IT Roadmap

Cross the Border Between Consumer and Business Technology

One border that remains to be crossed is the border between consumer technology and business technology. But it's a barrier that will be crossed one way or another — sometimes against the wishes of IT policy makers.

"In the enterprise, there is growing demand for the acceptance of new computing tools — both hardware and applications — that first gain their popularity in the consumer space before being pulled into the business organization by employees," writes Tom Gillis in his book Securing the Borderless Network.  "Industry analysts generally recognize this trend as the consumerization of IT."

The positive side of this trend is that it represents opportunities to enhance the user's experience and productivity while driving down IT costs for certain applications. The trouble with this trend is security. How do organizations protect their users, their networks and their data when endpoints are beyond control?

The biggest driver of consumerized IT today is the smartphone. Handheld devices are increasingly powerful and the array of applications now available on them continues to explode. Indeed, the smartphone may be the primary computing device of mobile users in the borderless enterprise in the coming years. This raises the challenge of how to secure them and other forms of consumer IT.

"Desktop virtualization is a big part of the answer," contends Gillis. "It is a powerful tool that helps business and personal computing coexist on a single device. The concept is that consumers can have any device they want... But when the time comes to access company data, they must switch to a virtual desktop."

Such moves create a virtual environment in which policies can be rigorously enforced. Every connection can be scanned, logged and analyzed to ensure these policies are followed.

While Gillis acknowledges that the virtual desktop concept will take several years to implement effectively with emerging smartphones, he sees several meaningful steps that can be taken toward this destination in the meantime. He points, for instance, to the convergence of SSL VPN technology, advanced web security, and hybrid-hosted security solutions as a key enabler of secure networks.

While acknowledging that virtualization is only one facet of the security challenge ahead, he emphasizes that there is no holding back the flood of demand that will come from users to integrate business and personal technology. Fortunately, smart enterprises will also have the tools to protect their networks.

Is Your Network Ready to Enable the Virtual Office?

Teleworking is on the rise, creating new challenges and opportunities for enterprises committed to the promise of borderless networks.

Consider a few projections and estimates:

• Number of teleworkers by 2011: 112 million
• Percentage of employees that work outside the corporate HQ: 90%
• Average amount saved per year on fuel by employees who work one day at home: $500
• Average commercial real estate savings per year for a full time teleworker: $22,000 

Considering the challenges of the current down economy and the clear savings associated with telework, it seems likely that teleworking will become an attractive approach for more and more organizations in the coming years. It’s certainly attractive to workers seeking schedule flexibility and better work-life balance.  They want to save time and costs on commuting.

While there may have been concerns in the past about the ability of teleworkers to build trust with their colleagues and effectively collaborate, the maturing of technology over the years has addressed many of these concerns. Rich communication and collaboration capabilities – matched with convenience and cost savings – have dramatically shifted the equation in favor of telework.

The question is: What will it take to successfully implement, manage and secure robust networks and IT resources that will support the move to a virtual office environment?

 

One thing that’s clear is that teleworkers, full- and part-time home office workers, mobile contractors, and executives will expect the same rich array of network services – including data, voice, video and various applications – they could expect to access at a corporate office. 

But that won’t be enough. New telework solutions must also meet the requirements of IT. They must simplify the process of providing rich network services to remote locations.  Deployment and integration must be simple as well, making it easy to scale with the demands of the enterprise. Moreover, security must be uncompromising, ensuring traffic controls and identity management can be strictly enforced.

Finally, it’s critical to ensure the business objectives of the organization are addressed. Solutions must drive measurable productivity gains and cost reductions while facilitating greater agility.

Telework has been called a “quiet revolution,” but it’s clear it won’t remain quiet much longer.

Do You Have a Mobile Workforce Network Strategy?

As enterprises struggle to perform and succeed in today’s fast-paced, hyper-competitive marketplace, they are challenged to ensure that their increasingly mobile workers are well supported. Instead of treating mobile workers as one group and assuming they all have the same needs, your enterprise can provide exactly the support needed by evaluating mobility needs based on specifics.

This means you need to know who your mobile workers are. Before launching a mobile workforce network strategy, it makes sense to begin by profiling the different workers based on their jobs, roles and the information they need to get their work done.

Here are some key profiles that Cisco research has identified:

• Road Warriors. These tend to be executives, outside sales reps and consultants. They may spend more than 80% of their time away from the office traveling or at customer and partner locations. They heavily use email and voice, but tend to have a lower use of back-end business applications.


• Campus Mobiles. These might be IT support staff, healthcare workers, teachers, manufacturing and production staff, or retail associates and managers. They may spend 60% of their time away from their desks. They rely on mobile communications within their campus. And they have heavy, often continuous, application use.


• Corridor Cruisers. You might find these people in marketing, human resources, finance, R&D, IT,  plant and facilities management and maintenance, safety and security staff roles. They typically spend more than 20% of their time away from their primary office desks. They are known for heavy application access and voice services use, but moderate e-mail access.


• Field Force. These are supply chain, fleet, delivery, logistics, public sector and safety, and case workers. They tend to spend most of their time outside the campus, often moving to multiple sites during the day to complete tasks. They rely on specific application access, but are known for light e-mail usage, and moderate voice usage.


• Teleworkers. These tend to be customer service rep¬resentatives, IT help desk workers or inside sales. They primarily work from home. They exhibit continuous and heavy application access in addition to e-mail. They may also be voice-intensive depending upon job duties.

Having profiled these workers, you will be in a much better position to identify what mobile strategies and solutions are most likely to be appropriate to your enterprise. You can turn mobility into a competitive advantage by using it as key driver of business value.

Develop a Roadmap for Evolving Your Network Infrastructure

Many small-to-mid-size companies evolve their networks in an ad hoc manner. They purchase point solutions with more of a focus to addressing an immediate need than in assessing how future needs will impact the choice. Not only does that increase the complexity of the network, but it can also create obstacles to supporting company growth.

By creating a roadmap for evolving your network, you can streamline the complexity as you set up IT staff to more easily manage to future needs. We’ve asked Keith Grieshaber, our VP of Technology to answer a few questions to help you plan for your network’s evolution.

Q. What are the components that should be included in developing a roadmap for network evolution?

KG:  Understanding the business strategic goals and objectives for the company as a whole will set the stage for a technology roadmap.  Once this vision is understood by the technology leadership team, the roadmap can include the appropriate infrastructure and technology.  Some common components that affect today’s technology decisions include cloud computing, security risk mitigation, acquisition planning and much more.

Q. How does IT best determine the role of their existing systems/solutions when developing a network evolution plan?

KG:  The existing systems fit into one of three categories.  They do not meet the existing business requirements, they only meet today’s business requirements, or they have the ability to carry the business into a future that aligns with the long term goals and objectives of the company.

Q. What are the pressing challenges you’re seeing in for today’s IT departments around network development?

KG:  For a company to be successful in today’s world, it has to respond quickly to our ever-changing economical environment.  The technology infrastructure must be ready to support key business objectives in hours and days, not weeks and months to capitalize of business opportunities.

Another challenge IT departments face is partnering with the right technology vendor. It is important to choose a partner that will take the time to learn and understand your business, and help leverage your existing technology infrastructure.  True technology partners will reach the level of a trusted advisor.

Q. What are some of the issues around mobility that must be addressed when combining wired and wireless networks?

KG:  A wireless network is a fluid environment that is susceptible to outside interference.   With that said, the wireless infrastructure must be designed to continually meet the business requirements of the wireless network while maintaining security, control, coverage, and stability.  Today’s wireless requirements are usually serve three to five business objectives (e.g. guest access, voice, video) and they must be balanced with the appropriate security when connected back to the wired network.