Avoiding planes, wet seasons via LogMeIn
Without remote desktop functionality, delivering desktop support to 17 communities in Cape York would see the communities' IT manager Jody Blackwood on a plane every working day.
Apunipima provides healthcare to a large region. (Credit: Apunipima)
Regional healthcare provider Apunipima provides services across 138,000 square kilometres, so even if Blackwood did want to fly every day to provide support to the service's 90 employees, he couldn't because some communities get cut off in the wet season.
Blackwood previously used VNC to provide remote helpdesk, but recently decided to consider LogMeIn, which he believes has better security.
"We sort of chose LogMeIn because it was secure," he said, adding that it used 256-bit encryption. "It really provides the same level of security that you get with internet banking and all that sort of jazz."
Blackwood uses LogMeIn's Central product to manage different workstations into groups and automatically deploy LogMeIn Free to a work station. The system runs over web protocol so there's no requirement for the person running the helpdesk to have anything other than a web browser, he said.
It was not as simple with VNC, according to Blackwood.
"You require a server installation as well as the local installation," he said. "As you start to get outside of the office you lose the capability of providing support at a rapid turnaround."
With LogMeIn, he also liked that he could help people with their problems when they weren't even logged on.
"Because it's a support tool at the base level, it actually means I can remote into the computer before the person is even logged into our network," he said.
Deployment of a new work station takes five minutes less than without LogMeIn, Blackwood said. He admitted that it didn't sound like much, until you considered how many computers he handles.
The main issue he had with the product was that when LogMeIn receives an update, each machine displays a reminder. There is no central button to turn off all of the machines' reminders, he said. Instead, he has to log into each of his around 120 machines. However, there aren't many updates, he said.
And the cost? Blackwood said that since the company only had to pay for the Central installation and not the Free version, he considered it to be fairly competitive.