REMOTE RECEPTION Remote Drives Security Dollars Sponsored by CYBER SHIFT Office SPaaS NaaS Time State of VDI VOLUME 3 ISSUE 2 | Q2 2023 | rwsmagazine.com
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14 22 18 10 8 CONTENTS VOLUME 3 ISSUE 2 | Q2 EX & CX 8 Advantages of Remote Health Care Reception Technology can mitigate destabilizing trends in the labor market By Jeremy Hurewitz 10 Shifting Priorities Post-pandemic contact centers rely on agents to sell By Bruce Christian 13 UCaaS Simplified for MSPs Wazo found the happy medium between a customized and an off-theshelf platform By Martin Vilaboy REMOTE CONTROL 14 The State of Virtualization in End User Computing By Prashant Ketkar CYBER-SECURED 18 Cyber Shift Remote work realities drive security spending By Martin Vilaboy AT THE EDGE 22 It’s About Time for NaaS By Martin Vilaboy 24 The Future is Hyper Distributed Computing, containers, quantum leap in business efficiency By Chetan Venkatesh ON-PREMISES 26 Office Space Reorganized Space-as-a-service market offers much-needed flexibility By Brady Hicks 26 Gain Clarity Understanding the use cases of VoIP gateways By Grace Lau 6 Editor’s Letter 30 Ad index 4 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
It’s not surprising that remote and flexible working lies heavy on the mind of cybersecurity decision makers, as discussed in our cover story starting on page 18. Already faced with the challenges of ever-more sophisticated cyber threats, increasing amounts of sensitive data and greater reliance on third-party apps and integration, IT departments also suddenly had to extend cybersecurity beyond the guarded walls that once served as the primary defense against attacks. And once outside those walls – much the same as behind the corporate firewall – IT executives know their biggest threat is their own employees. After all, up to 82 percent of corporate security breaches involved the human element, showed a widely reported 2022 study from Verizon. This includes the usual suspects such as phishing attacks, use of stolen credentials and business email compromise, to name a few. In some ways, no matter what they do to protect, patrol and authenticate in order to lock things down, users remain the weakest link, and the weakest link is precisely where attackers start. In the remote work world where employees bring everything from their own devices to their own networks, the reliance on the user is only compounded. That isn’t exactly sitting well with IT and security decision makers who don’t show much confidence in employees helping them shut down attacks. Even among arguably the most invested employees, there isn’t much faith in their ability to protect personal hardware, systems and networks. When Ponemon Institute, in a survey sponsored by privacy protection company BlackCloak, asked IT and IT security practitioners to rate how confident they were in CEOs' and executives’ abilities to prevent attacks on their personal hardware, systems and networks, only 26 percent of respondents were confident. A similar 28 percent were confident in high-level executives’ abilities to simply recognize a phishing email. So perhaps it’s also not so surprising that CISO-types and IT administrators are screaming for training and ease-of-use experiences that drive employee adoption and engagement. Among the expected concerns surrounding ransomware, incomplete implementations, social engineering attacks, and a sprawling threat landscape, the lack in employee training and awareness has leaped to the top of the list of challenges in preventing cyberattacks, according to a Fortinet survey of IT and security professionals from 570 organizations. In a survey of CISOs performed for browser security brand Red Access, respondents were asked about their most important criteria to hybrid and remote employees successfully adopting a new security solution. Employee training/communication topped the list, named by 61 percent. Among those same CISO respondents, when asked more generally about the most important criteria when selecting a security solution/product to deploy in their organizations, employee user experience (39%) was cited more often than even pricing (34%) and level of security (33%). The only higher ranked criteria were ease of integration and deployment. Stretching security to end users that work beyond the corporate moat certainly is creating concerns among cybersecurity teams. It would seem cybersecurity providers and partners that can speak to solution training and the encouragement of user behavior will find receptive ears among the circle of buyers. Talk Security Training 6 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com Martin Vilaboy Editor-in-Chief martin@bekabusinessmedia.com Bruce Christian Senior Editor bruce@bekabusinessmedia.com Brady Hicks Contributing Editor brady@bekabusinessmedia.com Percy Zamora Art Director percy@bekabusinessmedia.com Rob Schubel Digital Manager rob@bekabusinessmedia.com Jennifer Vilaboy Production Manager jen@bekabusinessmedia.com Berge Kaprelian Group Publisher berge@bekabusinessmedia.com (480) 503-0770 Anthony Graffeo Publisher anthony@bekabusinessmedia.com (203) 304-8547 Michael Burns National Account Executive michael@bekabusinessmedia.com (262) 993-9116 Beka Business Media Berge Kaprelian President and CEO Corporate Headquarters 10115 E Bell Road, Suite 107 - #517 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Voice: 480.503.0770 Email: berge@bekabusinessmedia.com © 2023 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium without express written permission of Beka Business Media is prohibited. RWS and the RWS logo are trademarks of Beka Business Media
SECURE REMOTE NETWORKING BUILT TO ASTOUND To learn more, visit us at: astoundbusiness.com Virtual Office from Astound Business Solutions. The rise of remote options for employees requires a cloud-based, integrated communications platform that delivers a seamless work-from-home environment. That means minimizing hassles for your workforce while maximizing peace-of-mind for your IT administrators with an easy-to-deploy turnkey solution that ensures compliance. Virtual Office extends SD-WAN to the home and helps you maintain control of your network environment— wherever that network happens to reach. With a new name that reinforces our legacy of providing reliable, nimble network solutions from coast to coast, Astound Business continues to be your trusted partner to deliver a secure and consistent network experience for remote employees.
By Jeremy Hurewitz Technology can mitigate destabilizing trends in the labor market One type of health care worker now in short supply nationwide is often overlooked: the health care practice receptionist. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that companies will have to fill 142,300 receptionist positions each year to replace those who move to different occupations or leave the workforce. Health care receptionists are part of this exodus, caught up in the national move to remote work. One reason they leave is a desire for better work/life balance, which they can find by working from home. And so, the health care labor market is unsettled. Although the worst of the pandemic is over, health care workers are still experiencing burnout, according to a study led by Dr. Lisa Rosenstein, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. This includes receptionists, and it affects patients. “Every member of the health care team is really critical to patient outcomes and patient experiences of care,” Rosenstein said. Her study found that 32 percent of the 11,000 non-clinical staff in the survey planned to quit their jobs in the next two years. This is significant. While a patient may appreciate a friendly smile when checking in, practice CX & EX Advantages of Remote Health Care Reception 8 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
managers know that receptionists are critical in making the office run efficiently and effectively. They juggle appointments, payments, documents and insurance. Technology can help solve the labor shortage by enabling remote receptionists – connecting a receptionist at home to the office and arriving patients. This new configuration of tasks in doctor’s offices, physical therapist’s offices and other health care facilities reduces the office’s overhead and creates a smoother and more pleasing experience for the patient. It also makes it easier to attract and retain talented receptionists by giving them the flexibility to work at home. For example, a physical therapist practice in Maine was about to lose its star receptionist, who was moving to Florida. She liked her job and wanted to keep it. Enabling her to work remotely satisfied the needs of both the practice and the receptionist . Enhancing technology A remote receptionist solves one of technology’s problems: It is static and inflexible. It is designed to perform certain tasks, but people have issues that don’t always line up with those tasks. For example, a preset, robotic kiosk in a reception room is dumb: It is programmed to perform a limited number of tasks. A human being remotely managing the check-in process on the kiosk can provide the necessary flexibility to support the needs of the patient. Practices with multiple locations benefit even more. One receptionist typically handles one location, but it’s possible to manage three or more with technology. Practices can make remote reception even more effective by using a “pod” strategy. A pod is a group of virtual receptionists working together. So instead of one receptionist covering two locations, a pod would link three receptionists covering, for example, six locations. All of this can be modified to suit the individual practice. This is an obvious reduction in headcount and downtime, which can range from 25 percent to 50 percent for in-office receptionists. Salaries for medical receptionists range from $26,000 to $38,000. Hiring and training can easily cost $5,000 or more. For a small practice in today’s labor market, that adds up. Always on duty Practices also often must see patients before and after normal business hours, and what frequently happens is that the health care provider must stop what he or she is doing to tend to the front desk. Unaccustomed to the routine there, they often leave things hanging for the receptionist the next day (or never) – payment or, typically, scheduling the next appointment. A pod of remote receptionists with staggered hours can eliminate this. A physical therapist in New York has a remote receptionist managing its three locations. “It’s helped reduce my front office cost by 65 percent, improved patient forward scheduling, and improved collection of payments,” said Karn Santikul, chief executive officer of NY Sports and Spinal Physical Therapy, which has multiple locations in New York City and its suburbs. “Most of all, it has allowed my admin team to reduce the multitasking and focus on higher ticket items like turning leads into new patients.” In a setup such as Santikul’s, the at-home receptionist needs a computer, a high-speed internet connection and, optionally, a headpiece and second monitor. Interaction between the patient and the receptionist occurs through a secure portal that meets cybersecurity standards and is HIPAA compliant. If the receptionist’s computer can handle Zoom, it can handle the portal that enables the remote receptionist technology to work. The clinic also will want to ensure that the home setup conforms to its own security protocols regarding document management and other threats. The remote receptionist has access to the clinic’s scheduling program and uses it to check the person in, receive any insurance information, collect payment and, at some point in the visit, schedule the next appointment if necessary. In the clinic’s physical reception room, a kiosk houses an interactive video screen. The technology firm uses include a touch screen on which the patients can see and converse with a remote, live receptionist. The screen offers customization on the number of buttons, including check-in, scheduling, billing and any other buttons that are needed to route the call to the right receptionist. Health care is not immune to the destabilizing changes in the labor market, but deploying technology that allows for remote process management can create an outcome beneficial to providers, receptionists and patients. J Jeremy Hurewitz is the president of WelcomeWare, a front desk video intake platform that aims to eliminate staffing challenges and reduce costs for multi-location organizations. Proportions of Respondents Reporting Burnout, Intent to Leave and Work Overload by Role Type Burnout Intent to leave Work overload Physician 6514/13,780 (47.3%) 2280/9393 (24.3%) 5616/15,137 (37.1%) Nurse 5672/10,122 (56.0%) 935/2280 (41.0%) 5164/11,011 (46.9%) Clinical staff 2928/5415 (54.1%) 565/1759 (32.1%) 2715/5728 (47.4%) Non-clinical staff 5015/11,005 (45.6%) 662/2033 (32.6%) 4941/11,103 (44.5%) Source: Rotenstein, L.S., Brown, R., Sinsky, C. et al. 9 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
Since COVID-19, contact centers have experienced an increase in volume, triggering a shift in their role, said executives at Cresta, a provider of real-time intelligence in customer conversations. According to Cresta’s most recent decision maker survey, contact centers traditionally focused on the customer experience (CX); agents largely received and mitigated customer concerns. Post-pandemic, however, agents are taking on a more strategic role, geared toward driving sales and generating revenue. In turn, sales leaders and partners in the channel need to rethink their approaches. In taking on its study, Cresta wanted to understand how sales leaders navigate the changes, adopt new practices and prepare for the future. The company commissioned Zogby Analytics to Shifting Priorities By Bruce Christian Post-pandemic contact centers rely on agents to sell CX & EX 10 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
conduct the online survey of 300 sales and service-to-sales leaders who run high-velocity sales/revenue-generating contact centers at large enterprises. The results show that sales leaders face familiar challenges: employee turnover (52 percent) and business optimization or doing more with less (51 percent). The data show customer service turnover was at 62.5 percent for those working in contact centers who also are trained to upsell and cross-sell compared to 45 percent of those who are strictly in a sales role. ‘Guiding’ agents in sales The survey found that more than three-quarters (77 percent) of respondents have a “sales playbook” they use to train and guide sales representatives. However, only 55 percent actually measure customer interactions against the sales playbook. Also, the survey indicated contact center coaching needs to be revamped, and this is a priority for many of the companies and leaders surveyed. At the same time, less than half of the respondents acknowledged using any form of real-time coaching. “The primary challenges faced by remote contact center agents involve ongoing coaching,” said Cresta chief marketing officer, Scott Kolman. “Previously, managers and supervisors were able to manage by walking around and checking in on their employees. “Agents were also able to look to other agents for help and guidance,” he continued. “With a remote or hybrid workforce, there has been an increase in the adoption of tools such as remote monitoring, video conferencing for training as well as to create a sense of cohesiveness among the team, and gamification applications to build a competitive spirit.” Utilizing AI Kolman added that generative artificial intelligence tools – including real-time agent guidance – are useful to reduce the time to onboard new agents and for ongoing reinforcement of the company sales and service playbooks. “AI is also useful for post-call coaching by listening to all customer conversations to assess if key behaviors are performed,” Kolman explained. “The insights can then be used to create personalized coaching plans.” Implementation of AI and realtime intelligence varies widely by company size and industry, the study showed. Use of AI for sales effectiveness and enablement is low (35 percent), especially among companies with more than 1,000 employees. The use of AI for guided selling is much higher in customer service/care (83 percent) than sales (69 percent). The study found the larger the organization, the less likely they are to implement AI technology, which was a result that took the researchers by surprise because while larger organizations may be well-positioned and resourced to be early adopters of emerging technologies, it’s possible that change management at such scale may end up more of a hindrance to nimble adaptation. Use of AI is highest among companies with 501 to 1,000 emWhat tools do you provide agents to help them achieve their sales targets? Source: Cresta Imp Sour Rank the top five most significant challenges for your organization in preventing cyberattacks in relation to WFA, where 1 is the most challenging Periodic training and coaching sessions Online access to the sales playbook Online hints and tips In-session real time coaching including hints and tips and work ows Other None of the above 82% 62% 56% 49% 1% 3% What is the current status of your virtualization/VDI solution? Source: Parallels; Qualtrics 0% 20% 5% 5% 1% 16% 35% 37% In the proof of concept (POC) stage Currently migrating to/deploying a VDI solution 1 year old or less 2-4 year old or less 5 year old or less Not sure The Global Space as a Service Market Size Source: Research Dive 2021 $8.67B CAGR: 5.1% $14.1B 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 Space and a service market ($million) Lack of user awareness and training about cybersecurity hygiene in general 12% 13% 11% 12% 12% Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5 How Sou Guid Wha Sou In Ext Imp Ext Unim ets? How do you currently use AI for your sales eectiveness and enablement? Source: Cresta 76% 68% 62% 53% 1% Guided selling recommendations Engagement analytics Conversational intelligence In-call coaching Other 11 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
ployees (57 percent) and $250 million to $500 million in revenue (48 percent) compared with 35 percent overall. Using the playbook More than three-quarters (77 percent) of respondents acknowledge they have a sales playbook to help train sales representatives. However, the study shows the larger the company, the less mature their use of metrics to measure sales efficiency and effectiveness is compared with respondents from companies with less than 1,000 employees. Having and following a sales playbook makes teams more effective, said Cresta executives. While more than half of the companies surveyed measure all interactions against their sales playbook, fewer than half have a process by which they can sample calls to determine if their agents follow the playbook. Cresta’s study states that if a sales playbook is used across an organization, it ultimately is only as strong as the behaviors it emphasizes. During training, a range of behaviors are reinforced. The most common is “recommending an offer” at 67 percent. It was followed closely by “discovery,” in which the agent seeks out a customer’s “pain points and needs.” While 62 percent of respondents provide online access to the sales playbook, fewer than half (48 percent) provide online hints and tips, Cresta found. Still, most respondents (82 percent) say they do provide periodic training and coaching to agents. “The shift to remote work has increased the challenges associated with onboarding new agents as well as ongoing training,” Kolman acknowledged. “Previously, new employees were brought into a company’s facilities and experienced training along with other employees. “In doing so, they were able to build comradery with others and reinforce learning.” Kolman added, “Real-time guidance applications can be a powerful addition to helping to reinforce training by providing agents with in-the-moment coaching in the form of hints and tips and guided workflows to work through key processes. “The application can be trained against the company’s playbook to effectively monitor if key behaviors are being performed and, if not, to provide guidance during a session,” he said. Need for coaching The need to implement real-time coaching is high on the priority list for many of the companies and leaders. Currently, fewer than half (44 percent) are using any form of real-time coaching – including prompts or hints and tips. Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of survey respondents have plans to introduce real-time coaching within the next 12 months. Cresta’s study found the customer service/care of a contact center has a higher use of sales efficiency and effectiveness tools and metrics compared with respondents in organizations primarily focused on sales. Respondents with a customer service/care function were more likely to indicate that AI can help them at much higher rates (44 percent) than their sales counterparts (28 percent). Although the data fail to indicate why, the study suggests this could be because of the wider use of technology and application of metrics by large, customer-service-centric contact centers. Twothirds of the companies responding in the study indicated they believe they know the key behaviors that drive sales conversion, and 85 percent believe that increasing adherence to these behaviors improves sales execution. However, fewer than half – 41 percent – say they have the proper tools in place to monitor employee adherence. In fact, most companies acknowledge their top metric to measure sales performance is based on the percentage of agents achieving revenue goals. The study found that as the volume of calls to contact centers increases alongside increased customer expectations, the need to adopt, implement and champion AI technology becomes more critical to the enterprise. J Importance of Various Networking Use Cases Source: Graphiant; survey of network admins and architects 46% 40% 35% 25% 11% 12% 6% 7% 6% 43% 31% 20% 13% 11% 5% 6% 12% 29% 27% 5% 5% 4% MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT+SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT+SUN Remote Connectivity between all my enterprise resources Connectivity to external organizations 3 years ago Now 3 years from now In-o ce 2019 2022 Most Productive Time of Day for Workers 66% Source: Cresta What projects are key focus areas and top priorities for the next 12 months? Source: Cresta 64% 60% 59% 38% 4% Improving the customer purchase experience Increasing revenue by improving agent/seller e ectiveness Improving the employee experience Drecreasing costs by improving agent/seller e ciency None of the above Connectivity with all the public clouds we use Extremely Important Extremely Unimportant CX & EX 12 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
Despite many businesses returning workers to the office, the proverbial cat is out of the bag. Pandemicera shutdowns opened the public’s eyes to the benefits of remote and hybrid working, as well as to the limitations of inflexible, on-premises phone systems. In turn, the unified communications as a service (UCaaS) market has exploded from niche status and is expected to reach $10.74 billion by 2028, according to analysts at IndustryResearch.biz, leaving many MSPs considering not just “if” they should be offering UCaaS to their customer bases but “how.” It’s certainly not a decision to be taken lightly, considering that 86 percent of executives surveyed by Salesforce identified ineffective collaboration and communications as a major cause of failure in business. Yet up to this point, MSPs sourcing UCaaS platforms to sell or resell largely were faced with a Goldilocks-type scenario, argue executives at IP telephony provider Wazo. MSPs largely are forced to choose between solutions that are either too rigid or too complex. Wazo meanwhile, has built a solution, described as a “customizable, off-theshelf, turnkey UCaaS platform,” that specifically addresses MSPs’ challenges. According to Jean-Phillippe Lambert, Wazo senior technical manager, MSPs often are limited to choosing between a “black box,” off-the-shelf platform or building a customized solution from scratch. And either choice comes with its downfalls. The black box approach is certainly the cheaper and faster way to get a UCaaS offering up and running, and it tends to include standard infrastructures that are easiest to adopt. But the mass-produced nature can make the end-user solutions difficult to customize to the specific needs of a customer base. “They either offer the bare minimum or load-up more features that the average business doesn’t need,” said Lambert. Plus, off-the-shelf software is often difficult to modify and may face compatibility issues with your customers’ operating systems or other business applications. In other words, an MSP may have to spend significant dollars to customize the platform, argue Wazo executives, negating the low upfront cost and speed benefits. Differentiation also can be challenging when offering a widely delivered platform, they continued. Building a customized platform from the ground up, on the other hand, requires significant upfront investment and expertise and can take several months compared to several weeks. And when considering that the majority of MSPs are smaller shops with hiring challenges, the resources to build and manage a home-grown solution often simply aren’t available. It requires an expert developer on staff, which can be expensive, or the hiring of freelance developers, as needed, which may be unreliable, said Wazo executives. The alternative is to put faith in thirdparty developers, and that can lead to dependence on the developer for the solution’s lifetime, Wazo executives warned. In many cases, the developer controls the platform data and infrastructure. Utilizing the Asterisk open-source communications toolkit, Wazo took a low-code, high API-integration approach to building its customizable, off-the-shelf, turnkey offering. Lowcode development software, said the company, allows MSPs to quickly and cost-effectively personalize UCaaS platforms that meet their specific needs. “Extensive coding knowledge isn’t needed,” said Wazo. “Instead, MSPs leverage open, flexible UCaaS APIs to design a customized solution using an established infrastructure.” The API-first approach allows MSPs to easily deliver a better communications experience by integrating existing and new telecom tools to create a unique, agile platform. Through the platform’s turnkey programmable capabilities, MSPs can create new offerings and unique communication experiences, can automate business workflows, verticalize an approach or serve the most advanced customer needs, said the company. And whereas MSP often must sacrifice security or purchase additional cyber security tools when offering new, cloud-based software solutions, Wazo’s platform adapts to an existing infrastructure, so MSPs don’t have to worry about implementing new security initiatives when building and selling your platform. Wazo also enables MSPs to bring their own carrier/SIP trunks, as well as maintain the billing relationship with their customers. Certainly, the communication needs of businesses today can be complex and specialized. Wazo believes it has created a UCaaS platform that provides MSPs with the necessary agility and customization to meet those specialized needs without the barrier of too much complexity. J By Martin Vilaboy Wazo found the happy medium between a customized and an off-the-shelf platform CX & EX UCaaS Simplified for MSPs 13 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
The State of Virtualization in End User Computing By Prashant Ketkar CONTROL The pandemic ushered in a new era of work, where remote and hybrid work became the norm and, as a result, the demand and need for virtualization and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) became increasingly more important to organizations. With remote and hybrid work environments now a permanent fixture, it’s not surprising that the VDI market was worth an estimated $15 billion in 2021. The market, fueled in part by this demand for hybrid and remote work environments, is growing rapidly – an estimated 20 percent compound annual growth rate is projected for every year up to 2028. To better understand the current state of the virtualization market for end user computing (EUC) a primary research survey was recently conducted – by Parallels (a sub-brand of parent company Alludo) in partnership with Qualtrics – that polled more than 300 IT professionals. The study explored how business users use their virtualization solutions and highlights the challenges they face. In addition, the study investigated how the market is evolving and in which new technology investments are being made. The key findings of this report – compiled in the latter half of 2022 – were intended to help decision makers understand what their fellow IT administrators, and the companies they work for, want and need most from their digital workspaces and VDI solutions. The following are the key areas respondents noted most about their use and need for VDI. • Data management and control. The main key drivers among all respondents for adopting VDI are the centralization of data management and the ability to maintain control over an organization’s data. In fact, 33 percent cited both as their primary reasons for using VDI. • Data security. Security is another top concern of IT professionals, especially as it relates to using the 14 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
cloud. As many as 29 percent of respondents cited data security as a source of unease. • Affordability. The third major driver of VDI adoption is affordability, especially in today’s global economic situation. Just under 20 percent of respondents cited using VDI to better control costs, while 23 percent said IT resource usage was a major issue with their current VDI solution. • Agility. Agility, including flexibility and scalability, was also consistently cited by respondents related to their adoption of VDI, with 28 percent of respondents seeking to improve these aspects of their organization’s EUC environment using VDI solutions and related technologies. Moving to the Cloud The study also looked at how organizations are migrating their EUC assets to the cloud to get a sense of cloud technology adoption strategies. Topping the list was the adoption of software-asa-service (SaaS) (31 percent) followed by infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) (26 percent), desktopas-a-service (24 percent), and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) (19 percent). A recent Gartner report supports these findings – DaaS, along with related cloud-based services, is experiencing tremendous worldwide year-over-year growth, with $3.104 billion in DaaS-related spending predicted for 2023. While it’s clear that survey respondents plan to use the cloud in multiple ways in the coming years, the value of the cloud appears to be universal – 100 percent of respondents expected to transition some services to the cloud in 2023. Even so, the majority of environments are expected to continue to use a combination of on-premises and public cloud to host their company applications and data. Cloud Concerns Persist As for concerns about moving to the cloud, organizations still have plenty of those. VDI solutions must accomplish multiple goals to be considered successful. They must support cloud migration and be flexible and scalable enough to adapt to organizational needs in a timely and cost-effective manner. Legacy and line-of-business applications are still important, even as SaaS is growing more rapidly than ever. In fact, being able to support both SaaS and legacy applications could be considered the key to success for a VDI solution. Survey respondents’ top concerns about moving to the cloud include access to legacy applications and data security (29 percent), with a slightly less – but still significant – percentage reporting concerns about cost (18 percent) and compliance with industry security standards (24 percent). It’s clear to see that organizations are realizing many benefits from VDI, DaaS and virtualization, and the demand is strong. While many claim to be at least somewhat satisfied with how their VDI solutions are performing, there is always room for improvement and users are looking for ways to make management more centralized while reducing security concerns and eliminating the strain on IT resources. That said, making solutions more cost-effective is always valued. The truth is the cloud is here to stay. IT professionals must ensure that their organizations can accommodate multiple hosting options, including on-premises, multi-cloud or hybrid deployments to publish a mix of desktops and applications that include custom applications (including legacy applications), in-house, SaaS and other off-the-shelf applications. With remote and hybrid work becoming an integral part of the new work culture, IT administrators need to be focused on providing a digital workspace that ensures productivity no matter where employees are working. J Prashant Ketkar is chief technology and product officer for Alludo, a provider of professionalcaliber graphics, virtualization and productivity solutions. What types of devices are connected to your VDI solutions? Laptops 35% Mobile phones 25% Tablets 19% Thick clients 8% Thin clients 9% Employee BYOD 4% Source: Parallels; Qualtrics How would you describe the deployment/rollout of your VDI Solution? Extremely difficult 4% Somewhat difficult 30% Neither easy nor difficult 23% Somewhat easy 26% Extremely easy 17% Source: Parallels; Qualtrics Source: Cresta Rank the top five most significant challenges for your organization in preventing cyberattacks in relation to WFA, where 1 is the most challenging Source: Fortinet What is the current status of your virtualization/VDI solution? Source: Parallels; Qualtrics 0% 20% 5% 5% 1% 16% 35% 37% In the proof of concept (POC) stage Currently migrating to/deploying a VDI solution 1 year old or less 2-4 year old or less 5 year old or less Not sure The Global Space as a Service Market Size Source: Research Dive 2021 $8.67B CAGR: 5.1% $14.1B 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 Space and a service market ($million) Lack of user awareness and training about cybersecurity hygiene in general Limitations of securing employees while “working remotely” Lack of clarity on how to properly secure against a ransomware attack Lack of visibility across the distributed network Preventing social engineering attacks againts the employees Growing sophistication of threat landscape Lack of complete zero trust implementation Lack of actionable threat intelligence Lack of visibility into asset ownership and location Patching prioritization 12% 13% 11% 10% 12% 11% 10% 9% 9% 4% 13% 9% 11% 12% 9% 10% 10% 9% 8% 9% 11% 11% 11% 10% 11% 10% 9% 9% 8% 9% 12% 10% 12% 8% 11% 11% 8% 7% 13% 8% 10% 9% 12% 10% 10% 11% 9% 9% 7% Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5 15 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
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By Martin Vilaboy Remote work realities drive security dollars After a few years in which IT departments’ attention was dominated by bringing business continuity to sprawling workforces, emphasis more recently has shifted toward locking down that sprawl and addressing some of the sacrifices made in terms of security and compliance. Long past the initial mad dash to keep the lights on and employees connected, organizations have had some time to audit their situations within the new working world to gain understanding of what they’re facing. And according to recent surveys of CIO and CISO types, remote work has made their lives more difficult. At the same time, these executives seem fully aware of the fact that remote and hybrid working is the reality for at least the near term. Indeed, a majority of respondents understand the need to support remote and deskless workforces and dispersed IoT devices isn’t going away. Add it all up, and in turn we could see an outsized portion of security spending in the near term being driven by the demands of supporting remote, hybrid and work-from-anywhere (WFA) arrangements, much the same way that we saw an outsized amount of IT spend going toward keeping workers connected and collaborating in the early days of forced shutdowns. Despite continuous calls for a “return to the office” and lamentations that productivity isn’t what it used Cyber Shift SECURITY CYBER 18 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
to be, most IT decision makers expect to be securing remote work forces for the foreseeable future. In a recent survey of 300-plus CISOs by cybersecurity brand Red Access, nearly two-thirds of respondents (63 percent) said that, in three years’ time, most employees at their companies would work in either a hybrid model or entirely remotely. Just 37 percent of respondents said they anticipated most employees at their organizations working in the office full time in the next three years. About half of IT executives (49 percent) surveyed recently by 451 Research, meanwhile, expect a majority of desk workers in their organizations will be working remotely full time (25 percent) or have a hybrid schedule (24 percent) a year from now. As of January, of this year, 72 percent of organizations surveyed by Fortinet still were operating with either some type of hybrid work or work-from-home (WFH) arrangement. Even in the Asia-Pacific-Japan (APJ) region – which tends to be the most restrictive for hybrid workers – more than 47 percent of the organizations surveyed are still accommodating WFH employees. And moving forward, at least a third of employees around the globe expect to stay working off-site 80 percent of the time, while more than half expect to continue working off-site 51 to 80 percent of the time. And it should be noted, those percentages include organizations in verticals such as hospitality and healthcare that are less conducive to working remotely. All the while, IT decision makers also are quite aware of the complexity that remote working can bring. A whopping 72 percent of CISOs surveyed for Red Access said that the hybrid/remote workforce has had a negative impact on their organization’s security posture. About three in 10 felt that hybrid/remote work had a “high” or “very high negative impact” on their organization’s security posture. Likewise, more than half (60 percent) of IT executives surveyed by 451Research believe that supporting a distributed workforce during the next two years will be significantly (22 percent) or Factors CISOs Said Strongly Compromise Organizations’ Security Posture Increased amount of sensitive data 52% Third-party apps and integration 48% Hybrid work 46% More sophisticated cyber threats 46% The digital transformation 44% Proliferation of devices 47% Other 1% Source: Red Access Rank the top five most significant challenges for your organization in preventing cyberattacks in relation to WFA, where 1 is the most challenging Source: Fortinet Source: Parallels; Qualtrics 0% 5% 5% 1% In the proof of concept (POC) stage Currently migrating to/deploying a VDI solution 1 year old or less 2-4 year old or less 5 year old or less Not sure The Global Space as a Service Market Size Source: Research Dive 2021 $8.67B CAGR: 5.1% $14.1B 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 Space and a service market ($million) Lack of user awareness and training about cybersecurity hygiene in general Limitations of securing employees while “working remotely” Lack of clarity on how to properly secure against a ransomware attack Lack of visibility across the distributed network Preventing social engineering attacks againts the employees Growing sophistication of threat landscape Lack of complete zero trust implementation Lack of actionable threat intelligence Lack of visibility into asset ownership and location Patching prioritization 12% 13% 11% 10% 12% 11% 10% 9% 9% 4% 13% 9% 11% 12% 9% 10% 10% 9% 8% 9% 11% 11% 11% 10% 11% 10% 9% 9% 8% 9% 12% 10% 12% 8% 11% 11% 8% 7% 13% 8% 12% 10% 9% 12% 10% 10% 11% 9% 9% 7% Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5 19 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
somewhat (38 percent) challenging for their organizations. “The rapid dissolution of the traditional security perimeter has left the overwhelming majority of CISOs feeling decidedly less secure,” said Red Access executives. That’s likely because, as Fortinet’s study showed, a “startling” two-thirds of companies have experienced a data breach due to a WFA vulnerability. A similar 72 percent reported an increase in WFA support calls in the last two years. In turn, nearly half of CISOs surveyed by the company listed hybrid work as a top threat to their security postures. Only two other concerns topped it on their lists, and not by that much: third-party apps and integrations (48 percent) and the increased amount of sensitive data (52 percent). “Hybrid work is now clearly seen as a cybersecurity imperative,” said Red Access researchers, “on par with the likes of data sensitivity and the increasing sophistication of modern attacks.” Pain Points When asked about the most significant challenges in preventing cyberattacks in relation to WFA, companies surveyed for Fortinet cited the lack of awareness and training among those workers. Red Access likewise found that “employee training/communication” topped the list when CISOs were asked to identify the most important criteria to hybrid/remote employees’ successful adoption of a security solution. Other top challenges with regards to securing remote/WFA workers include concerns over how to extend corporate security to home offices and remote locations and a lack of visibility across distributed networks and visibility into asset ownership and location, showed the Fortinet data. Most of the other concerns expressed by respondents related to fundamental security issues, such as how to deal with ransomware, lacking zero-trust access (ZTA), actionable threat intelligence and an effective patching protocol, combined with the growing sophistication of the threat landscape. In terms of the largest perceived threats, the insecurity of home networks, employees using company laptops for personal use and compromised family devices infecting an employee’s work PC are considered by most organizations to be their top WFA security risks, showed the Fortinet survey results. Such responses all point to vulnerabilities of home networks and the lateral movement for malware to enter the corporate network, continued the study, and reflect the inability to extend corporate security to a nonowned environment. “What organizations want is the ability to establish consistent policies across all locations, including those where workers connect to the network remotely,” the report continued. “The challenge is finding vendors that can implement solutions and enforce consistent security protocols on the corporate network and in home offices.” Incidentally, this is likely why nearly half of respondents (42 percent) end up using multiple vendors. “Insecure browsing” and “poor endpoint security” likewise topped the list of hybrid/remote work security concerns mentioned by the CISOs surveyed for Red Access. Close behind were issues around BYOD and compliance. The data from both providers, however, shows one thing for certain, and it underscores the influence of remote work on security spending. As researcher at Fortinet point out: “the challenges to prevent cyberattacks due to WFA are many and diverse.” This rather sudden need, compounded by the width and complexity, to keep distributed teams productive and secure already is having an impact on buyer priorities, argue Red Access executives. When they asked CISOs to name the most important criteria for selecting a new security solution or product, the “ability to integrate with other tools” (45 percent), “ease of deployment” (38 percent), “employee user experience” (35 percent), and “ease of management” (35 percent) topped the list as the most important criteria. What are the top hybrid/remote work security concerns that put your organization at the most risk? Insecure browsing 44% Poor endpoint security 44% Use of personal devices 41% Compliance violations 41% Lack of policies enforcement 37% Public Wi-Fi 36% Data leaks 34% Source: Red Access Your Biggest WFA Security Risks Insecurity of home networks 41% Employee using company laptops for personal work 38% Family devices hit by malware 31% Employee not following security protocols at home 30% Unknown user access on home networks 24% Lack of proper cybersecurity awareness training of employees 16% Insecurity of BYOD 12% Increase of cyber threat such as social engineering 8% Source: Fortinet SECURITY CYBER 20 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
These “convenience and flexibility” considerations, said the research report, surpassed traditional, “bottom-line” considerations such as “pricing,” “compliance” and even “level of security.” Likewise, CISOs clearly expressed the importance of a seamless user experience and relevance to employee job functions as important selection criteria, placing these productivity-type elements above even more traditional priorities such as support and confidence in the level of security. “With the rise of shadow IT upending many organizations’ security initiatives,” Red Access executives explained, “it’s paramount that organizations get the buy-in from their employees and find solutions that are seen as complementary to their employees’ work, as opposed to adversarial.” Indeed, a “seamless user experience” was considered as very or extremely important to the selection of a remote work security solution by three-quarters of responding CISOs. “It seems that in today’s cluttered and complex security landscape, ease of integration, simplicity and ease of use (for both end users and administrators) are topof-mind priorities for CISOs when considering adding new solutions to the stack,” the study continued. In a bit of possible good news for attacking providers, IT executives show low levels of confidence in their current abilities to protect remote users and extend corporate security to dispersed users and devices and even less confidence in business solutions designed to protect home networks specifically. Only 16 percent of organizations surveyed for Fortinet believe that a current WFA cybersecurity solution can fix the problem of home network security risks. Those who have experienced a WFA breach are the least confident that such risk can be reduced. And whereas 82 percent of CISOs working at organizations where most employees work in-office feel that their current cybersecurity program is sufficient for securing the browsing activities of their hybrid workforce, that percentage plummets to just 43 percent when looking exclusively at those CISOs from primarily hybrid organizations. For those who anticipate their organizations being primarily remote moving forward, the figure drops to just 33 percent. Decision makers also understand that securing home offices cannot be left to end users. According to a majority of organizations (71 percent), the onus for protecting home offices falls squarely on the shoulders of both the corporation and service providers, showed Fortinet’s data. As a result, 94 percent anticipate an increase in their security budget to accommodate WFA policies, with more than a third (37 percent) expecting an increase of 10 percent or more. That’s more good news for security advisors and providers. J In general, what are the most important criteria for you, as a CIO, when you select a security solution/product to deploy in your organization? Ability to integrate with other tools 45% Ease of deployment 38% Employee user experience 35% Ease of management 35% Pricing 34% Compliance to regulations 34% Level of security 33% Little IT resources required 31% Source: Red Access What security solutions do you believe are the most important to secure WFA employees/already deployed for WFA/plan to invest in for WFA within the next 24 months? Most Important Already Deployed Plan to Invest Network access control 38% 58% 85% Antivirus on company laptop 37% 62% Multifactor authentication (MFA) 35% 59% 77% Cloud security (e.g. CASB) 31% 57% 85% Secure access service edge (SASE) 30% 48% 81% Secure web gateway (SWG) 29% 53% 85% Firewall at employee home 28% 48% 85% Security service offered by telco or MSP 24% 42% 78% VPN 23% 51% 92% Enterprise access points at employee home 22% 46% 82% SD-WAN 22% 40% 79% Endpoint detection and response (EDR) 18% 52% 82% Email security 16% 51% 81% Cybersecurity training/awareness service 7% 29% 80% Wi-Fi router with security managed by employer 5% 35% 81% ZTNA 4% 29% 72% Extended detection and response (XDR) 4% 38% 79% Source: Fortinet 21 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
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