It’s time to level up the network for the hybrid workforce
Prakash Mana, CEO, Cloudbrink
“Enterprises are deploying a mix of technologies for secure remote access, including VPN, ZTNA, SD-WAN and SASE — on average respondents are using 2.3 different solutions, but…”
Surveys
According to Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) research commissioned by Cloudbrink, 42% of the workforce works out of the office for at least two days a week — a figure expected to reach 49% by 2025
Yet the EMA survey of 354 IT professionals found multiple challenges for enterprises in adapting their networks to the needs of the hybrid workforce.
The company — a global 500 enterprise — ran tests using its existing SD-WAN, VPN and ZTNA solutions but found none of them able to address the remote developer use case.
Trade-offs between security and performance are common and the EMA research suggests that IT departments have come to accept them as inevitable.
Hybrid working network solutions are failing
- The number of users working remotely has multiplied
- IT no longer always controls how users are connecting to enterprise networks
- Hardware rollouts designed to overcome connectivity problems at remote locations increase short term costs
- It takes longer to resolve technical problems for remote users
Tackling a world designed for offices and DCs
The EMA report identified four priorities driving CIO’s hybrid workplace strategies: employee productivity (45%), security (42%), employee satisfaction (39%) and operational overhead (33%).
Secure remote access options
It noted that while many current solutions can address the security requirements, many fall short of the requirements for performance and user experience.
The task ahead is to ensure parity of experience for staff regardless of their location — or risk creating an underclass of hybrid workers with low job satisfaction and suboptimal productivity.
Get In Touch
Prakash Mana is the CEO and founder of Cloudbrink, which provides high-performance secure application access as a service. He held previous leadership roles at Pulse Secure and Citrix.
