Over the last few years, businesses have been waking up to the advantages of cloud technologies and the fact that, for many organisations, cloud is the most cost-effective, secure and flexible IT environment to have.
This year, the pandemic has changed the way we live and work, possibly forever, and created an urgency for businesses to find new ways of working. The future of work has needed to be realised now. For many businesses, the long-term plan to transition to a modern workplace has had to become reality in a few short weeks, instead of months or years. There is no more time to wait to implement the tech and tools that enable productivity and collaboration in any scenario – and cloud is the way to go.
Businesses are faced with a choice; they can view the events of this year as their potential downfall or see them as an opportunity to transform how they work by implementing modern workplace tools that allow business as usual activity in any circumstance - and are often well overdue.
Productivity in any circumstances
Making the future of work a reality goes far beyond enabling remote working; in 2020, a degree of remote working is expected by the Millennial workforce. Businesses have needed to harness tech that makes processes more efficient and secure for a long time; the pandemic has simply given them the impetus to implement change now.
It will never be a bad thing to have embraced modern workplace technologies. Long after the pandemic is under control, businesses who have will be strongly positioned to respond and adapt to other challenges. Cloud technologies allow employees to be productive, connected, collaborative and less stressed; qualities which will always be desirable in the workplace. The focus of businesses now should be on giving employees the tech they need to navigate the new normal of work whilst delivering results.
Productivity and output, not hours spent working, should be the new true measure of success.
In most cases, a joined-up approach to cloud is needed to make this possible. Many organisations have rushed to implement new tools so that staff can work remotely this year, but they’ve given little thought to how they will get value from these platforms long-term.
Consistency is key here: using lots of tools that don’t integrate or communicate with one another spells disaster. What businesses need is a reliable virtual workspace with integrated applications that acts as a single pane of glass for productivity and keeps everyone on the same virtual page.
Striking the balance
For all their benefits, new ways of working also present security challenges. Remote working on own devices is highlighting the fact that, even in the biggest enterprises, security practices need to mature. A balance must be achieved between enabling employees to access the things they need and collaborate effectively and having robust security that protects your IT environment from ever-changing threats.
It’s a challenge, but it is possible.
Tools like Teams in Microsoft 365 give users video conferencing and virtual meeting capabilities within a shared, secure space which removes the need to use risky web-based alternatives. And to protect the cloud environment, Microsoft 365 includes built-in Azure security services which integrate fully to protect apps, data and infrastructure using intelligence to identify new and evolving threats.
The importance of identity
We knew that remote working was likely to be the model of the future – but as we said earlier, that future is now. With little to no work taking place inside physical workspaces at the moment, and the digital workplace becoming standard, businesses must address identity.
The boundaries are blurring between who is and isn’t in your network, so organisations need to authenticate the digital identity of employees now more than ever. Microsoft 365 has the benefit of integrated Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to manage and authenticate user identities.
Embracing the cloud is a fundamental part of making the future of work reality, but its success depends fully on the ability to correctly manage access and permissions, and authenticate the identities of your users and devices.
Next steps
If your organisation is ready to make the future of work reality by adopting cloud technologies, Core can help.
Our Cloud Readiness Solution advises organisations on cloud adoption strategies, portfolio transformation to the cloud and how to optimise the business benefits of using cloud solutions. We guide customers towards technology modernisation and migration to the cloud, helping them to make the future of work their current reality.
Cloud Readiness helps businesses establish a maturity baseline for cloud adoption and identify what can be changed in your current IT application portfolio and tech landscape.
The service includes:
- Current and future cloud maturity level and priority capability needs report
- Potential scope of applications and technology ready for cloud migration
- Cloud reference architecture target state options
- Potential roadmap
Challenge us to build your roadmap to an advanced collaborative working environment, with better access to services and faster outcomes using a Microsoft enabled cloud-first environment. Book your session today.
