Since the pandemic working from home and hybrid work have become our new normal. This is great in many ways but when it comes to connectivity, IT leaders are battling to ensure security.
A new report from Cisco looks at how IT organisations are dealing with digital transformations and multi-cloud initiatives, given the popularity of hybrid working. They asked 2500 IT decision makers from 13 different counties and were able to identify global trends.
Is Hybrid Work Too Much Of A Risk?
The survey found that 40% of employees work remotely, either completely or just some of the time. This is despite growing calls from employers to return to the office. Insider has reported that hybrid work has well and truly hit the mainstream.
As it seems fairly certain that employees won’t be returning to the office in the same way as before the pandemic, it’s important employers get a proper handle of the IT problems arising from this change. More than half (51%) of IT professionals surveyed believe hybrid work brings an increased cloud security risk.
Many more businesses are moving to the cloud hoping that this could be the answer to many of its efficiency and security challenges. And of course, with employees increasingly working online, cloud naturally presents itself. 78% of the survey’s respondents said that their organisation was planning to host 40% of their workloads on the cloud in the next few years. 42% say they use multiple clouds for the sake of agility and scalability.
Despite the popularity of the cloud, 41% of networking professionals say ensuring secure access to applications on the cloud is a major challenge. Another issue, cited by 37% of respondents, is gaining “end-to-end visibility into network performance and security” when traffic passes through from outside the corporate network.
Chief Technology Officer for Cisco Middle East and Africa, Osama Al-Zoubi said…
“Today, the network is both the tool for digital transformation, and the main means of keeping the lights on across several industries in the Middle East. To align with the region’s evolving needs, and shifting IT priorities – security, agility and business performance have overtaken cost and network management as the key concerns for IT teams. Solutions that offer end-to-end visibility and automation are the ones most in demand. While the trends identified in the report are important in themselves, the real value is in how they can inform decisions moving forward.”
Summary
It’s uncharted territory that IT professionals face as our way of working changes, moving onto the cloud and relying much more on digital infrastructure. How are you going to tackle these challenges in your business?
Source: Cisco report shows hybrid work is continuing to cause secure connectivity challenges
