There is no doubt that the modern workplace has evolved over the past two years in many ways. The covid-19 pandemic, paired with the growing age of information technology, has given rise to drastic changes within the workplace itself. The traditional 9-to-5 office grind has transformed into a much more flexible, collaborative and diverse environment for each end-user. However, these changes do not come without presenting challenges for the workplace. The modern workplace has become more complex, with an increasingly hybrid workforce. Application delivery, cybersecurity and infrastructure must adapt to meet digital transformation changes. Here are some main challenges facing the modern workplace and how companies can address them.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most companies were forced to close their offices and allow employees to work from home. As of March 2021, over 30% of Canadian workers were working remotely, most of whom were office workers. Compared to 2016, when only 4% of Canadians were working remotely, it is evident that the shift towards a hybrid workforce has been greatly accelerated due to the pandemic. However, as the pandemic starts to die and offices are allowed to re-open, 61% of these remote workers choose. What does this mean for businesses? Several risk factors come with having a hybrid or fully remote workforce. No matter how or where your employees are accessing corporate data, apps, or information, it is critical to have end-to-end security. Moreover, application delivery, network and device issues, and collaboration can be challenging with a predominantly remote workforce. Therefore, companies must envision and implement a modern workplace solution that drives productivity and collaboration for their end-users while maintaining adequate security controls to protect business data.
In the last year, cybercriminals delivered a wave of cyber-attacks that were not just highly coordinated but far more advanced than ever. Cybercrime is now more lucrative than ever, and global cybercrime costs are expected to grow by 15% per year, reaching USD 10.5 trillion by 2025. As businesses modernize and move to the cloud, data and application security becomes imperative. Over 40% of Canadians experienced a cyber security incident within the first several months of the pandemic, with many companies reporting a loss of time, data, or money. Unfortunately, many businesses still do not have a cohesive security strategy and reactively respond to security issues without being prepared. For even the most adept IT, cybersecurity can be too challenging to manage without help. A managed services company like Gibraltar Solutions can help your business understand the security landscape, assess vulnerabilities in your security architecture, and build a long-term strategic plan that reflects and complements your organization’s business objectives.
The complexity of business environments is another challenge with the constantly evolving modern workplace. More than ever, end-users are now incorporating several different devices into their work. Everything from mobile devices to tablets to laptops and desktops requires company data and application access. This increases the number of applications, security measures and the types of infrastructure a company needs to have in place to support all devices. As companies grow and scale, different departments will need access to other applications with varying access levels.
Additionally, adapting to the modern workplace and accommodating the increasingly remote workforce means moving applications and data to the cloud. All these requirements bring much complexity regarding securing data and applications. Between software, hardware, networks and data centers, a wide variety of skills and experience are required to navigate, manage, automate, optimize and secure the complex modern workplace while maintaining an excellent end-user experience. A managed services provider can help you design, implement and ensure infrastructure to enhance operational agility and improve the productivity of your IT team and your end-users.
The modern workplace looks much different from what it was decades ago, and it will no doubt continue to change and evolve in the future. Organizations must adapt and grow with it to stay relevant and agile.
