How to manage machines that live on the internet as advocated by the Jericho Forum

System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) includes an important new feature termed "Internet-Based Client Management". There is a growing trend for large organisations to have remote workers who hardly ever connect to the corporate network.

The Jericho Forum (named after the first walled city) are an industry body representing a diverse range of companies who advocate internet based corporate connectivity and who challenge software vendors to deliver products that no longer require the old fortress concept of "all's safe within my internal network and I'll extend full connectivity via VPN to my people outside".

Thankfully (from a security perspective at least) the demise of the Virtual Private Network (VPN) is underway. No longer are people establishing full network connectivity to their corporate network simply to pick up email. The idea of extending the corporate network to mobile devices unless absolutely necessary is finally being questioned. I know that SSL-VPNs remain trendy (even though they are an oxymorn - as you don't actually get an address on the internal network) and that some organisations will take a long time to change their ways...

SCCM's Internet Based Client Management allows central management to take place via an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) connection (it's actually HTTP over SSL - hence HTTPS). For users it's really straight forward. If they have internet connectivity then they are within reach of System Center. We continue to use Background Intelligent Transfer System (BITS) so SCCM won't take over the bandwidth and will seamlessly suspend and resume data transmission according to bandwidth availability.