An interesting question. Because for decades offices, branches or perhaps the shop was the business center of your organization. Major investments were made in physical workplaces where many people gather and collaborate. But are these investments still valid now that more and more mobile users are forming a virtual organization together?
Does your budget of 2022
go to the ‘office’ or
the mobile user?
Be careful for habituation
Network architects are used to building network and security capabilities on physical locations like branch offices and data centers. This location-oriented design involves significant cost and complexity. It requires premium connectivity options such as MPLS, high availability and traffic shaping (QoS) via SD-WAN appliances, and securing internet traffic with data center backhauling, edge firewalls, and security as a service. What was normal for years to invest in can now, sometimes unconsciously, suddenly turn out to be an unwise choice.
The pandemic sped up the change to working remotely
Network dynamics have changed with the rise of cloud computing, public cloud applications and the mobile workforce. Users and applications migrated away from business locations, making infrastructure investments in these locations less applicable. At the same time, expensive invoices for this office-oriented infrastructure are paid. Our conclusion is that new network designs with more mobile capabilities are needed. Now is the time to look at investments in your network in a different way. Indeed, the recent pandemic accelerated migration and created a hybrid work model that required a smooth transition between home and office.
Facilitating people instead of workplaces
Organizations increasingly need to move from an industry-oriented to a person-oriented organization. That is also seen by Gartner. In their research report, “2021 Roadmap for SASE Convergence,” Gartner analysts Neil Macdonald, Nat Smith, Lawrence Orans and Joe Skorupa highlight the paradigm shift from an IT architecture focused on the workplace to one that focuses on the person doing the work. and the work to be done.
Choose for the work that needs to be done!
SASE is the modern alternative to facilitate the mobile user even better in the current time. It is the SASE architecture that enables this transition as it is based on four core principles: convergence, cloud native, globally distributed and support to all digital endpoints. After all, your employees work everywhere and for this they need a safe, fast and reliable network worldwide. That is where our expertise lies.
Extra information
For additional background information, including on the four core principles, please refer to this article by Yishay Yovel, Global Chief Marketing Officer of Cato Networks, which was also the inspiration for this blog. Of course you can also contact us directly.