COVID-19 has forced organizations around the world to adopt a ‘new normal’ of working and collaboration
Due to the unprecedented COVID-19 epidemic, many organizations temporarily closed their office locations and allowed their employees to work from home and remote locations. Working from home meant adopting new technologies and IT solutions to enable employees to work and operate out of office efficiently with limited disruption. Initially, it was a backup plan for organizations to maintain business continuity during the COVID-19 situation. After the impact of the pandemic began to ease, many organizations are adjusting, and remote working has become an integral part of their work culture.
In this blog post, you will find three topics that IT professionals need to bear in mind to ensure that the IT infrastructure is ready for remote working.
Ensure your IT infrastructure can support your business
To enable remote working, you need an agile IT infrastructure that can scale and support a fast-paced collaborative working environment. Employees may want to bring their own devices (BYOD) and expect to use modern, up-to-date collaboration software. At the same time, the IT environment needs to support multiple users to access files in a secure and timely manner. A dated IT environment could slow down your entire organizations’ working process.
Solutions to overcome these issues include Microsoft 365 and Windows Virtual Desktop, which are installed within a few hours. Your company is now in the cloud and immediately provides a high security level. You achieve this fast result through best practices and proven standards that are specifically tailored to the requirements of your businesses.
Assure that your IT environment is secure and compliant
Once your IT infrastructure is up to date fit for purpose and ready to enable remote working, the next checklist is to make sure it is secure and compliant. Why is it so important? Because when the data is accessible both internally and externally, the IT Team must ensure that the storage and the accessibility is as secure as possible to avoid security-breaches; two-factor authentication, for example, makes your environment more secure as it adds an extra layer of security. Also, make sure that the technology that your organization is using is compliant to data protection laws including PDPA (Personal Data Protection Act aiming to regulate the collection, use, or disclosure of personal data) or GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union). In case the technology does not comply, be aware that your organization might need another new technology that is more suitable.
Microsoft answers these concerns with a closed ecosystem, which ensures safety and compliance across all services through a central user administration. Azure, Microsoft 365 and Virtual Desktops are available via connects the Active Directory with each other and create a safe and quickly implemented Basis, which new forms of cooperation made possible.
Ensure your company has sufficient IT expertise available to scale your IT transformation in line with your evolving business requirements
In the future, if your company is expanding the business, your IT infrastructure should be ready to support the expansion plans. Markets are changing and so will your organization change. However, do you have an internal team of experts or a trusted external partner that support your remote work enablement plans?
The deployment of an initial remote workplace solution is followed by the operation. The aim is to continuously develop the infrastructure and dynamically adapt it to new requirements. After all, not all requirements and needs can be immediately identified and mapped in the initial planning and roll-out. In the course of time, companies also have access to a growing amount of usage data, that generate new learnings.
Neos IT and Microsoft are constantly developing the solution further and thus offer new possibilities to make your own workplace even more performant, compliant and secure.
If you are not sure how to embark on your journey to enable your employees to work remotely, talk to us for a free assessment of your IT environment.
