Remote Work Tools

We are just 3 months into the 2020s, and it’s shaping up to be the worst year of the decade… COVID19 has wrecked havoc all over the world and we can see its economic impact on stock markets. As people world over have started practicing social distancing and workplaces have shut down, remote work is on the rise. Not every job can be done remotely. But if you work with computers, there are good chances that you can continue your work remotely.

By now, there are probably thousands of articles available on internet about remote working. So, I’ll not go into the details about the importance of reliable internet connection or quiet working space. Rather, I want to highlight a few tools which will make a great difference in you remote working experience at minimal expenses.

Collaboration

My only suggestion here is to use Google Docs & Gmail. No introductions are needed here. If you are already using have Google docs for business, bonus points. As it is widely known platform, I’ll not go into details.

However, if you are concerned about privacy and security of data, you can consider deploying your own cloud instance with Nextcloud. We can also deploy and maintain a Nextcloud instance for you.

Meetings

Doing remote meetings will require good voice quality, maybe video and screen sharing. For that, I suggest using Discord.

I’ll be honest. Discord doesn’t give the most “enterprisey” or “serious work” feeling. It’s mainly designed and targeted for gamers. However that doesn’t discount it from being an excellent communication platform if you can look past its quirky user interface. It can be an excellent tool for meetings as its video call features support upto 10 people. What’s more, any one of them can share their screen whenever they like. Making it an excellent tool for conference calls. In some ways it works better than actual “enterprisey” platforms. And it’s totally free.

VPN

A VPN is a service that allows remote computers to talk to each other as if they are part of a single network. If your company already has an VPN that’s great. But if you don’t, setting up one in a hurry is nigh impossible. But since you are reading this, you don’t need to. Instead, use Zerotier. Seriously. This piece of software is so good as so under the radar of most companies, it’s not even funny.

Zerotier will allow you to create a virtual network in matter of minutes. Once the network is set up, each member system will be able to talk to each other as if they are in a LAN. Doesn’t matter if it’s 10 feet away or 100KMs away. The only thing required is an internet connection at both ends. Did I mention it’s also totally free?

Hopefully these tools will help you and your team stay productive during this time of crisis.

Stay home. Stay safe. Happy remote working!