Our company has VERY strict network policies to keep out spam, viruses, and hackers. In keeping with this policy, they refuse to allow ANYONE access to our Windows 2000 network from the outside (remote users) unless they are a company employee, and even then only under certain conditions. This means that outside vendors can no longer provide software support by remote access. Our satellite offices suffer as a result because any software issues require a vendor service call, when a simple 15 minute remote session could easily resolve the problem. Our only option is to have the office software loaded within corporate’s DMZ, however since HQ are located in another state this would cause tremendous performance issues.
My question is: Does this policy seem extreme, or standard in the corporate world? Any suggestions how to get them to modify their network policies to allow remote software support from outside vendors?