Sunday, December 2, 2012

re:Badger Questions and Concerns for industrial users

Pradeep,

As a current user of Badger I’m sure you’ve been relieved to see that much of the look and feel of the application is identical to that of Coral and that there are a number of enhancements that benefit members and staff alike. In addition to the presentations a couple of months ago, more information on the conversion specifics will be available shortly. Rest assured that every effort is being made to make the transition as painless as possible.

It is true that Badger, like so many software resources at Stanford and elsewhere, restricts offsite access. Stanford does supply a VPN client that enables offsite use of the application in most cases. I understand that your employer has a particularly restrictive policy concerning this. I can certainly appreciate their concerns for the security of mission critical resources and would only add that, firewalls, data encryption and increasingly complex authentication strategies are a sometimes annoying, but inevitable consequence of the need for data and application security in the face of sophisticated threats. I have used the Stanford VPN successfully for years and have found it to be robust and reliable. I’m hopeful that most members, like myself, will find that offsite access from home, work or the local café will not be an issue.  

The good news on multiple accounts is that Badger can support functionality identical to that of Coral. We will have more information on this and other issues in the very near future.  Again, we are committed to making the conversion to Badger as seamless as possible and expect most members to find that the conversion will make the scheduling and use of equipment in Stanford’s shared labs more convenient.

Regards,

Michael Bell

 

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