Companies rethinking security strategies for hybrid

Forced to provide employees with access to the systems and information they needed to work from home, IT organisations around the world turned to traditional technologies like Virtual Private Networks (VPN)... and they worked.

But as the world moves to a hybrid work model, 96 per cent of IT leaders say those technologies no longer cut it, and that they are rethinking their approach.

The global survey was conducted by Gartner Peer Insights on behalf of Citrix and suggested that hybrid work is having a radical impact on the technologies being used to support teams.

A seismic change

Hybrid models have radically changed where and how work gets done — and even who does it. Of the organisations who participated in the Citrix poll:

• 96 per cent have a hybrid work policy or allow both fully remote and hybrid work
• 85 per cent say their workforce is more geographically dispersed than it was two years ago
• 75 per cent 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 per cent)
• Create a digital divide between in-office and remote employees (63 per cent)
• Don’t provide a consistent user experience (46 per cent)
• Hinder efficient collaboration among distributed employees (46 per cent)
• Don’t support bring-your-own-device initiatives (33 per cent)
• Difficult to scale and manage (25 per cent)

A strategic shift

Organisations are increasing 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 per cent)
• Virtual apps and desktops (56 per cent)
• Desktops as a Service (DaaS) (42 per cent)
• Zero trust network access (34 per cent)

A layered approach

VPN remains the most popular solution to support remote work. But, as the Citrix research reveals, it’s not enough to enable safe and productive hybrid work on its own. According to the poll, 87 per cent of respondents using VPN have implemented at least one other solution to close the gaps, including:

• VDI (69 per cent)
• Virtual Apps and Desktops (49 per cent)
• DaaS (39 per cent)

Desired results

And in doing so, IT leaders are achieving their goal. When asked to identify the top three benefits their chosen hybrid work solutions provide, participants 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, Executive Vice President of Strategy, Citrix.

“Innovative organisations recognise this and are reimagining the solutions used to support it so they can deliver it today.”

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