System requirements: BMD Cloud

1. Access to BMD Cloud

The cloud system is particularly secure, and there are three ways to access it:

1. We recommend using a firewall that automatically establishes a VPN tunnel to BMD Cloud. This is the preferred method. The firewall should also support bandwidth management. We would be happy to check your existing firewall to see if it meets these requirements. We can provide you with a customised offer upon request.
2. If you do not have a firewall, you can also install a VPN client on your computers. The BMD IT support team will provide you with the configuration and the required software. Your field staff will also be able to work as usual from anywhere via a locally installed VPN client.
3. Your internet access has a static public IP address. Once it has been entered in the firewall of the cloud system, you can access the cloud servers directly via the internet.

2. Basic information on the BMD Cloud services

• A good internet connection is absolutely necessary (Business xDSL or the like).
• You should establish a VPN connection using a firewall.
• You should have bandwidth management (to avoid delays caused, for example, by internet downloads).
• The bandwidth of the connections must be sized according to the number of users (rule of thumb: 400 kbit × number of users + 500 spare kbit), but in general, more is better.
• Please make sure that the bandwidth is available in both directions!
• Which software do you want to use centrally? Can software that is not available on the BMD Cloud server be installed locally on a computer?
• If you want to print directly from the BMD environment without a report generator, you have to use network printers (addressable via an IP address). You cannot use GDI printers in the cloud environment.
• Using thin clients is possible in all of the described setups. The advantage of such devices is that they can be configured very quickly. Moreover, the acquisition and operating costs are considerably lower than for a regular computer. The devices do not take up much space and are noiseless.
• If you want to use a scanner, you can integrate it into the remote desktop session via the Parallels Client (just like a local printer). Alternatively, you can also use a permanent VPN tunnel via a separate firewall. To do this, the scanner must be connected to a normal computer (it is not possible to use a thin client as a scanner workstation) and it is addressed with a special local service. In this way, one scanner can be used by several users.
• Multi-factor authentication is also available as an option and can be purchased as an additional package.