The COVID pandemic of 2020 brought many drastic and sudden changes in the way we do a multitude of things; not the least of which is the way we do business. Working remotely was already a growing trend and now, post-pandemic, we find that the number of employees working remotely has skyrocketed. In fact, it is projected that 87% more Americans will be working remotely by the year 2025 compared to pre-pandemic numbers. Although the majority (78%) of executives say that remote work isn’t going anywhere any time soon, and 96% of employees are happy to continue with this “new normal”, remote work does present some unique challenges that businesses must face. Solutions to issues like slow, unreliable, and unsecure network connections must be among the top priorities for businesses who now find themselves with scattered employees and relatively empty headquarters.
The Internet Demands of WFH
In surveys, 94% of remote employees report facing difficulties when working from home. Thirty-five percent of those surveyed said that at some time, they could not finish their work due to a slow or poor internet connection. Another 43% report having to use phones or hotspots during the height of COVID quarantine. Sixty-nine percent also state that they had difficulties with their VPN. Another connectivity issue facing remote workers is that in-home data usage jumped by 38% in 2020, to a whopping 16.6 GB per month. This spike caused problems with real-time services like VoIP and video conferencing.
Unfortunately, slow, unreliable connections aren’t the scariest connectivity issues facing companies or employees. Another new threat is a lack of reliable security measures. Employees are no longer safely cocooned in the security networks of their business headquarters. Instead they’re working from home or coffee shops and other places which may be much more susceptible to cyber attacks. In fact, 60% of all businesses report an increase in cyber attacks post-pandemic. VDI or RDP account for 60% of these attacks while phishing accounts for 30%, and VPN vulnerabilities account for another 20%. Before COVID, 71% of companies report being satisfied with their network security measures. That number has now plummeted to 44%, and it’s no wonder since only 39% of businesses feel they are prepared to manage and protect against security risks inherent with a remote workforce. Currently, IT departments are employing multiple hardware and software rollouts to connect remote workers securely. This is proving to be both difficult, time consuming, and costly.
It’s pretty clear that the future of doing business is simply in need of better solutions and a better internet. These solutions must face and remove remote work obstacles by delivering stronger security with zero-trust access and full visibility; by enabling faster network connections with increased network reliability and optimized protocols and routes; and by simplifying connectivity by removing unnecessary hardware and reducing administrative costs.
The Network of the Future
Fortunately, there is already a solution to all of this. A private network, such as one provided by Ananda Networks, makes connectivity obstacles of remote work obsolete. It’s a cloud-managed SASE model and a private network that can be set up in minutes, rather than weeks. This type of network requires only software to rollout; no hardware setup. It upgrades network security to zero-trust, significantly lowers administrative costs, and can improve network performance by up to 25x.
The future of business is here. It’s time to build the network of the future:
