Change is the only constant in life. One’s ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life.
— Ben Franklin
Today’s workplace is going through more shifts than ever before. Employees expect to be able to work securely from anywhere, on any device, with tools that enhance their work experience and their effectiveness.
Organizations addressing these challenges are turning to digital workplace technologies to create a seamless delivery of apps and data that work across multiple locations while maintaining the security of their endpoint devices.
So what’s continuing to drive change in 2022 and what technologies can help get you there? Through our work with organizations across different industries, here are the top 5 digital workplace trends we’re seeing this year that you should know more about.
Market Trend #1 – Remote & Hybrid Workers
Hybrid and remote work has become commonplace in most organizations. And this year, unprecedented levels of the workforce are remaining remote or shifting to permanent hybrid work environments.
According to Gartner, the number of remote workers will have doubled to over two-thirds of digital workers by 2023. Gartner also found that hybrid and remote employees are forcing organizations to move forward with digital business transformation plans by at least five years.
It’s critical that employees in this new work environment have the tools available that allow them to be as productive and collaborative as possible. Employees expect to be able to seamlessly work from home and on the go, with apps and devices that help them do their jobs effectively.
As business leaders adapt to these changes and move forward with their digital business transformation plans, they will need to look to modern workplace solutions to promote positive and productive employee experiences.
Market Trend #2 – Cost Optimization
According to Gartner, through 2024, remote workers will use at least four different device types for remote working, up from three devices in 2019.
Organizations are leaning into cost optimization and consolidation more than ever. Business leaders have major opportunities to reduce unnecessary IT spending as they pursue transformation initiatives.
We’re seeing countless organizations repurpose devices that were previously used on-site, for remote workers instead of purchasing new hardware. This is especially the case with contact center offices that are now fully remote. Since digital workplace solutions can be delivered anywhere and on any device, you can deliver the same desktop experience to employees on both new and repurposed hardware.
Another cost-optimization driver is Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). According to Gartner, through 2024, remote workers will use at least four different device types for remote working, up from three devices in 2019. By leveraging BYOD strategies with digital workplace solutions, organizations can avoid upfront hardware purchases while maintaining secure networks and governance over employee desktops and mobile devices.
Colorado Beach and its partners can also help you drive the adoption of applications you already own, such as Microsoft 365, to minimize third-party license expenditures.
Market Trend #3 – The Distributed Enterprise
According to Gartner, by the end of 2023 three-quarters of organizations that pursue a distributed enterprise model will realize revenue growth 25% faster than their peers. In addition to remote and hybrid employees in organizations of all sizes, we’re seeing larger enterprises reproducing their central office into smaller remote sites and branch offices for hybrid work, to promote employee productivity.
Along with more distributed organizations come more geographically-dispersed endpoints. An effective enterprise digital workplace has an app and desktop delivery strategy that can efficiently scale to a large number of endpoints across remote sites and branch offices. Distributed enterprises should also have seamless operating system (O/S) deployments, such as on-demand Windows 10 to Windows 11 upgrades across large numbers of endpoints, as part of this strategy.
Distributed enterprises must also have a way to secure these distributed endpoints. Wherever endpoint devices are connected, businesses should also ensure that these devices follow a defined level of compliance standards that align with business objectives and industry regulations. An effective digital workplace solution can help organizations implement identity and access management (IAM), security monitoring, and endpoint security across all devices.
Market Trend #4 – Cloud-Based Solutions
In the past, all IT infrastructure was located on-premises. Now, cloud-based applications are absolutely essential for businesses to function with employees working fully or partially from home and using multiple devices. We have seen a record number of companies migrating their business applications to the cloud and adopting cloud-native applications in the last two years and this trend is only going to continue.
A robust digital workplace solution can deliver cloud-based collaboration solutions, such as Microsoft Teams, Cisco UCM Cloud, and Webex, to drive employee productivity. Our Modern Workplace can help you deliver these applications to end-user devices seamlessly through user environment management (UEM) capabilities.
Many organizations are also turning to desktops as a service (DaaS) in addition to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions as part of their digital workplace strategies. DaaS is cloud-based, fast to deploy and manage, enhances security capabilities, and lowers costs of ownership compared to traditional on-premises solutions.
Market Trend #5 – Providing Secure Access
Cybersecurity measures that were employed even just a year or two ago are no longer adequate in today’s workplace where remote and hybrid set-ups are common and security threats are more sophisticated than ever. Organizations need to rethink their approach to security in an effort to protect key assets and sensitive customer data across a variety of touchpoints.
Today’s digital workplace should include employee remote access to data from anywhere, whether fully-remote or through a branch office, over a secure network connection. However, employees in different locations often need different security measures than they did when everything was on the company’s VPN.
While VPNs are critical in countless use cases, Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) are preferred for establishing secure network connections to remote workers who are bringing their own devices. In today’s digital workplace, brokers are delivered using virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) connections and they’re also part of broader Secure Access Server Edge (SASE) strategies that look at network and security transformation holistically.
A SASE integration into today’s digital workplace can provide secure and seamless connectivity to apps and data from any location. SASE can authenticate remote users and ensure device health before establishing a connection, and lets you easily scale up and down service levels, features, and connections to protect hybrid work and branch office connections from threats.
Embracing Digital Workplace Trends
In the IT world, change is inevitable and organizations that embrace digital workplace strategies are likely to realize cost savings, improved security, and an improved employee experience. However, an effective digital workplace isn’t just about having the right technology available to drive productivity. Digital workplaces must be tailored to the needs of each individual organization, from design through optimization, and take the organization’s processes and people into consideration.
Modern Workplace solutions can be fully customized to include user environment management, virtual desktops, operating system deployments, remote access, identity and access management, enterprise mobility management, monitoring, and endpoint security. With our dedicated expertise, we’ll customize a digital workplace solution that’s tailored to your needs and build your roadmap to success.
Ready to learn more about how you can leverage Modern Workplace solutions to boost employee productivity while deploying apps and desktops in record time? Contact us today!