In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, our CEO, Abhijit Dubey, explains how returning to the new workplace will place a higher demand on the network
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With the challenges of COVID-19, healthcare frontline workers are best supported by smart hospitals with a network fabric robust enough to ensure the efficient exchange of information as it’s needed.
It may be more efficient to consider private 5G for certain industries, such as manufacturing, or in cases where connectivity is needed over a large area (for example, an open case mine or airport) to meet a particular outcome, and this will need to work cohesively with WiFi for seamless end-to-end coverage.
Hybrid workers (those that have access to a formal office location as well as an ability to work from home or third-party flexible workspaces) have become accustomed to quality digital applications and easy, frictionless connections that allow them to collaborate and be productive from anywhere – and they’ll expect this same user experience from the tools they use when returning to the office.
As high-definition video calls have become far more pervasive in the last year, many organizations are revisiting legacy technology as they transition to a more flexible use of space and refresh their hardware with intuitive huddle video devices that natively connect to platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Cisco WebEx.
The experience these devices and applications provide will be key to motivating employees to use the office as a destination for certain types of work – formal meetings, stand-ups, team collaboration and design thinking – but also to ensure that those connecting remotely still feel engaged and part of the meeting. The campus network and the WAN will need to cater for this additional throughput and for more sophisticated requirements like office wayfinding, location-based services, and occupancy and social distance monitoring.
Remote workers need a seamless connection to a high-quality network so they can always have access to people and tools. In many instances, home internet is fine, but as fully remote workstyles widen the pool of talent into new geographies where fiber may not reach the home, we’re also seeing organizations plan for cellular technologies such as 5G to cater for rich real-time experiences.
Organizations responded fast following the onset of the pandemic to enable employees to work remotely, but these were typically emergency solutions where speed of deployment was critical. We’re now at a juncture where we need to consider robust work-from-home and remote working solutions that offer more flexible support and enterprise-grade security to get the most from ongoing remote work scenarios.
Regardless of the method of connection, security remains paramount as companies want to deliver flexibility without placing data or employees at risk. Zero trust and SASE are top of mind as people move to cloud platforms and companies start embarking on a single design for network and security, based on the activities and workstyles of their employees.
The network fabric underpins the way we are engaging employees and ensuring their wellbeing through a connected world – in the cloud, at the edge and at the core.
The social view of how we look after employees has also become more prevalent of late. As people return to the office, or work remotely on new digital platforms, there’s an opportunity to look at how they’re collaborating, based on data analytics, and measure employee sentiment across the network. Nudge technology can be used to encourage employees to take care of their work-life balance – for example, suggesting when to take a break.
'Tracking and demonstrating a measurable adherence to wellbeing and sustainability standards will contribute to building a culture that’s based on a clear sense of purpose.' 2020 Intelligent Workplace Report