Earlier this week 3xCCIE-certified engineer, Tim Betz sat down to answer some questions about how companies have been managing to shift to remote work. Tim is a consulting system engineer for Flagler Technologies in Boca Raton, Florida.
1. Laptop Shortages
As numerous companies around the world ask the office staff to work from home, some are finding that they don’t have enough devices to send their employees home with. Unfortunately, the shift caused a shortage of laptops in the market, and employees were left with only their desktops.
One of Flagler’s clients fell victim to this shortage and reached out for assistance. After assessing the situation, Flagler was able to come up with a hybrid model for its employees to use. Flagler created remote worker security solutions that allowed the organization to use their home devices to safely access corporate resources.
2. VPN Capacity
Another issue that organizations found was insufficient VPN capacity. A long-term customer of Flagler’s was experiencing this and Flagler helped them find and implement a solution within three days, increasing VPN capacity to support 9000 additional users.
The solution was simple. In the past, the customer had an acquisition that required them to onboard approximately 30 remote locations to their network. During that project, Flagler provisioned a firewall that blocked communications between the companies to maintain security policies. Years later, this project come into play again. Flagler was able to use this same firewall device in a new location and repurpose it to increase VPN capacity.
3. Collaboration Adjustments
Since COVID-19, collaborating has been different. Companies are now forced to have phone meetings or video conferences, leaving the days of face-to-face meetings in the past. This adjustment has caused an increase in audio and video conferencing software licensing and security threats.
In addition, many people were not used to remote work and have had a hard time personally adjusting to it. While talking with Tim, he mentioned that even he was apprehensive of the shift to video conferencing and only used audio. However, he has adopted a new view. Video conferencing used to be nerve-wracking and uncomfortable, but has now become the “new norm.” The various background noises of dogs barking, babies crying and the occasional toilet flush seem to be overlooked now.
This culture shift reminded Tim that we are all in this together and that no matter how technology shifts, all we can do is adapt.
Do you have any questions? Let us know what you want to hear about next by contacting the experts at Flagler Technologies!