IT grapples with the stark rise of remote working

For quite some time, remote working had been growing steadily in popularity, powered by a whole selection of digital tools, from web conferencing and e-mail to mobile collaboration applications and virtual event platforms. With the emergence of coronavirus, that state of play has shifted in a matter of weeks.

Previously, only around 7% of US workers had the option to regularly work from home. These days, full working from home policies have become standard policy for major businesses all around the world as they try to prevent large numbers of employees from contracting the illness.

Whether this boom in working remotely is temporary or not, having significantly more staff operating away from traditional offices has led to huge shifts in how businesses and departments function, and IT has proven to be no exception.

Few organizations, at least from an IT perspective, were truly prepared for the changes that have taken place over the last few months. Before coronavirus developed into the pandemic it is today, most had the IT infrastructure in place to provide for a small number of steady remote workers. Now, requirements have been turned on their head. These same organizations have been confronted with a situation where thousands of their employees now need to access infrastructure designed for a fraction of the load.

Businesses like these have had to react quickly.

The first priority has been to create a safe and reliable foundation for remote digital access. People need to be able to dependably access their business’ IT resources, and that requires consideration of almost every section of the technology stack, from internet access itself and VPNs, to providing secure means to reach and interact with corporate networks, data, communication channels, and applications.

Desktop and app virtualisation services (Azure Virtual Desktop, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, and so on) are – for obvious reasons – particularly front of mind. In the last few weeks alone, Ensono has supported multiple new clients as they guarantee virtualization capacity to accommodate new workers.

Much of this work has involved migrating Citrix virtual apps and desktops from on-premises to Azure. Once the initial phase of the migration is complete, Ensono has helped these organizations ramp up capacity, and maintain reliable connections to their usual systems and apps.

The results so far are impressive. Even in situations that would normally merit the use of high-performance machines and where users would normally be accessing high intensity applications across four screens or more, Ensono has successfully ramped up infrastructure to meet requirements and has helped deliver reliable access to apps and systems.

For all of our clients – including those working on essential coronavirus activities companies like testing kits and outbreak response – we remain dedicated to ensuring essential IT services and mission-critical activities continue without interruption, that customers and workers remain safe, and that data centers have security measures and staff to handle unprecedented vulnerability and potential disruption.