I have noticed more bring your own computer jobs lately

N2IT

I am always looking around at potential opportunities and have recently noticed a trend of remote support positions that are 100% work from home, but you need to provide your own computer.

This was brought up in a discussion a while back and now I am actually seeing it. I have noticed 4 different positions in the last 5 days with this same format. One position was for a project coordinator so this isn't just for PC remote specialist.

Has anyone else noticed these gigs out on the net?

MeanDrunkR2D2

Sounds different to me. I know that myself I wouldn't want someone with their own personal computer connected to my network.

Iristheangel

Yepppp. It cost less for the companies in maintenance and hardware many times. I've seen many companies use virtual desktops (desktop as a service) to deliver high power applications and computing power without having to pay for top notch mobile/desktop equipment.

N2IT

I can see the pro's and con's both mentioned above.

Is this going to catch fire or die off as another fallen support / operation model?

One thing I noticed is that they require you to have the same patching and OS that they have in the enterprise. So XP if the environment has XP etc.

They also listed hardware requirements on some of the positions.

Personally I am not against this model. I have a really nice desktop with dual 27's and MS project 2010 and Office 2010. As long as I can get access to the enterprise applications I am in good shape.

m3zilla

The only way I can see them allowing personal PC is if they're doing virtual desktops, or Citrix. We have about 800ish remote users in one of our location, and I get daily security alerts of people doing p2p (bittorrent, ntp, etc) while on the VPN. Not to mention, everyone couple of weeks, someone manage to get a malware on their machine and it gets flagged by our IPS.

N2IT

Is there anyway they could get a client side firewall from the company and every time they VPN into the network the patching automatically kicks off? To mitigate some of those nasty from the firewall?

How would Outlook/exchange work? Just run the set up wizard and configure it for VPN exchange? Or would you just recommend going with OWA?


***I'm obviously not the most technical person on this forum

Iristheangel

@N2IT, you can insure that the clients are patched every time they connect. I know the FirePass SSL VPN gives you the option of doing this but I'm sure there are plenty of other firewalls and appliances out there that allow this.

Remotely, I usually connect to Exchange through Citrix or OWA, but you can configure a locally installed version of Exchange to work while connected through VPN. I just find it easier to go through OWA

m3zilla

You can definitely enforce security policies and ensure that users have anti-virus software and patches installed, but from my experience, that doesn't help much.

Check Point has a client side firewall that can be enforced when you VPN in. However, it's like a typical firewall, and most use it to block traffic towards the client, not to prevent traffic from the client. Even then, what about when they're not on the VPN? What about split-tunnel? How do you prevent your employees from stealing data if you're allowing them to connect directly to your servers?

Every computer in our company runs symantec, and yet, they still get malware. Patches only "patch" security vulnerabilities, it doesn't prevent a user from visiting malicious websites. While proxies can remedy this, you can't push a GPO out to Firefox or Chrome.

Outlook will most likely be configured for Outlook Anywhere to access Exchange.

unclerico

There are myriad different host based and network based NAC solutions that provide solutions to the remote worker problem. Juniper SA and Cisco AnyConnect can do all sorts of client side checks for patches, etc. In my environment if someone wants to connect from outside with their own computer they either get a VMware View desktop or they access RDP or other applications from the VPN portal page; they are never truly on the network when they connect. With BYOD all the rage you better be prepared to handle this exact situation except from the inside of the firewall.

pumbaa_g

If I am not wrong this can also be achieved by a VPN Infrastructure and creation a NPS with a remediation network. Within the NPS we can configure the SHV & SHA Policy to check for patches/AV Status etc before the device comes on the Network.
On the flip side we will need to configure the DNS/DHCP for the Remediation Network to ensure that the computer can only access limited sites i.e update itself and nothing else.

wweboy

When I lived with a friend they worked from home. When she got hired to do XBOX support from home the company she worked for sent her a USB stick. You boot from the USB stick that starts a virtual machine that then boots you int their desktop via Citrix it was really, really neat.

You booted from the USB so anything "wrong" with the local computer doesn't matter and it was just like having a full blown office computer it had office and all the applications needed on a typical work computer.

XiaoTech

I don't think I would want to do that personally. With my work, when I work from home, I bring my laptop and VPN into the works network. Then I RDP into any server that's needed from there. Works out pretty well. I can read news, study, goof off, lab, etc on my computer and work on my company supplied laptop. Best of both worlds.

working from home.

sizeon

Iristheangel wrote: »

Yepppp. It cost less for the companies in maintenance and hardware many times. I've seen many companies use virtual desktops (desktop as a service) to deliver high power applications and computing power without having to pay for top notch mobile/desktop equipment.

Lol thats how we are setup. With citrix virtual machines

ColbyG

MeanDrunkR2D2 wrote: »

Sounds different to me. I know that myself I wouldn't want someone with their own personal computer connected to my network.

They don't have to. This is a perfect case for VDI.

paul78

I'm not a big proponent of byod. For remote users its not too bad and VDI solves it. I did a quick back of napkin look and for the business that I am in(financial services) its just not worth the extra expense and extra risk in allowing employee devices.

MentholMoose

If you have to provide your own PC for a BYOD program and they don't compensate you for it, the company is cheap and I would stay away. BYOD should be opt-in and include a stipend to cover some or all of the hardware.

N2IT

The secondary piece that I noticed is all the companies using this model also included 100% work from home.

I would be willing to use my own PC to work from home 100% of the time.

@ Paul I wish I knew what industry these jobs were in. None of the job descriptions mentioned anything about the industry.

paul78

For 100% work from home - that could make sense. I don't think that would be financial services though - unless VDI was the mechanism to interface or it was 100% work through a web-application hosted by the employer. For the business that I support, if the employee is 100% remote - they get a company laptop that is locked down with the understanding that the laptop is only for use for company business, etc. etc. etc. with the usual monitoring and big brother watching

N2IT

Paul all of my support roles had some sort of work from home element. Like you mentioned the laptop was always given to the support tech regardless of his level.

I would prefer to get a corporate laptop with all the tools and specs set properly for the environment.

cgrimaldo

Where are you finding these jobs?

ptilsen

MentholMoose wrote: »

If you have to provide your own PC for a BYOD program and they don't compensate you for it, the company is cheap and I would stay away. BYOD should be opt-in and include a stipend to cover some or all of the hardware.

I agree in principal, but in a 100% WFH environment I can see logic in not doing it this way. As long as the pay is commensurate with the well established responsibilities and hours I don't particularly care whether it is in the form of a stiped or raw salary/wages.

For a more typical job that is not 100% WFH I agree. I won't use a personal cell phone or laptop for work purposes unless there is a reasonable stipend. Edit: But I will use my own computer from my house in non-full-time WFH. I can easily justify this if it skips my commute. If the company is giving me flexibility to work from home that's a win for me, not a cost I'm incurring. I haven't invested into any home equipment or services to enable this, and at worse I could claim it on my taxes (though it's not worth it -- it's really not worth it).

MentholMoose

The reason I prefer a stipend for BYOD is so you can see what you are getting in exchange for participating. Without a stipend or something similar, it is too easy for a company to claim to compensate you without actually doing so. Though if they do offer a stipend for BYOD, they could just offset it with a lower salary, so it's not a guarantee. If salary and everything else looked good, lack of a BYOD stipend wouldn't be a deal killer for me (I only meant it may be a red flag).

Regarding telecommuting, even if you aren't buying extra equipment or services, you still may incur some extra costs such as heating/cooling (if you are in an office and nobody is home, you probably wouldn't run your AC). But telecommuting is still likely to be a significant net advantage financially, never mind other factors. In my area commuting usually is a nightmare, so I'd still want to WFH even without any cost savings.

ptilsen

MentholMoose wrote: »

But telecommuting is still likely to be a significant net advantage financially, never mind other factors. In my area commuting usually is a nightmare, so I'd still want to WFH even without any cost savings.

Yeah, that's really where I'm coming from. If I could skip my commute I would effectively work 15% less and make 5% more. Looking at my salary as an hourly wage based on time spent doing work-related things, it would literally be a $10/hr increase, never mind the stress of the commute being gone.

If only I had such an option...

N2IT

CG I am looking mainly on Craigslist and Indeed

cgrimaldo

N2IT wrote: »

CG I am looking mainly on Craigslist and Indeed

I have find some on Indeed..may have to check out Craigslist too

Devilry

I too am not big into this new initiative of BYOD. I think it is new and catching traction (including in my company), however a couple incidents will occur and it will go away most likely. Too many variables in that equation for any company of a decent size. I have turned down any BYOD offers from my current place, and will any in the future if at all possible.