Keep Your Hybrid Workplace Safe and Thriving with Network Solutions
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The return to the workplace is a big moment.
After rising to the challenges of wide-scale remote work and pausing many IT initiatives, we’re coming back to buildings that are just as we left them—and changed forever.
Those responsible for enterprise networks now have a window of opportunity. You’re resuming the upgrades that have been on hold, making sure everything is operational. But at the same time, you can enhance your network infrastructure to meet the new needs of the hybrid workplace.
All change is stressful, even when it brings us closer. Let’s look at how your network can play a part in easing that stress and helping your organization thrive.
Table of contents:
What will the hybrid workplace be like?
We’re still figuring out how the hybrid future will be different from the traditional "day at the office."
We know that hybrid work adds complexity since it means optimizing and integrating many different environments—both onsite and remote—instead of focusing on just one. We also know that the parameters for success will continue to shift, and we’ll have to keep adapting as fast as we can.
But beyond that, there are many questions:
- How does your approach to network security need to change, given that hybrid work means more attack surface?
- How can you keep up with health guidelines and ease people’s anxieties about gathering?
- How will teams connect effectively when some people are in the office and some are not?
- What information and insights could help make buildings safer?
What the future workplace needs from its network
With so many challenges across different aspects of hybrid work, IT and network departments can contribute much more to their organizations than connectivity. In order to thrive, your people need a consistent, high-quality experience no matter where they’re working, and deploying the right network solutions plays a significant role in delivering that.
Here are four important benefits that your enterprise network can contribute to the hybrid workplace. (There are others, but many IT leaders say these are top-of-mind. To learn more, read our Global Workforce Survey: The Rise of the Hybrid Workplace Report.)
Secure your hybrid workforce
Protect people and systems everywhere with always-on, embedded security.
Help keep people healthy and safe
Support the physical well-being of employees and guests returning to the office.
Optimize connectivity
Ensure fast and seamless access to multicloud applications from anywhere.
Create smarter hybrid workplaces
Quickly adapt to change with an intelligent network and location-based analytics.
Secure your hybrid workforce
Digital access security is essential. Unauthorized intrusion, misuse, or theft can be disastrous for an organization.
What's unchanged
Bad actors are still attacking. Users don’t always practice good security hygiene. Your organization has valuable digital assets that need to be safeguarded.
What’s new
Working from anywhere means more environments, connections, and devices (many of them personal rather than corporate). IT has less visibility and control when remote users connect through traditional VPNs.
Where your network comes in
Take this opportunity to deliver strong and consistent enterprise security to your remote workforce. Go beyond VPN connectivity and extend security policies to home offices using a zero-trust fabric with end-to-end segmentation.
Help keep people healthy and safe
Your workforce will only feel comfortable returning to the workplace if they know that their health and wellness are considered a top priority.
What's unchanged
Organizations care about the well-being of their employees and customers. They are committed to using their resources and enforcing policies to safeguard them.
What’s new
The pandemic raised the stakes on health and safety. After living through a global crisis, people are anxious and in need of real, effective measures that keep up with changing conditions.
Where your network comes in
Using existing Wi-Fi infrastructure, you can monitor and implement reduced social density. You can also collect and use network data to bring in new or enhanced guidelines for distancing.
Optimize connectivity
Users are often quick to inform IT when lackluster system performance holds them back.
What's unchanged
Teams produce better work when employees are engaged with each other and invested in their outcomes. Technology facilitates collaboration, so people spend more time delivering and less time troubleshooting.
What’s new
Organizations need to deliver the same great user experience to everyone, no matter where they’re working. Eliminating imbalances helps ensure strong levels of inclusivity and productivity.
Where your network comes in
Connections need to be fast and reliable for both onsite and remote access. Security should add as little friction as possible. Employees should be able to use public IaaS, SaaS, and on-prem applications easily across environments.
Create smarter workspaces
By incorporating automation and analytics into your network, facilities can operate more safely and efficiently.
What's unchanged
Physical spaces are undergoing a digital transformation and taking advantage of the improvements in management that come with it. AI and machine learning convert information into actionable insights.
What’s new
The data that comes in from network-enabled smart building monitors can be used to support changing health and security initiatives in the wake of COVID-19.
Where your network comes in
The network takes isolated systems like HVAC, lighting, alarms, and security and assembles them into the building’s brain. That brain relies on data, so it’s important to facilitate onboarding of IoT sensors that tell the building what’s happening.
Getting through the pandemic was a triumph of survival for many organizations and their workforces. Now you’re ready to grow stronger and healthier, and Cisco networking solutions for simple, flexible, and secure hybrid work experiences can help you thrive.
Read the infographic Upgrade Your Network for the Hybrid Work Future to learn how our networking solutions for Hybrid Work can get you back to business safely and securely.