Remote work is making major waves throughout all industries since the mandatory work from home policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. While some companies started working remotely long before the mandatory push, many companies are seeing the benefits of adopting a hybrid model to adapt to the growing changes of employee needs and cultural shifts.
With employee preferences leaning towards more remote working styles, there’s a major increase of software adoption towards specific tools like remote desktop software.
What is Remote Desktop Software?
Remote desktop software is a type of software that allows you to control a remote desktop computer from a local device.
Remote desktop software is often used interchangeably with remote access software. However, there are nuances between the two types of software. Remote desktop software often refers to a remote device being used to access a desktop computer, while remote access software provides the ability to access any type of device remotely.
Uses for Remote Desktop Software
Remote desktop software is an extremely convenient way to provide access to many different computers at once. Here are a few examples of how remote desktop software can help create efficient processes for different teams.
IT Support Teams
One of the most common use cases for remote desktop software is for IT support teams to manage a large fleet of different desktops. This ensures that each system is regularly maintained and updated, while providing technicians the ability to access each system without having to be where the device is physically located.
Remote desktop software also allows technicians the ability to assist end users when they’re having technical problems. Users can use remote desktop software to request a technician for support, and technicians can respond to calls and remotely control the desktop with an end user present. This is referred to as attended support.
Educational Computer Labs
Many colleges or universities use remote desktop software to provide remote students access to in-person computer labs. This allows students access to resources that are often only available in-person, such as using specialized software or more resource intense devices.
Remote desktop software can also help professors use screen mirroring capabilities for students who are taking online courses. If students are learning how to use certain software, this is a good way to instruct students by streaming the professor’s screen onto a student’s device.
Remote Work
Remote desktop software helps to provide the everyday knowledge worker the ability to work remotely while still maintaining secure workspace policies. Remote desktop software helps to ensure that classified information stays on a secure network.
With remote desktop software, employees can access a secure desktop using a personal device on a separate network. When they access the secure network via remote desktop software, data stays within the office workstation and physically never leaves the device. This security is one reason why many organizations choose remote desktop software as a way to provide their workers with remote work options.
How Does Remote Desktop Software Work?
The technicalities behind how remote desktop software works varies depending on the tool you use. For the most part, remote desktop software requires you to install two different parts of the software onto the tools you’ll use—one part for the local device you’re using to access the remote desktop, and one part on the remote desktop itself.
Let’s take Splashtop Business Access as an example:
First download the Splashtop Business App onto the device that you want to remote from.
Then download the Splashtop Streamer App onto the device that you want to access remotely. Log in to both apps using your Splashtop credentials.
When the two apps are installed, you should now be able to access your remote computer via Splashtop.
Tools like Splashtop allow you to use your local device as a remote control—making accessing the remote desktop as simple as logging in. Splashtop also provides additional support to make this experience as seamless impossible.
Tools like USB device redirection and multi-monitor support allow users on the local device the ability to connect into the remote device and use those USB devices normally. Tools like webcams and drawing tablets work just as they would with a computer in-person as they do via remote desktop software.
Industries That Use Remote Desktop Software
With remote work becoming more common, more industries are adopting remote desktop software as part of their everyday workflow. Here are examples of how different industries are using remote desktop software in their day-to-day business.
Technology
Digital media company Beyond Digital Solutions needed a way to manage a variety of digital signage devices across many different continents. After adopting Splashtop Enterprise, the team was able to minimize the downtime of their digital signage campaigns, support both clients and employees with a non-invasive remote desktop tool, allow IT staff to access devices simultaneously, and enable employees to work remotely from their own devices.
Education
Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) uses Splashtop Enterprise to remotely support over 2,200 devices across 140 sites. The team was able to deploy Splashtop Streamer onto the many different devices the team managed so IT can remote into the device through the Splashtop App.
In addition, the team was drawn to the security features of Splashtop Enterprise, mainly two-factor authentication. With thousands of devices under the teams control, they wanted to ensure security of all of those devices, should an unqualified individual gain access to a technician’s credentials.
Media & Entertainment
The team at Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) in New Zealand was looking for a way to keep their post-production processes running smoothly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team needed remote desktop software that could run specialized software like Avid Media Composer and DaVinci Resolve, while still providing the same security they receive from their in-office desktops.
The team chose Splashtop Enterprise as their solution of choice due to the high-performance and usability to provide up to 60 fps for remote sessions. In addition, security features like single sign-on integration and multi-factor authentication gave leaders the peace of mind when it comes to security.
Healthcare
The team at Slingeland Hospital’s Sensing Clinic needed to develop a process to continuously monitor patient vital signs while preventing the spread of COVID-19 to staff and other patients. The team needed a way to continuously gather data, while minimizing interactions between patients and medical staff.
The team chose to adopt Splashtop On-Prem to continuously monitor patients while maintaining the data security needed to protect patient data. Clinicians were able to create more efficient visits with their patients, as they were able to know what patients needed based on regularly monitored data.
Try Remote Desktop Software Free with Splashtop
Interested in seeing how remote desktop software can work for your team? See for yourself how simple it is to use remote desktop software with a free trial of Splashtop.
Splashtop remote desktop software supports Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, Linux, and Chromebook devices, ensuring you can enjoy a seamless remote desktop experience to your remote computer no matter the device you’re using. You’ll feel as if you were sitting in front of the remote desktop.
