With the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) forcing many companies to ask an unprecedented number of employees to work from home, it is important to consider certain factors that could simplify and expedite the transition for organizations of any size.
Security, efficiency, and cost concerns are at the forefront of this “new normal” for organizations worldwide, and a cloud-based remote access platform can help solve many of the common problems encountered when transitioning to a work-from-home model.
For the health of your organization, it is essential to help your at-home employees continue their work with the fewest distractions and roadblocks. These four considerations can help your organization navigate the transition to an at-home workforce.
1. Capacity must increase
When nearly 100 percent of your employees have been asked to work from home, it’s important to realize the impact this has on your current remote access infrastructure. Many organizations are having to scale their infrastructure three to four times its normal capacity to support this new at-home workforce. However, with little to no preparation time and rigid bandwidth capacities, scaling to meet demand is difficult, while a sudden surge in at-home workers will strain capacity, causing latency or failure as well as a loss of productivity.
Because of this, many organizations are turning to cloud-delivered solutions to support their new work-from-home models. Adopting a cloud-based remote access service enables businesses to quickly scale to keep employees productive. By ensuring business continuity, these organizations have decreased the chances of long-term negative business impact as a result of the outbreak.
Watch the On-Demand Webinar: Enable Your Employees to Work from Home Quickly and Securely
2. Time is of the essence
Many companies had little more than a week—some had just days—to assess the coronavirus outbreak situation and implement policies instructing employees to work from home. Responding to a new and unexpected need to support an entirely remote workforce can be achieved in several ways. However, not all solutions are practical for rapid-response situations.
Legacy technology requires capacity planning as well as purchasing and deploying new hardware, which can take weeks to months. Meanwhile, business operations fall behind, increasing frustration among employees and company leaders at a time when tensions are already running high. Additionally, deploying hardware often demands participation from multiple teams, which further increases set-up time and usually requires in-person contact, potentially putting your employees at risk.
Some companies are spinning up multiple cloud-based virtual machine (VM) instances as a way to decrease deployment time. However, the setup for each cloud instance still requires participation and planning from multiple teams, including security, IT, and administration, and different apps will require different VM instances, adding complexity for users and admins alike.
A cloud-based remote access solution can help mitigate these roadblocks and can be deployed quickly and easily, lessening stress and reducing delays in getting employees up and running. Some benefits of using a cloud-based remote access solution include:
- Quick deployment – Get set up in days, not weeks or months. Teams can deploy and manage a cloud-based remote access solution quickly and from anywhere, eliminating the need for onsite employees and staying compliant with social distancing requirements.
- Global access at scale – Regardless of user location, device, or application, a cloud-based solution gives workers secure, high-speed access anywhere in the world. A cloud-delivered solution isn’t limited by capacity or bandwidth, making it a sensible solution for any industry and companies of any size.
- Uncompromised security – IT teams don’t need to take security shortcuts or make exceptions to accommodate an influx of at-home workers. A cloud-delivered work-from-home platform makes security consistent across the globe, while admins have the granular control to expand or limit access down to individual users and applications.
3. Unnecessary costs can be avoided
Budget concerns are at the forefront for many businesses right now, so cutting unnecessary costs wherever possible is a smart move. Funding new, oversized hardware to temporarily support an at-home workforce is not cost-effective, and deploying an installation team may be challenging if your employees have been given a “shelter in place” order.
Instead, a cloud subscription model can get your employees supported quickly without long-term financial commitments. The objective is to keep your business running “as usual,” with limited disruption to its everyday functions, and a cloud-based solution can provide an efficient way to do that.
4. Business-essential apps must be fast and secure
Remote employees still need to be productive during these uncertain times. This means communicating regularly via video conference, chat platforms, and accessing business applications quickly to accomplish daily tasks. But having workers scattered on unknown networks at home, leveraging a mix of corporate-managed and personal devices, can create additional attack surfaces and leave your business vulnerable to cyberattack.
Organizations may attempt to maintain security practices by requiring remote workers to access internal apps using a traditional remote access solution, such as a VPN. However, these solutions can actually be the source of an exploitation. With VPNs bringing remote users directly onto the corporate network, it only takes one malware-infected device to compromise your network. On top of this, user experience often suffers with VPN. If employees experience delays and are looking for the quickest way to get their work done, they may bypass security controls, potentially exposing your company’s network.
Productivity and security need not be mutually exclusive. Your business can have both with a seamless, reinforced cloud-based solution that gives employees fast and easy access to the resources and applications they need to do their jobs, while keeping your network and applications invisible to the internet.
Stay safe and healthy
With so many unknowns remaining in the coronavirus crisis, it is important to anticipate the challenges your business could face with an influx of employees working outside the corporate headquarters or remote offices. Employee health and safety always comes first, but other considerations must be taken to accommodate these extenuating circumstances and keep your business operating and your remote employees productive and secure.
To learn more about how to empower at-home employees during this unprecedented situation, join a live webinar featuring Zscaler executives and customers on April 1. Learn more and register.
Camilla Ahlquist is a product marketing specialist for Zscaler Private Access
