image courtesy: pixabay.com

No doubt, the current situation has posed several new challenges to the Corporate Information Technology (IT) consumers. If I have to summarize, the impact of short-term, mid-term and long-term challenges, then:

Short-term Challenges are:

• Lack of enough laptops
• Users moving out of metro cities there by having issues with last mile connectivity
• Insufficient bandwidth to access real time applications
• Available bandwidth is just enough to send and receive mails

Mid-term Challenges are:

• Not all the On-prem infra is Cloud ready or VPN ready
• Secure Connectivity to Users mean increasing the VPN capabilities on-prem
• End point security and Data loss challenges
• Secure Connectivity increases bandwidth needs on remote users

Long-term Challenges are:

• What will happen to those huge real estate acquired in the top cities?
• If Corporates decide to adopt 80% work from home, their own infrastructure goes rental to earn some revenues. Only a similar company can replace them. What if they too have gone with 80% work from home model?
• Employee monitoring, performance and measuring outputs – Does the current system support this?

While technology can address several of these challenges, but not all! I remember my ex-boss used to ask people leaving at 6.00 pm, “Aaj half-a-day hai kya?”. Managerial culture of getting work done from the employees have to change. The areas such as attitude towards employees, measurement of performance and productivity need bigger debate. New framework development and acceptance are also needed.

Basic approach to handling the above challenges:

• Identify the core, non-core and supporting staff
• Identify the resources that need on-prem presence, access and monitoring
• Identify the applications to extend outside the premises
• Identify the applications that can be on cloud considering compliance or security factors
• Introduce an efficient Employee Performance Monitoring System
• Have a robust End Point security, Mobile Device Management (MDM) , Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) measures in place.
• Have a systematic approach to group meetings, collaboration and team goals (it’s ad hoc and unstructured now)
• Have tested Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity plans (BCP)
• Have a strong back-up plan in place (most of the backups are on paper, never tested, and when restored never works)
• Train the support staff with new age IT systems
• Train the non-core employees with clear line-of-command
• Let the core employees take more responsibility. This is key to a successful Covid-19 and post-Covid-19 work style.

All said, Internet is full of experts suggesting how to handle this situation. Always talk to your trusted IT Security partner, who knows your infra well, who understands your domain, knows your challenges and most importantly, your budget.