The change to hybrid work, the increasing reliance on digital systems, and the growing user expectation for responsive and high-performing systems are all contributing to a new and different future of work. According to Amy Loomis, research director of IDC’s Future of Work program, “Investments in digital and work transformation technologies align with organisational imperatives around improved business resilience and increased employee productivity.”
All of those issues were the focus of a recent virtual panel of IT professionals, influencers, consultants, and experts who took part in a #CIOtechtalk Twitter chat sponsored by @IntelUK and moderated by @SallyEaves, Senior Policy Advisor at the Global Foundation for Cyber Studies and Research. Highlights from the chat follow.
Security has become a front-and-center concern across the organisation for many reasons. And, needless to say, new attack vectors require constant vigilance. The commentary reflects this.
Steven M Prentice (@StevenPrentice)
There’s lots of talk here about proactive defenses, which, although technically feasible, will have a hard time getting past the holders of the purse strings who are loathe to protect against something that “might or might not happen".
Neil Cattermull (@NeilCattermull)
In the digital dataverse we live in, it is more difficult to secure every exit and entry point that your data contacts. Robust security for managed entry points for edge principles is key. Working remotely causes broadband sharing and security issues at home.
An essential foundation of security includes effectively patching and managing devices. The group had a range of approaches.
Patching is a crucial element of security. But for many firms, patching was already a time-consuming, resource-intensive, and inefficient process. Now w/ everyone remote, it’s even worse.
Wayne Anderson (@DigitalSecArch)
I like tools like @intel #vpro for #health configuration up front, using device management like Intune or similar to manage fleet health, but also proactive governance and identity strategy to ensure inspection happens “whole” user-to-app is key.
As employees become dependent on their digital devices to get their work done, any problem is a major disruption. Getting them back to work fast is key; however, it isn’t always an easy process.
We can either be reactive or proactive. Most of the time remediation is reactive. Perhaps if we could possibly anticipate maybe we could be more proactive.
Sarah Ramsingh (@SarahRamsingh)
Depends on the issue. Answer can range from hours to a rebuild.
I don’t do PC support anymore. But it all depends on the issue. Many can be solved in under a minute. Others can take hours or days. Some problems just can’t be fixed and you have to reimage the machine.
As organisations strive to deliver an optimal environment for digital work and reap the benefits of it, the question of what “optimal” is becomes worth exploring. The panel was asked what they would do if budgets and resources were unlimited.
Neil Cattermull (@NeilCattermull)
I would 1. Buy them all new hardware 2. Invest in the best broadband home speed 3. Apply inside-out edge tech 4. Provide a “work anywhere” central access model via the web!
Today’s enterprise tech is still so ‘meh’ compared to consumer tech. Perhaps learn from this and put user experience at the center of enterprise tech.
Wayne Anderson (@DigitalSecArch)
Spend money on device quality. If you could take 5% of your device fleet issues off the table, would that justify stepping up one device class in what you make standard issue? 10%? Do you know what that number is? Buy quality once.
Go to #CIOtechtalk for more insights, and check out more information on this topic at intel.co.uk.