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Google Moves Its Corporate Applications to the Internet

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Re: Google Moves Its Corporate Applications to the Internet

#31
post #20

As a remote worker, it's delightful to see things move in this direction, as VPNs are a regular thorn in my side. Of course, there's a certain irony that Google isn't fond of remote workers. :)

Why are VPNs a problem for you?

It's hard to fully trust a person that is remote. Are they keeping your data safe?

Another solution is the idea of Amazons virtual workspaces for remote workers, this allows the company to have more control over the computer that the employee is using.

Re: Google Moves Its Corporate Applications to the Internet

#32
post #13

We tried this where I worked (with the exception of the evil desktop app financial program)... and had to retract after a zero day defacement in one of our web apps. In the meantime we also learned that keeping all of your web apps 100% up to date at all times is really freaking difficult. The good news is that the (failed) attempt got us off of a few client side applications and made us much more platform agnostic t…

The only way to succeed with this is with heavy firewalling or VPNs. There are several unknown zero days in any application so just by opening up your application to 0.0.0.0/0 makes it possible for blackhats to get in. The only question is how much your information is worth for somebody. If you it is less than price of a brand new zero day you might be ok, but there are still the script kiddies and political blackhat organizations who mass deface any site that has a "zero day" vuln, (zero day means in this case: unknown to the operators of the site).

Re: Google Moves Its Corporate Applications to the Internet

#33
post #20

As a remote worker, it's delightful to see things move in this direction, as VPNs are a regular thorn in my side. Of course, there's a certain irony that Google isn't fond of remote workers. :)

Few workplaces are fond of remote workers. The major reason a lot of people remain employed is so they have a purpose to wake up, leave their houses, and spend the day occupied by the relative comfort of an office building, surrounded by reasonably-intelligent coworkers, as a faux-family. And it's a slap in their face that you don't want to spend your time basking in their physical proximity.

Interesting way of putting that perspective. I have been trying to put my finger on the whole remote working issue for a while. What you expressed is one aspect to the issue, but I also think that it is probably just an intermediary symptom, a phantom / false cause if you will. Personally I think we would see a lot more remote working and even a social revolution if at very least the incentives for physical office space were removed from tax and accounting policy. Remote working is really a difficult nut to crack that has a significant cleft between it's potential and present reality.

I guarantee that the company that can scale up effective remote working that has severed the tether to co-located organizational structure will be wildly successful. Unfortunately, I think it will also have major social repercussions similar to the impact that autonomous transportation has the potential for causing.

Re: Google Moves Its Corporate Applications to the Internet

#35
post #31
post #20

As a remote worker, it's delightful to see things move in this direction, as VPNs are a regular thorn in my side. Of course, there's a certain irony that Google isn't fond of remote workers. :)

Why are VPNs a problem for you? It's hard to fully trust a person that is remote. Are they keeping your data safe? Another solution is the idea of Amazons virtual workspaces for remote workers, this allows the company to have more control over the computer that the employee is using.

VPNs break down, are filtered out or throttled by ISPs, etc. The office internet is usually significantly more reliable.

Re: Google Moves Its Corporate Applications to the Internet

#36
post #20

As a remote worker, it's delightful to see things move in this direction, as VPNs are a regular thorn in my side. Of course, there's a certain irony that Google isn't fond of remote workers. :)

Few workplaces are fond of remote workers. The major reason a lot of people remain employed is so they have a purpose to wake up, leave their houses, and spend the day occupied by the relative comfort of an office building, surrounded by reasonably-intelligent coworkers, as a faux-family. And it's a slap in their face that you don't want to spend your time basking in their physical proximity.

Communication and management overhead of remote workers is harder to do right. Like functional programming.

Re: Google Moves Its Corporate Applications to the Internet

#37
It's nice to see companies moving towards taking security more seriously, but boy oh boy some of it is a real pain in the ass. Every website you log into now needs to text you, or have a companion app or whatever. Every time you lock your screen to get a cup of water or take a leak, you have to log back in, wait for your flaky vpn connection to come back before you can resume what you were doing (maybe not an issue here if they actually do away with the VPN). "Credentials" often comes down to typing very long cryptic passphrases, on a glass screen, with dots instead of being able to see what you're typing. Et cetera.

Re: Google Moves Its Corporate Applications to the Internet

#38
I'm so happy to see this. As Bruce Schneier (who runs an open WiFi network at home) explains, "if my computer isn't secure on a public network, securing my own network isn't going to reduce my risk very much."[1]

The same is true for corporate applications (and devices like printers). If they're not secure on a public network, securing the corporate network won't reduce their risk that much: they're still exposed to potential breaches elsewhere in the corporate network.

--

[1] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/my_open_wirel...

Re: Google Moves Its Corporate Applications to the Internet

#39
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few workplaces are fond of remote workers. The major reason a lot of people remain employed is so they have a purpose to wake up, leave their houses, and spend the day occupied by the relative comfort of an office building, surrounded by reasonably-intelligent coworkers, as a faux-family. And it's a slap in their face that you don't want to spend your time basking in their physical proximity.

Communication and management overhead of remote workers is harder to do right. Like functional programming.

with modern software, it's only hard to do right if they're not at their laptop/workstation. which means they're doing some other shit other than working.

our entire team is remote. it's really obvious when someone isn't at their computer. it's basically the only hard requirement of the job beyond the work product - be at your computer when you say you are going to be at your computer.

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