Enforcing security on remote endpoints and ensuring remote workers comply with new controls are two annoying problems for IT professionals, Workspot says.
The coronavirus pandemic forced organizations to quickly move to a remote work environment. Such a rapid shift posed several challenges, many of which persist two years later, especially as a hybrid workforce is increasingly the norm. A report released Tuesday by cloud platform provider Workspot examines how the transition to a remote workforce has impacted cybersecurity and other areas for many organizations.
For his report “The Remote State of 2022: A Survey of End-User Computing Decision-Makers”, Workspot commissioned market research firm Dimensional Research to survey 304 IT professionals about their remote workforce. Respondents were all responsible for end-user computing and remote working at companies with more than 200 desktops.
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Nearly all of those surveyed admitted that they face challenges in supporting telecommuters. By far the biggest challenge was security, as 71% specifically pointed to issues with maintaining security in a wide variety of work environments.
The second challenge, mentioned by 60%, was to ensure that remote employees comply with the new controls. Barely, as reported by 59%, ensured user devices deliver the expected performance in remote locations.
Other challenges included managing data on local devices, enabling collaboration for teams, sourcing and delivering the right hardware for remote workers, supporting evolving network requirements, handling more calls to the help desk, identifying and delivering of applications that fit the needs of remote workers, and establishing productive technology environments for remote workers.
The respondents focused on security and identified several specific challenges they faced when securing a remote or hybrid workforce. About 67% said the expanded security perimeter requires new approaches and new tools, 54% said it is more difficult to protect user devices outside the corporate firewall, 51% pointed to challenges in evaluating risk levels for unfamiliar environments, and 48% said using of identity management tools to ensure proper authentication and authorization is more difficult.
With the shift to remote and hybrid work, IT budgets have had to adapt and change accordingly. When asked which parts of the budget would be increased this year, 92% of respondents pointed to security, 78% to cloud infrastructure and 75% to cloud services.
Other areas that required a raise in funding were collaboration tools, productivity solutions, employee environments (audio, video, etc.), virtual desktop infrastructure (on-premises or cloud-based), and user experience monitoring.
Despite the budget increases, many of the IT professionals admitted that it was difficult to properly support their remote staff. When asked if they have the necessary resources for this type of support, 30% said they have everything they need and more. However, 37% said they have enough but barely, 26% said it’s never enough, and 6% said they clearly don’t have the necessary resources.
“IT leaders still face many challenges amid the new workplace paradigm, but through this process they have realized the power of the cloud,” Workspot co-founder and CEO Amitabh Sinha said in a press release. “To continue supporting the ‘everywhere’ workforce, more established strategies around cloud migration, VDI modernization and SaaS application deployment [should] become mainstream to help forward-looking organizations evolve for years to come.”
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To help organizations better address security vulnerabilities and related challenges to a remote or hybrid workforce, Jimmy Chang, Chief Product Officer of Workspot, offers the following advice:
Choose a zero-trust strategy† This means you don’t trust anyone inside or outside the organization unless they are properly verified. The goal is to protect your applications and data and put in place strong controls to ensure that employees and contractors only have access to what they need to do their jobs.
Consider cloud PCs† Cloud PCs help with centralized management of the operating system and security patches, while removing sensitive data from endpoints. They can also improve the security of BYOD environments and other unmanaged endpoints.
Keep an eye on everything† Prioritize real-time visibility into your network environment. Your IT staff must be able to monitor user access and proactively mitigate any threats or risks that could affect your business.
