The world has changed

And so has the way we work. Work is no longer a place we go, but something we do, and the future of work means that more of us can work from anywhere. While some will return to the office, others will continue to work from home. What is certain, is that this hybrid approach is here to stay, and for some, it is changing how we utilize office space and collaborate with our colleagues. While this new way of work offers end-users more flexibility and can help productivity, it introduces new challenges for IT and the business around management, cost, security, compliance, and safety.

Coupled with the cloud, fast, stable, and secure internet connections have helped transform how people access their digital workspaces without the need for slow, unreliable VPN solutions. But while many applications communicate securely over the public internet, IT are commonly left to secure and manage end-users and their endpoints with a toolset that was not designed for the internet. Patching, updates, remote control, and asset management tools, historically were designed to work on-prem, while costly, slow-performing VPNs can affect user experience and are oftentimes unreliable.

In this new world of work, the office is also changing. The office is becoming more of a meeting place rather than just a desk for people to work from. While working from home can offer more time to focus, the office of the future will allow people more opportunities to think, be creative, and collaborate.

Personal office desks are being replaced with hot desking booths and meeting rooms are being transformed into collaboration spaces. This changes how IT delivers and manages endpoints and the office network. Shared devices and shared networks mean employees can drop in and drop out of the office, and yet work in the same way as they do at home or in the coffee shop. Treating the office network as ‘dirty’ and enabling shared workspaces allows employees to run their workspace anywhere, in any room, and on any device, and allow IT to have the same strategy for home and office work.