Different qualifications for "remote support."
I think "remote" support can really be broken down a few different ways. I don't consider users in my branch offices "remote users." They are inside the firewall, and the company owns, and can control via policies, the computers they use. There is remote support software, (Teamviewer, VNC, etc.) installed. They have native access to all company tools (because they are inside the firewall.) Head office and all branches have fiber connections to the net. The only way in which such users are "remote" is that there is not physically an IT body on location. (We have webcams, however, and can walk people through the basics.)
We keep spare desktops on site, and only RARELY have had to have someone at a branch office do more work on a server than "unplug the cords from the back, take it off the rack, put it in a box, and send it to head office."
So to the Freeform Dynamics guys: I think you are missing a big part of your polls and articles here: what DO people consider remote users? Why do they hold that qualification?
Things like VDI blur the lines a bit...because the VM that someone is using is certainly inside the corporate firewall, even if the [insert random device here] they are using to access it is not. So if they use VDI, they fall into a sort of "semi-remote user" category. Everything they do insofar as access to secured corporate information can be and is treated as though they were local users. The only "remote" part is that their access device may explode, and they are using an internet connection not provided by or administered by the company. This makes getting them a spare unit something that requires at least a day for overnight shipping, and internet access ends up completely out of my hands.
For me a true "remote user" is anyone who has to operate primarily outside the corporate firewall. They have requirements to synchronize data to a remote device. That device is often something that the user believes is theirs, and treats it as such. (Even if it is supplied by the company.) They will install whatever they please on it, (and if you don’t allow them to, they will find another geek to bypass whatever security you put in place.) They also generally have much threadier access to the internet. (Hotel WiFi, Airport hotspots, etc.) Their access to secured information needs to be tiered, based on the device and methodology they use to access the information. The security concerns are totally out of proportion compared to VDI, or a company controlled computer that lives inside the corporate firewall.
So, again to the Freeform Dynamics guys: I don’t believe that you can simply lump “anyone that the geeks don’t have physical access to the user’s PC” as a “remote user.” By my definitions at least, the low cost of hardware (allowing a real business case for maintaining spare units at branch offices,) modern remote support software and corporate site-to-site VPN bridges have rendered the traditional “physical access to the PC” definition of “remote user” obsolete.