In the wake of a global crisis, it’s not an overstatement to say that the workplace landscape has been forever transformed by remote working. As IT leaders feel the pressure of securing and enabling this new way of working, we ask whether it’s possible, without over-stretching budgets.
There’s nothing like a global crisis to galvanise organisations into taking up rapid digital transformation. With a mandate to keep workers at home, many employers needed to accelerate whatever plans and measures they already had to enable remote working, introducing new measures, hiring policies, and technologies to ensure business continuity at a troubling time.
As the dust (thankfully) begins to settle, the modern workplace landscape is one far removed from what most of us have been used to so far. No longer is the office the centre of the world, with many employers adopting either a hybrid workplace stance, or a completely remote approach.
While this is somewhat expected as we transition back to some semblance of normality, in many cases it simply represents some employers’ long-term ambitions. For those hiring during the pandemic, the remote nature of the workplace has opened the door to the benefits and possibilities of hiring much further afield; employers have been able to tap into new talent without the need for travel expenses or a long commute removed from negotiations.
As we proceed with this new way of working, it’s unlikely that sentiment towards long-distance talent or employees who have found a new family-job balance that works for them will suddenly change, meaning that remote working – in one form or another – is staying for the foreseeable future.
The Challenge for IT Leaders
While remote and hybrid working have been beneficial for some, others are facing a whole new raft of challenges in the wake of the transformed workplace.
A recent survey by JumpCloud highlighted the pressures IT leaders are facing when it comes to enabling and securing remote workers – despite restrictive budgets, growing workloads, and a list of ever-evolving threats to contend with.
The results of the survey are nothing short of fascinating: over 60% of the respondents thought that their enterprise was splashing out on more identity tooling than needed, while 56% plainly revealed that ‘too much’ was being spent on remote working.
Concerns among those surveyed were split between software vulnerabilities (39%), reused credentials (37%), unsecured networks (36%), and device theft (29%). It’s easy to see, then, that IT leaders have a lot to contend with when it comes to securing remote workers, with affordability acting as a substantial barrier to success.
Over half of the respondents, for example, stated that their budgets would be overwhelmingly dedicated to remote working – leaving little funds for other areas of innovation or improvement.
So how do we tackle this discrepancy, without compromising on the security of remote workers and their devices?
Making Secure Remote Working Affordable
The trick – as with most things – is balance. By delving deeper into usage and adoption, for example, organisations can optimise their licensing expenditure, reallocating savings to other areas to make the most of IT budgets.
More specifically to remote working, gaining a stronger view into who is working where and when, as well as understanding security measures being employed across the organisation opens up an opportunity to maximise the investment into securing remote working.
As JumpCloud’s survey respondents made clear, measures such as Zero Trust and multi-factor authentication (MFA) are high priorities for IT departments. Knowing which employees are using these measures correctly can ensure ROI while securing the organisation against future threats.
ITEXACT’s Surveil platform helps organisations to optimise, secure, and control remote working through AI-powered insights and recommendations. Licensing costs can be better managed, identities can be secured, and intelligence-backed decisions can be made to maximise the value of remote working without surrendering security or blowing IT budgets. For IT leaders under pressure, it’s a chance at navigating this new modern workplace with more confidence and transparency.
No Turning Back?
As we continue on this journey together, blinking in the sunlight of a new world, it’s important to come to terms with what will never be the same again – and how we work is likely to remain in this category. After all, remote working was already projected to become more popular; the pandemic merely supercharged what was already happening.
For IT leaders, these new circumstances may seem tense, with significant strategising needed if they’re to navigate the new landscape successfully. Thankfully, it’s possible to enable secure remote working while keeping it affordable – and Surveil is most certainly a shortcut to this outcome.
Interested in finding out more about how Surveil can make secure remote working more affordable? Get in touch to book a free 21-day Surveil Health Check and see the possibilities for yourself.