With the success of WFH, securing the workplace becomes critical

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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One of the defining trends of the COVID-19 pandemic is how it has boosted digital uptake in the enterprise space. Companies that were previously in neutral to nascent stages of digital transformation, accelerated their efforts and rushed through with the implementation of technology solutions, built around the cloud. Digital transformation provides an immense opportunity for businesses to increase productivity and pursue growth. Yet, technology can’t be just a reactive response to the crisis; it can lead to fundamental changes in how businesses operate. Research has shown that the right investments in sound technology can have long-term outcomes on the company, especially in agility, productivity, stability, and performance.

The digital shift witnessed in India and elsewhere is truly remarkable in terms of the extensive scope achieved in a limited time. Large banks developing remote sales and services capabilities to mom-and-pop neighbourhood stores launching websites and mobile apps, schools becoming completely online, and doctors using video-conferencing for diagnosis and consultations, there are innumerable examples of technology helping people reimagine their daily lives. One of the most significant examples of this shift is the emergence of the Work From Home (WFH) phenomenon. Before lockdowns necessitated by the pandemic, only a small portion of the workforce was working remotely. But that changed drastically in a matter of months, with almost 100% of employees (for some industries) working from the confines of their homes. It was for the very first time that remote working happened at such scale and such speed. The results have been mostly favourable, with many companies deciding to incorporate WFH into their business ethos. And this is a win-win for all, companies can cut costs in real estate, and employees have a better work-life balance. According to a report by MoveInSync, on average, Indians spend 2 hours a day commuting, which is the highest in the world. A vast majority of this workforce would be amenable to work from home, even with little increments to their salaries.

Yet, the digital shift does with its own set of unique challenges, primarily in collaboration and security. With the footprint of the corporate increased manifold, securing every nook and corner becomes imperative. To deliberate and discuss the different facets of the ‘new normal,’ CNBC-TV18 and Intel dedicated a complete episode on the topic of Securing Fluid Workplace under the aegis of the tech-centric series “Future-Proof Your Business.” The episode charts how different companies, especially in the IT sector, provide secure and seamless services to their clients.

Talking about the various challenges posed by digital transformation, Jayan Narayanan, Global Head-IT, Servion Global Solutions, spoke about how his company has been working in collaboration with Intel to secure the workplace. He talked about how the company had installed the Intel vPro® platform that enables end-point security across the network. “Post lockdown, our employees and IT teams are working remotely. Seamless IT support is of paramount importance for a business to succeed. Today employees can be anywhere, using end-point management assistance, our IT team is able to troubleshoot all hardware related problems remotely and also manage security very efficiently,” he stated, adding, “End-point is our new perimeter.”

Roshni Das, Director, Marketing, Intel India, spoke about the enterprise space’s emerging megatrends. She highlighted how WFH had resulted in an increase in productivity and increased connected devices, around 125 billion connected devices as predicted by IHS. “A lot of enterprises have begun to look at new technology implementations over the last few months, cloud-based PC management, risk-based security monitoring tools, firmware level, and hardware-level security technologies and others. Over the past 12 months, AI & ML are going to be implemented within the enterprise space,” she added.

Ashok Krish, Global Head, Digital Workplace, TCS, emphasized the role of technology in helping companies become resilient. “Organizations that embrace the idea of a secure borderless workplace, powered by the cloud where you have employees working from anywhere. Working in a workout-loud manner in which they stay hyper-connected with the rest of their teams, employees, customers, and business partners. Those organizations will become future-proof,” he stated.

The episode also highlighted some of the broader trends in the industry that can be seen:

• Artificial intelligence (AI) & machine learning (ML) solutions create new security responsibilities to protect digital business initiatives.
• Extended detection and response (XDR) solutions are emerging to improve accuracy and productivity.
• Search process automation is eliminating repetitive tasks.
• Zero trust network access (ZTNA) technology is starting to replace VPNs.
• Network security focus shifts from LAN-based appliance models to secure access service edge (SASE).

With the emergence of all these technologies, securing a fluid workplace is becoming easier and manageable. For the future to be digital, it needs to be secure.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow