Two phones, both configured to be in “work” or “personal” mode are also essential.
Two laptops configured to do most work communications are essential for the redundancy required for risky DNB living.
Setup the phone to use Android’s “work” apps that are separated from other apps on the same phone. When work is over, disable the work button from the main settings to turn down all the pings and communications from work. Ensure one of the applications under “work” is the corporate VPN software so that the phone can access internal servers and resources.
One great advantage of using a personal system also for cloud-enabled-and-secured communications is that when your wife sends you scans of documents that arrived in the mail or are needed from home they come to an email account to which I have access since it is my personal system. Then I can easily copy them over to whoever needs them at work (usually HR).
Buy a portable stand and foldable, portable keyboard with track pad for the phone, which can be used as an alternative if the professional laptop dies or is unavailable. Almost anything that could be done from the laptop can be done from the phone with a keyboard. Using the phone for quick things that require internal access will also save a lot of power otherwise needed to wake up the laptop.
Install RealVNC (or equivalent) on personal laptop and phone to access and control home lab systems remotely. RealVNC is surprisingly powerful when used from a phone. This is critical when livestreaming from a “home” system and needing to control OBS remotely, which is entirely possible from a phone.
If you have a choice, keep the laptop hardware profiles as light and battery-friendly as possible, preferably 14” with Arm chips. If more power is needed access is remotely via secure shell or remote desktop software (preferably VNC).
Configure the VPN on the work laptop for work that requires remote access to critical work systems.
Create a Chrome profile and log into as many of the sites and apps as possible on both laptops. This way if something happens to one laptop on the road you can simply use the redundant backup. There are a suprising number of applications that work from any device and profile by logging into “your SSO provider” and simply using your work email..
Leverage both laptops and the phone as if having three screens on a single system, one for notifications, one for written communications and interactive huddles, and the other for proprietary coding and internal systems access. Keep the systems off that are not needed to preserve battery. For example, when attending a meeting there is no reason to keep the VPN/professional machine on.