How ITeS companies can build a smart workplace for WFA environment

WFA (Work from Anywhere) is now the norm in most companies, with varying remote workforces across industries. While some sectors have abandoned remote work entirely, others have embraced it fully. Many sectors, like ITeS, follow a hybrid approach with a mix of office and remote workers. Traditional network infrastructures was never designed for such a setup where a major chunk of knowledge workers are working remotely. It leads to both security and application performance issues. IT leaders must revamp their network architectures for the new work normal. Thankfully, we now also have newer technologies like SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) to enable a smart, work from anywhere workplace environment. We spoke to Pradnya Manwar, Sr. Director, IT & Cybersecurity, Sutherland, on her take around the challenges that must be addressed in the IT infrastructure to build a smart workplace that allows anytime, anywhere access for the workforce, along with how to re-architect networks to make them hybrid ready. Here are the excerpts. 

Address the Blind Spots in IT Infrastructure

Pradnya’s experience tells that enabling a hybrid work environment is full of many challenges as there are so many blind spots in the IT infrastructure that must be plugged. This includes dealing with complexities related to connectivity, data security, and collaboration. IT departments must address these potential blind spots to ensure scalability, bandwidth, and latency. Cybersecurity measures also need strengthening to protect data outside the office network’s firewalls. Effective communication and collaboration tools become crucial, emphasizing the need for robust cloud-based solutions. She advises that businesses must find the right balance between flexibility and maintaining a secure and productive work environment while navigating the challenges of hybrid work mode.

She further added that “Ensuring secure data access and storage has become a challenge in this scenario. Insufficient data access policies, complex remote access mechanisms, and outdated file-sharing systems pose threats to organizations. We recently encountered the " MOVEit" vulnerability, which is an SQL injection method that exploits and steals organizational data.” 

She strongly believes that “Proactive measures and a holistic approach is required to revamp the IT infrastructure and policies to deal with these issues.”

Understand and Tackle Challenges in Providing Remote Application Access

According to Pradnya, the ITeS sector encounters lots of challenges in providing application access to remote professionals. One of them is application performance, which is crucial to ensure reliable and high-performance connectivity with minimum latency. 

Network dependency poses another hurdle according to her as companies rely on external network infrastructure. Robust architecture and partnerships with reliable Internet Service Providers are essential for stable and secure connections. 

One other aspect she stressed on was data redundancy. She felt that it is critical to maintain data availability and mitigate the risk of data loss, requiring regular backups and disaster recovery plans. Data security is paramount, necessitating robust cybersecurity measures like encryption, secure remote access, and multi-factor authentication. 

While sharing ideas on how to deal with security issues Pradnya said “Ensure that you have an authorized & secure VPN in place so that encrypted communication between devices and applications is secured. Servers need to be regularly patched, so there must be a practice in place to be VAPT performed, VA scanned on a regular basis to uncover server vulnerabilities and address these vulnerabilities on time”.

Additionally, she mentioned that compliance and governance challenges arise due to industry regulations and client-specific requirements. Effective authentication and identity management systems, such as two-factor or biometric authentication help ensure secure access. Addressing these challenges demands a comprehensive approach that encompasses technological solutions, policies, procedures, and ongoing monitoring.

Invest in Robust Communication & Collaboration Tools

In the era of WFA, enterprises need to put in significant investments toward robust communication and collaboration tools according to Pradnya. “With dispersed teams and limited visibility into colleagues' activities, these tools become crucial for fostering effective communication, collaboration, and coordination”, she added. Investments are needed to acquire secure and feature-rich software platforms that facilitate real-time messaging, video conferencing, file sharing, and project management. 

Additionally, she felt that investments in reliable hardware infrastructure, high-speed Internet connectivity, and data security measures are necessary to support seamless communication across various devices and protect sensitive information. By making these investments, enterprises can enable efficient collaboration, bridge the gap between remote teams, and ensure that employees remain connected and informed, regardless of their physical location.

From her years of experience, Pradnya expressed “It is very imperative to close all security loopholes before onboarding any collaboration applications. Having DLP monitoring and real-time SIEM automated alerts in place for these tools is helpful.”

Tackle Security Challenges Arising from a Hybrid Work Culture

The hybrid work culture presents new security challenges for organizations according to Pradnya. “With employees working both remotely and from office, the attack surface expands, increasing the potential for security breaches”, she said. Therefore, ensuring secure access to company resources becomes critical, requiring robust authentication and identity management systems. She also felt that endpoint security becomes a priority as devices connect from various locations, necessitating the implementation of comprehensive security measures. 

Data privacy and protection are crucial, as sensitive information is accessed and shared outside traditional office networks. “Organizations must also address the security risks associated with cloud services and collaboration tools”, she added. To mitigate these challenges, Pradnya recommends a comprehensive security strategy encompassing network security, cloud security, data protection, employee training, and regular security audits is essential for safeguarding the hybrid work environment.

“Ensure when users are accessing sensitive information, it is being masked so that any unauthorized employee can’t see any sensitive users’ data. Ensure conditional access policies are applied to prevent unauthorized devices connecting to your network. Employees need to be trained against Phishing, Vishing, SPAM, Social engineering, Enticement, etc. so they don’t fall prey for them and end up entering the sensitive credentials there.”, she added.

Leverage SASE to Enable a Smart Workplace

One key solution for a hybrid work environment that can provide secure and seamless access to applications from anywhere is SASE. IT leaders therefore consider SASE to be a transformative solution. Pradnya says that “IT leaders anticipate simplified network management, enhanced security through comprehensive threat detection and access controls, and scalability for cloud integration. IT leaders also expect SASE to provide consistent user experiences across devices and locations. Ultimately, they seek a holistic solution that ensures secure, agile, and cost-effective connectivity while aligning with evolving needs of the digital landscape.

According to Pradnya “SASE consolidates multiple dice of policy enforcement, like authorization, single sign-in, credential mapping, device pooling, encryption, tokenization, etc. So, SASE solution offers network security and network capability into a unified platform.” 

She also added “Organizations can potentially rely on cost savings by eliminating the need for multiple standalone security and network appliances by choosing SASE. The consolidation of security and network functions into a single platform reduces capital and operational experiences.”

The article has been written by Sayan Dey, Manager-Research, CMR