Remote desktop support solutions provide users the capability to directly interface with a PC over an internal network or the internet for support purposes such as software updates, troubleshooting, etc. The majority of these 3
rd party solutions operate under the software as a service (SaaS) model, requiring users to purchase subscription based licensing to access the software.
This has been the widely accepted model for the past decade with companies like LogMeIn and Webex implementing recurring costs ranging from $50-$100/month per user. These solutions have established a solid market and have a huge global customer base, but this model is not ideal for all companies. Small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) and even some large organizations often have a tough time incurring the high monthly cost and there are also the security concerns. Regardless of the promises, documentation, and visibility provided some customers just do not like their information travelling through the server connections of 3rd party companies, many military organizations and contractors have implemented their own solutions over the years specifically for this reason.
A result of these concerns has launched a new series of remote support solutions that are designed to be hosted by the user which means all security concerns can be managed internally and the overall cost of ownership is significantly less. With no annual or monthly costs, most users expect to see significantly less feature sets but that is not the case. Our product ScreenConnect provides
- Support for Linux, MAC, and PC
- Has screen recording capability
- Manages UAC for Vista and Windows 7
- Dual monitor support
- Can configure theme and external appearance to match company branding
- Logging
- And much more
Will self hosted solutions be the direction of the future? Most likely many companies will still see value in hosted solutions, they keep things simple from an infrastructure perspective but you pay heavily for that simplicity. The hopes of tools like ScreenConnect is that we can continually make it easier for business and IT groups alike to adopt and that the cost savings will justify the transition.