Halestar Intros 'Green' Remote Access Solution

‘Green technology’ can be defined in a variety of different ways, because there are different methods for reducing the impact of human activity on the environment. The term in the context of this blog generally refers to technology that itself directly reduces environmental impact—by, for example, using less power or being manufactured out of reused or recyclable materials.

 

Another way that technology can be ‘green,’ though, is indirectly helping people walk lighter on the earth by reducing their need to use natural resources like fossil fuels. One company that’s taking this approach to ‘green tech’ is Helestar, a security engineering company based in Connecticut and southern Virginia.

 

Halestar on Tuesday announced a new solution designed to let employees work from home without losing access to the corporate system. By providing employees with the tools to securely access the company network from home, Halestar hopes to promote the ‘green’ practice of enterprise mobility.

 

The telecommuting solution offered Halestar works regardless of what laptop an employee owns or which PBX the company has installed. The solution uses remote-access-point technology anchored by a WLAN controller from Aruba that’s installed on the corporate network. This lets employees create an IPSec tunnel back to the controller from a remote location.

 

The IPSec tunnel utilizes the corporate LAN’s security features to protect the company network; the armor provided by SSIDs, 802.1x authentication and encryption, wireless counter-measures, firewalls and network access restrictions is kept intact.

 

Perhaps best of all, the solution requires no end-user configuration and no updates. The simplicity of the solution, and the fact that it addresses wireless security, Helestar is betting, will help drive adoption of remote access as a way to be more ‘green.’

 

“People are starting to think about the cost of commuting, and the impact they’re having on the world while they are sitting there idling in rush-hour traffic,” Halestar’s president, Kevin Dowd, said in a statement.

 

Halestar calculated that, for most businesses, deploying this solution will pay for itself in about 10 months. That’s based on a scenario in which eight employees pay $10 each day for the privilege of working from home. The company noted that third-party leasing and managing is also available as a way to eliminate out-of-pocket costs.

 

Hmm… maybe it isn’t so hard to be green.