Living with COVID-19
With COVID-19 aka coronavirus at the forefront of everybody’s minds, it may seem challenging to focus on remote working and work-related issues. A further obstacle placed in our paths by the virus is the restrictions relating to where we can work from. Put simply, governments around the world have stated that employees must work from home unless this is logistically impossible. Worse still, some countries such as Spain and India have declared a state of emergency, further restricting the movement of individuals and severely curtailing the operations of thousands of businesses.
Remote Working
But just because you are unable to go into the office doesn’t mean that work can’t move forward. On the contrary, you can work as effectively from home as you would from your desk in the city. All it takes is discipline and structure, the right mindset, and the right tools for the job.
Insofar as possible, your home working environment should mimic what you experience in the office. While there may be temptations and distractions, you need to put these aside and focus on your daily routine as you normally would. Once you are in the swing of things, you’ll notice that your productivity, creativity and decision-making abilities at home will soon outperform your office-based capabilities.
Stay Safe
You take cybersecurity seriously in the workplace so there is no reason why you should take it with a pinch of salt when working from home. Always apply cybersecurity good practice and follow these tips:
- Use what you were given – a company device will be much more secure than any of your own
- Password manager – use a password manager such as LastPass so that you can use long and complex passwords
- Use a VPN – a VPN will keep your work workstation and household devices secure
- Strip away extension – only use browser extensions that you absolutely need and one that comes from a trustworthy and reliable source
- Thieves beware – keep your devices under lock and key and initialize all ‘find my devices options
Accessing the Network
One way that you can remotely access the company network is through your organization’s VPN. Again, you will be limited to accessing only files and information stored on the private server and the company intranet. Wouldn’t you want more? And more is available if you opt for a virtual hosted desktop infrastructure.
Hosted Desktops
Hosted desktops are a far cry from LogMeIn, the familiar SaaS application that allows you remote access to any computing device. The app has its limitations, however, since you can only access what is on your PC and not on any shared drives or the company network. This is where hosted desktop makes their mark.
Accessing a hosted virtual desktop (HVD) for all your employees means a secure and simplified way of working. DaaS or Desktop-as-a-Service means that you have continuity with critical data stored in the cloud. You have secure access to your hosted desktop from any device. DaaS means shared compute with instant setup. DaaS is a cost-effective way to host MS applications, Sage and other vital web apps.
DaaS providers always apply data encryption and your software infrastructure is hosted on a purpose-built DDoS-protected cloud platform. You can access your network via a desktop application, on iOS or Android or through a web browser. A reliable provider will also avail 10% uptime.
According to Gartner, by 2023, public cloud providers will have enough brokering functionality to satisfy 25% of enterprise DaaS use. This is up from less than 1% last year.
So why wait? Contact your local IT provider and start saving money and time. More than that, your IT infrastructure will be optimized to a level of security like never before.
