Essential Tools for the Digital Nomad Part 1
We can still remember the days when Wi-Fi wasn’t a widely available amenity in public places. A pound was worth a pound in those halcyon days, and one would have to connect to the internet using a dongle, which at the time was, erroneously, lauded to be the future of remote working.
Today, however, remote working is a serious business and where once an office was the bastion of productivity, now the great business deals of the economy are sought from the many cafes and parks of the country. In line with the massively impressive development of mobile technology, an enormous array of applications and tools have been developed to put the power of business into the palm of the remote worker’s hand, and in this article we will highlight what we believe to be some of the essential tools.
Laptop/Tablet
Whilst the oppressive onwards march of technology means that mobile phones are becoming more and more powerful as business tools, we are not yet at the point where running your business affairs completely from the palm of your hand is perfectly seamless. Therefore, we aren’t yet ready to ditch the laptop or tablet as they are an essential multitasking tool. A brilliant leap in the mobile world was the development of the ‘phablet’, a bigger phone aimed at tablet users. This has been mirrored in the laptop world, and there are many laptop/tablet combinations which not only provide administrative power, but great presentation capabilities to.
Global Hotspot
It cannot always be assumed that there will be reliable or robust Wi-Fi connections for you to work from, so a backup is essential. There are several options available to offer portable Wi-Fi, such as Skyroam which seems to be favoured by those workers who frequently travel abroad.
Cloud Storage
When working on the move, portable hard drives aren’t always ideal and are just another thing to misplace or leave behind. This is not only something that can affect productivity, but also puts your clients’ potentially sensitive data at risk. Cloud storage is a brilliant solution, meaning you can access all of your documents and projects wherever you are provided you have internet access. Moreover, when you save something it will sync automatically to every device you have. A massive boon to productivity!
VPN (Virtual Private Network)
When using public Wi-Fi networks you are never 100% safe from having your device hijacked by a third party. You cannot take for granted that the network provider has taken the necessary precautions to ensure you are safe. A virtual private network redirects your connection to the internet through a remote server, using that as a platform to access the internet. This adds extra layers of protection and ensures you and your work are protected as much as possible.
