key advantage of the AppGate solution is that it delivers flexible remote access whilst still maintaining the existing security and access policies at the college. Staff and students can access individual and shared files when and where they choose – AppGate’s browser-based solution gives authorised users access to specified applications through password authentication and RSA SecurID and is protected through encryption and tunnelling.

 

In addition, the clientless nature of the solution has eliminated the need to install new software on users’ PCs. Easy to set up and manage, the VPN solution has minimised the need for IT support for installation or administration rights and requires virtually no training.

 

Centrally managed, the AppGate solution gives students remote access to individual and public files on the college server. Staff have additional access to departmental files to enable them to work remotely out of hours. Core IT staff and management also have remote desktop protocol, giving them authorised access to their own PC whenever they need it and enabling them to deliver remote support when needed.

 

Richard Stephenson, Network Manager at West Thames College said: “TheVPN solution from AppGate has successfully extended our opening hours beyond the traditional nine to five and has brought key benefits for staff, students and management with increased flexibility, remote access to college resources and more efficient out-of-hours support.

 

“Network Defence took the headache out of installation, delivering a solution which not only brings real and tangible benefits to staff and students, but also reduces the burden on our IT department, with outsourced firewall and proxy services ensuring secure, reliable access.