The simplicity and complexity of hybrid work

While hybrid work unlocks flexibility, productivity and transparency for the workforce, it exposes the backend networks to vulnerabilities and operational complexities India was one of the first economies to offset losses from the global health crisis of 2020. Thanks to a massive workforce and adoption of new-age technologies, businesses in India – including Indian entities of global organizations – were quick to recover and reset. But everything isn’t hunky dory yet. The new normal of a distributed workplace and a distributed workforce has opened up new challenges of data security, distributed operations and long-term resilience.

Flexibility of time and space
During the critical phase of recovery, businesses in India witnessed eye-boggling statistics of employee attrition, which consequently led to unrealistic salaries and incentive structures that were not viable for business in the long run. Businesses that refused to adapt a work-from-home ideology saw mass exodus of the workforce leaving and seeking more flexible working options. In short, the new-age employee has morphed into a superhero that feeds on a hybrid lifestyle. And to get the most out of this superhero, businesses need to enable flexibility – of time and space, security of the IT network, and simplicity of operations. The good news is that all of these capabilities are now available in a SaaS model for businesses to adopt and grow.

Multi-layer distributed business
Today, the workforce no longer operates from a head or branch office, which is secured by a cosy, well-guarded network. Employees use devices of their choice to connect to networks of their choice from locations of their choice, at a time of their choice. Suddenly, the challenge for the CIO has manifested into a four-legged monster. Suddenly there is a need to one, secure the employee’s endpoint device, two, secure the broadband internet that flows into the device, three, pay attention to protocols and compliance policies of the respective city and country, and four, secure the network at all times, round-the-clock. In short, the network just moved out of the head office into the whole wide world, and suddenly, all of the critical data is floating all over town! The only way to ensure security and transparency is to deploy a combination of software and hardware solutions that provide all-round security while having the ability to unlock business-critical insights from the network.

The need to simplify, automate and secure the network
Today, businesses need to realize that the network is at the heart of hybrid work and ensure that the IT has the network infrastructure to simplify, automate and secure the network. In the new era of distributed work, businesses to need to adopt a ‘security everywhere’ approach that eliminates threats, secures endpoint devices and verifies user identities, while flagging vulnerabilities in real-time and providing remedial insights. The goal of all-encompassing security can be achieved by successfully bridging wired and wireless networks with an intelligent management platform.

In order to provide a powerful yet simplified management experience, technologies like AI and ML can be leveraged to achieved seamless automation and visibility across multiple domains, leading to simplified IT operations and network management. By deploying AI -enabled security at scale, your business can achieve unparalleled visibility within the framework of zero-trust security.

The four key pillars to transform your access network are:
Switching
Wireless solutions
Software
Management platforms

Interoperability and on-demand IT
By deploying secure and resilient switches, your network can achieve interoperability across connectivity protocols, while leveraging AI to unlock insights from capacity, traffic and bandwidth utilization data, to optimize network performance end-to-end. A cloud-first network management platform aligns with your changing business needs by uncovering insights from network data. As we move on to an uncertain future, all of these solutions can be deployed through on-demand, pay-as-you-go subscription models allowing you to ramp-up and ramp-down at will.

People who read this post also read :