Forced by the pandemic to provide employees with access to the systems and information they needed to work from home, IT organizations around the world turned to traditional technologies like Virtual Private Networks (VPN). And they worked. But as the world moves to hybrid work, 96% of IT leaders who participated in a recent global survey conducted by Gartner Peer Insights on behalf of Citrix Systems, Inc., say they no longer cut it. And they're rethinking their approach.
A Seismic Change
Hybrid models have radically changed where and how work gets done — and even who does it. Of the organizations who participated in the poll:
■ 96% have a hybrid work policy or allow both fully remote and hybrid work
■ 85% say their workforce is more geographically dispersed than it was two years ago
■ 75% have seen an increase in the number of seasonal, contract, or freelance workers
A Major Miss
When it comes to supporting these changes, respondents say the solutions they put in place to enable remote work fall short in the following areas:
■ Fail to protect against additional security risks posed by employees working from anywhere (96%)
■ Create a digital divide between in-office and remote employees (63%)
■ Don't provide a consistent user experience (46%)
■ Hinder efficient collaboration among distributed employees (46%)
■ Don't support bring-your-own-device initiatives (33%)
■ Difficult to scale and manage (25%)
A Strategic Shift
And they are increasing their investments in technologies that allow them to provide a simpler, more consistent and secure experience for employees regardless of where they work, including:
■ Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) (69%)
■ Virtual apps and desktops (56%)
■ Desktops as a Service (DaaS) (42%)
■ Zero trust network access (34%)
A Layered Approach
VPN remains the most popular solution to support remote work. But as the research reveals, it's not enough to enable safe and productive hybrid work on its own. According to the poll, 87 percent of respondents using VPN have implemented at least one other solution to close the gaps, including:
■ VDI (69%)
■ Virtual Apps and Desktops (49%)
■ DaaS (39%)
Desired Results
And in doing so, they're achieving their goal. When asked to identify the top three benefits their hybrid work solutions provide, participants in the poll said they:
■ Provide layered protection for all devices on the network, including unmanaged and BYOD
■ Create an equitable work experience by providing employees with consistent and reliable access to applications and data regardless of where they are working
■ Provide layered protection and consistent security management for all applications
"Hybrid work is the future of work" said Tim Minahan, EVP of Strategy, Citrix. "Innovative organizations recognize this and are reimagining the solutions used to support it so they can deliver it today."