3 Keys for a Unified Approach to a Better Modern Workspace

The way people work has evolved — and that’s because how and where they work has evolved, too. As organizations continue to adopt new technology and workflows for the best results, they are creating a modern workspace. With devices no longer sitting solely on corporate networks and businesses transferring data to the cloud, longstanding ways of working no longer align with today’s (and tomorrow’s) needs.

Put simply, a modern workspace is designed with a focus on technology, productivity and collaboration — and is effectively decentralized to allow people to perform their jobs securely from anywhere and on any device.

There are numerous factors in the journey of building a modern workspace, but if approached strategically, you can get to where you need to meet the rising demands of employees and customers.

Here are three keys to consider for a unified approach to a better modern workspace.

Traditionally, workers accessed their applications through local, on-premises VPNs or some type of application and desktop delivery. Now, with cloud-based software-as-a-service licensing becoming ubiquitous, hybrid work is here to stay. As a business leader, you must ask yourself: What do we do with our traditional workloads? If you haven’t already pondered this, begin the conversation as soon as possible.

The key is not only to understand your workloads — what has worked and what needs fixing — but also to develop a plan to bring multiple IT teams together to determine holistic workflow solutions. When you understand the impact of how individuals interact with certain data, and how their user experience goes, the easier it becomes to see the big picture more clearly.

Traditionally, workers would go to the office to log onto their computers with local credentials. Now, as organizations continue to embrace hybrid work, cloud-based identity providers have replaced on-premises identity authentication as the primary method, rendering the old way as secondary.

The catch here is that many organizations, especially those that have been around awhile, still leverage active directory machines — technology introduced in 1999!

While it can be an uphill battle to revamp current processes or start from scratch, the moral of the story is this: Doing things the way they’ve been done for 25 years will not set your business up for future success. In fact, this will put your business at risk for cyberattacks and worse.

Don’t worry; there are tools and software available for remote monitoring of endpoints anywhere. Enhanced security might not happen overnight, but once you get started, you’ll gain necessary peace of mind.

Many companies no longer have physical access to endpoint devices to readily assist people, creating the need to equip IT teams with remote visibility for users and endpoints located anywhere. With folks increasingly plugged into home networks that don’t offer the same visibility as in-office settings, one solution organizations can leverage is to deploy virtual agents on machines to read and provide data to IT staff. They can then make recommendations to optimize remote workers’ performance.

For your business to thrive in the hybrid-work era, tap into endpoint visibility and analytics tools. That way, you can proactively identify issues to increase productivity and promote seamless digital experiences.

At CDW, our experts can thoroughly assess your workspace, targeting where advancements are most needed.

Recently, we helped a healthcare customer that grew rapidly due to a major acquisition. They required deployment of more than 1,000 new endpoints in less than six months and struggled with legacy tools and methods, as well as a limited IT staff. We engaged with them and developed a roadmap that ultimately enhanced their auto-deployment of applications, security policies, cloud native identity authentication and endpoint visibility. We met the customer’s aggressive timeline and helped them launch a secure, manageable modern workspace.

This is what we do — work with you from start to finish to craft solutions to transform your workspace.