Item: TeamViewer
Rating: 9
Author: Ben Guyton

Overall Satisfaction

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The problem was VPN. Our companies VPN works great; however, most of our developers quickly adapted to using Virtual Machines to lower the risk of losing information and creating an environment not bogged down with corporate software to which made the VM's unable to access corporate resources. TeamViewer was a light weight solution. It allowed me to not only access my PC but also access my VM and share files and resources between the two. In my satisfaction I went on to deploy the software within my own LAN, my smartphone and tablet.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Passthough of audio allows you to hear what the remote PC is playing.
Android controls are great and simple.
System warnings of computers attached to your account is automatic. As soon as you sign in you are notified when a computer has low disc space and etc..
The portable edition is my favorite. When in situations in which you cannot install or download TeamViewer, it is always a good plan to have the portable edition this allows you to run the TeamViewer All-In-One app without installing it on the PC.

Cons

I have yet to find a way to wake a sleeping computer through TeamViewer. Some of my setups automatically fall asleep to save energy. To wake them I would have to use TeamViewer to log into one of my servers and then use another 3rd party app to wake up other PCs before attempting to connect to them.
At times connections seem to drop unexpectedly, which is not a big deal; however, does become an issue if you are using the smartphone version or was in the middle of a file transfer.
The web connection and remote management needs improvement. If you have the app installed or the portable version this is a better way than using the web-based version.

Return on Investment

Increased productivity
Increased accessibility
A better view at assets and accountability of those assets.
Medium to high initial cost, depending on usage and implementation.

Alternatives Considered

LogMeIn Pro

Once again this is based on my need to "access" vs. "manage". Sitting TeamViewer against LogMeIn was hard. Both applications are very good; however, when it comes to purely access, TeamViewer excels. LogMeIn is a very good solution however the initial implementation for just purely access and making resources more accessible is too high of a challenge and involves more moving parts than TeamViewer. Then again, when it comes to management LogMeIn is a brute; however, just barley pulls off a win in comparison to TeamViewer. TeamViewer only lacks a few features when it’s compared to LogMeIn within the "remote management" category.

Likelihood to Renew

Because my focus is more on access than management, TeamViewer still incorporates everything that I am looking for in a remote access solution. A value add is the management features, even though they are not as well developed as other competitors they still are pretty good in regards to my original goals.

Likelihood to Recommend

One key question in deciding about tools like TeamViewer would be the "Remote Access vs Remote Management". TeamViewer on the scale of remote access wins in all categories. It is easy to use, light weight, doesn't take up many resources, almost effortless connection and very intuitive. Remote management poses a different set of challenges: this means that you can remotely manage the same as if you were administering the system at the rack. I should be able to check for new versions of software, install/uninstall software, be able to set alerts and notifications, manage access to systems and other servers, and also manage other management accounts. While TeamViewer does most of this, there are other competitors that deserve looking at.

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