The Connected Home

Situation

In today’s world, technology is the key to staying connected. This holds true for our corporate business clients as well as our high-profile residential clients. In fact, many of our residential clients employ our services because they want the same level of IT expertise at home as they have in the office.

In this specific case, our client was a prominent, high-level executive who had a passion for staying current with the latest and greatest technology. Our task was to set up secure remote access between his primary and secondary residences, as well as set up computers for the entire family and create a wireless network for printing, file sharing, and media sharing between the two residences.

Solution Design

Through the Solution Design process, our first objective was to identify the technology comfort level of the parents and kids to help us figure out the best computer and software package for each individual.

We determined that all the household members needed desktop iMacs at the primary residence, with the exception of one of their kids who needed a MacBook Pro laptop to take to school. At the secondary residence, we concluded that there needed to be one shared computer for the whole family to use.

Two VPN (Virtual Private Network) firewalls, one at each home, would also make it possible for remote secure networking between the residences. As the final part of our plan, we scoped a full training session on all the computers and the VPN.

Approach

Once the Solution Design was complete, our next step was to order the hardware and software. To ensure everything was in working order, we first set everything up at the AW Systems office, including all the software, basic user accounts for the kids, and master accounts for the parents, so they would have administration privileges.

After verifying that all systems were go, the computers and printers were installed in the primary and secondary residences. Next, we set up the two SonicWall VPN firewalls to create secure remote access networking. Our final step was to train the entire family on how to get the most out of their new technology, whether they want to create a video of their family vacation or write a book report for school.

Results

By taking on the role of their personal IT department, we were able to put the pieces of the technology puzzle together for our client. Through ongoing support, maintenance, upgrades, and training, our dedicated team will make sure his family stays connected to their technology from just about anywhere.