The University of Georgia Supports Classrooms of the Future with Bomgar

February 8, 2012

Tools

Bomgar’s Secure Remote Solution Helps UGA Extend Support to Mobile Phones and Tablets

JACKSON, Miss.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Bomgar, the secure remote support solution for the mobile enterprise, announced today that The University of Georgia is using Bomgar’s solution to provide secure remote support to both the traditional and mobile devices utilized on its campus. UGA does not require that its more than 34,000 students and nearly 10,000 employees standardize on a particular technology platform, and chose Bomgar for its proven ability to provide support to a wide variety of devices.

A key element in UGA’s search for a remote support provider was the University’s need to migrate separately-hosted email and calendar applications into a single solution. UGA supports over 100,000 email accounts running on Apple, Linux and Windows machines, in addition to smartphones and tablets on iOS and Android operating systems. Given the number and multitude of devices, it became clear the project needed a strong remote support partner in order to successfully prepare these disparate systems for the migration. UGA’s Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS) department considered a number of possible options for remote support, but ultimately selected Bomgar when they learned other departments were already using it across campus.

“With over 100,000 email accounts at the University, we knew the migration project would require a remote support solution to get everyone’s desktop and mobile devices set up,” said Rachel Moorehead, IT professional specialist at UGA. “Many of the solutions we reviewed seemed very limited in the devices they supported. Bomgar impressed us as being innovative with regard to both the range of devices it supported and its constant release updates to stay in front of new technologies.”

Security was also a top priority for UGA’s support needs as it must follow the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. While Moorehead and her team discourage the transfer of sensitive information in help desk operations, they cannot always control the data a student or staff member might share in a session. Because Bomgar offers a physical appliance that can be hosted within UGA’s secure network on campus and easily integrated into its existing LDAP user authentication system, unlike many competitors that require an interface with a third-party server, UGA is able to mitigate some of these security concerns.

Nathan McNeill, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Bomgar, emphasizes the importance of security when utilizing remote support and remote access tools. “Data breach reports released in the last two years have pointed to remote support and remote access tools as being one of the main attack pathways used by hackers. Placing the transmission and storage of sensitive data in the hands of your IT department not only secures the data of your organization, but also the data of those whom you support.”

After utilizing Bomgar to complete the calendar migration project, UGA’s help desk technicians are now tapping the solution for a range of support needs across its main and extended campuses. Looking ahead, UGA sees more opportunity for Bomgar to support the University’s IT professionals with a big push on the horizon to mobilize their technicians. “Our campus is very large, so it’s great if a technician can collaborate and provide immediate support from their iPad if they are away from the helpdesk. With Bomgar, we can do that,” continued Moorehead.

For a full case study about University of Georgia’s use of Bomgar, please visit: www.bomgar.com/customers.

For more information about the Bomgar remote support solution, please visit: www.bomgar.com.

About Bomgar

Bomgar is the leader in secure remote support software for a mobile world. The company’s appliance-based products enable organizations to improve IT support efficiency by allowing support representatives to securely support any device or system, any platform, anywhere (Smartphone to Server). 6,500 companies across 65 countries – including 19 of the Fortune 50 – have deployed Bomgar to rapidly improve customer satisfaction while dramatically reducing costs. Bomgar is privately-held with offices in Jackson, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Paris and London. In 2011, Bomgar was named one of the fastest-growing technology companies in America by Deloitte, and one of America’s fastest-growing private companies by Inc. magazine.