From on-premise to the cloud: Seize opportunities in a “remote-first” world

From on-premise to the cloud: Seize opportunities in a “remote-first” world

Working remotely is the new normal. Employees today prefer to have the choice between commuting to the office, taking part in online and offline meetings and working from home on collaborative projects.

Although some solutions for working remotely are focused on one particular department, role or task, having flexibility is absolutely essential.

Three factors are crucially important for achieving high “remote-first” productivity. Let’s take a closer look at what they are.

#1: Genuinely independent of location

If you can’t provide your employees with the option of working independently from the office, you risk losing them altogether. This conundrum is something that is so important for modern companies.

The first factor is to enable your employees to work where they want – whether that’s from home, abroad or in your office. But although it may seem obvious at first glance, there’s a lot involved in achieving genuine location independence. 

If your employees are to be able to work from anywhere, they also need to have seamless access to all of your organisation’s information, too. Which involves issues such as access rights and data management. This is something that you need to handle with the greatest care and the bigger your business grows, the more important it becomes.

Working from anywhere also means being able to reach and work with colleagues, customers and partners without encountering communication problems. Working together effectively means having the right communication tools, as well as a structured data landscape for fast management and data-sharing.

#2: Security

Security risks can endanger the productivity of your organisation. In the worst-case scenario, cyber-threats such as malware, viruses, phishing and malicious links could bring your business grinding to a halt. These problems can also be unbelievably expensive and difficult to resolve.

If security for your current hybrid working environment is not as strong as Fort Knox, then the risks are considerable. And now that people are working from home or using their own computer to do their work, it becomes clear why problems occur.

A less-than-perfect data structure is another problem that can result in data leaks when working with confidential files that are crucial to your business. And leaks can damage your reputation so badly, it can take a very long time to recover. Keeping security and management under control is vitally important for organisations that are serious about their productivity.

#3: Access to essential applications

When it comes to productivity, it is immensely important for your teams to have fast and easy access to essential work applications. Companies use a large number of applications, often ten or more of them. If access is slow or restricted, this can exact a heavy toll on the performance, productivity and job satisfaction of your employees.

Imagine if your finance team couldn’t process any invoices because the purchasing department was unable to send them through because the app was down! It’s issues like this that make all the difference. So, if you experience bottlenecks or want to improve the productivity of your organisation, these are three factors that you need to bear in mind.

Your next steps

With the right strategic advice and the right technology (such as Microsoft Azure) to support your goals for achieving successful hybrid and remote working, you can boost the productivity of your employees, as well as keep your overheads under control. 

Thanks to the power of this secure and versatile public cloud solution, your organisation can be ready to embrace the new work environment.

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