Marc Pfeiffer, assistant director of the Local Government Research Center at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, said municipal officials need to update their understanding of computer systems as well as their software.
“It’s not whether a system is ‘closed’ or not,” Pfeiffer said in an email. “A network that is connected to the internet in some way is not closed. What many places are doing are using a wide range of software and technical services to create a ‘virtual private network.’”
But, Pfeiffer added, “When properly configured software is installed on an employee’s laptop or home computer and the host network has properly configured servers, an employee can work at home pretty much the same way they work at the office.”
