Surge in Remote Working & Obsolete Devices On The Network
NTT Ltd.’s ‘2020 Global Network Insights Report’ has found that as businesses move applications to multi-cloud environments, investment in the cloud is outpacing organizations’ on-premises infrastructure spend. This has caused refresh and upgrade patterns to slow down, with many businesses choosing to continue to sweat network assets and to slow investment in re-architecting their on-premises network and security infrastructure. As a result, there has been an increase in obsolete and unpatched network devices containing software vulnerabilities, introducing risk, and exposing the organization to information security threats.
The COVID-19 outbreak and consequent surge in bandwidth consumption is putting strain on the network, compounding existing challenges, and, ultimately, creating a perfect storm. With an increase in remote working, remote access and consumption of voice and video services, organizations’ network and security infrastructure are under incredible pressure.
The security risk of ageing and obsolete devices in the future workplace
Obsolete devices have, on average, twice as many vulnerabilities per device when compared with ageing and current ones, creating unnecessary risk. This risk is exacerbated further when businesses do not patch a device or revisit the operating system version for the duration of its lifetime. And although patching is relatively simple, and often free under a maintenance agreement or extended warranty, many businesses still don’t patch their devices.
With the adoption of new wireless infrastructure on the rise – an increase of 13% year-on-year – and the rise of open office and co-working spaces, a novel approach to all network architecture will be needed. Businesses will need the tools, knowledge and expertise to be able to re-architect the network for the short, mid and long-term evolution of the ‘new normal’ with people working remotely, and from any device at any time.
They will need to find strategic partners who can guide them with a view of what the future network looks like – not just in terms of supporting corporate space, but also public and retail areas where social distancing is typically difficult to attain. For example, as we move into the ‘new normal’, AI and machine learning may be applied to help monitor social distancing measures – the network will be the platform enabler.
The evolution of the network must go hand in hand with digital transformation
As part of digital transformation strategies, leading organizations are already using networks to enable new business models (e.g. the Internet of Things) or optimize existing operating models (e.g. asset tracking). Alternatively, businesses may be investing in technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), as part of their digital transformation initiatives in order to save cost and scale services in an agile manner. No matter what the reason; digital transformation is helping to improve the customer and employee experience, powered by the network. These initiatives will only be accelerated with the support of relevant, secure infrastructure in the ‘new normal’ especially with respect to businesses’ technology, operational and financial initiatives.