As hybrid workplaces become more normalized, organizations in every industry must adjust to the unique demands of a post-pandemic world. A major concern facing companies is navigating ways to keep remote teams connected and secure while not disrupting day-to-day operations or compromising the customer experience.

At Consistency, Connectivity, and the Cloud: Ensuring Safe Travels During Your Digital Transformation Journey, our expert panel shared their perspectives on successfully migrating business applications to the cloud, and how adopting new technologies can improve productivity and establish secure connections across any distance, on any device.

Here’s a sample of what we learned:

1. Added benefits to integrating SD-WAN models

According to Richard Davis of Lowes, “From a security perspective...I’ve got templates and orchestration that are consistent across all of the locations.”

With this consistency comes increased efficiency in security management. It is far easier to protect all of your branches and employees while they’re operating on the same network than it is to perform individual checks on devices using separate systems.

2. Making the move to new systems is a matter of comfort

Organizations won’t just take a leap of faith when it comes to security. It’s important to show relevant industry examples of how incorporating different circuits will be an improvement, rather than a hindrance, to overall productivity and threat protection.

As Lee Bailey of Tupperware Brands explains, companies need evidence before making a big change: “If we’re going to go to a cheaper circuit, does that mean cheaper or less reliability, or less speed? [...] And if we can go through and have that proof of concept in and see that it works, then it really does help.”

3. Collaboration is key for security in hybrid workplaces

Jim Routh, a retired CISO and current cybersecurity advisor, found a simple way of increasing network protection. “We got the name of every single employee and…they gave us the IP address for their home router, and we then just added that into our intelligence service,” he shared.

It can seem daunting to have to protect all personal devices that employees use from their home offices, but employees are often more than willing to be compliant and keep company data secure. In fact, this process “got adopted a lot more quickly” than expected by multiple service firms, according to Jim, and proved a decent additive to traditional security measures.

4. Monitoring data will be challenging, but more important than ever

Looking toward the future, Dave Shah of Skyworks Solutions warns businesses to stay diligent, saying he sees “[an increase in] complacency because of the sheer amount of data that comes to you and the logs you have to manage.”

A robust security network not only requires updated technology, but the continued attention to detail to, and awareness of, both executives and employees.

5. User experience will be optimized as well

“You move to an SD-WAN technology base for the remote users and it’s game-changing in that they have a much higher concentration bandwidth they can use,” noted Jim Routh.

The customer experience is an important factor in determining which systems will provide the greatest overall benefits for your organization.

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