Undoubtedly, the way of working has changed a lot in the last year. We are living in a transition to an increasingly digital world where remote work has increased significantly. Thus, the protection of the remote workforce will be the main objective of companies in 2021. However, we must not forget about remote workers in small businesses and offices who must also be protected.
The goal in 2021 will be to protect teleworkers
In a Cato Networks survey of 2,376 IT leaders, it found that protecting the remote workforce will be a priority focus for companies in 2021.
Thus, 58% of those surveyed responded that they had made an effort to enforce corporate security policies on remote users. Also 57% acknowledged that they lacked the time and resources to implement recognized security best practices. When it comes to remote work, for 47%, boosting remote access performance remains a priority for 2021.
Remote workers in small businesses, offices, and large organizations must work to find effective solutions for their employees. In this sense, they must look for solutions that adapt to their number of employees and their safety.
On the other hand, 81% of those surveyed by 2021 expect to work from home. Because of this, companies have to evolve their remote access architectures to protect their remote workers without compromising the user experience.
The importance of SASE as a strategy for the future
According to Shlomo Kramer , CEO of Cato Networks, he believes that a true SASE platform offers cloud-scale global networking and security to dynamically adapt to whatever comes next.
In case you don’t know, SASE or Secure Access Service Edge, is an emerging business strategy that combines network and security functions with WAN capabilities to support the dynamic and secure access needs of today’s organizations. Regarding the SASE solutions from the survey, the following conclusions can be drawn:
- 91% expect it to simplify administration and security.
- Of those who adopted SASE, 86% experienced increased security. 70% indicated time savings in management and maintenance. Finally, 55% indicated an overall cost savings.
Therefore, seeing these benefits, remote workers in small businesses, offices, and large organizations could do well with SASE.
Survey Findings Regarding Remote Work
Telework is becoming more and more established, and as a result of this, the survey shows that:
- Companies will continue with the teleworking formula, except for 7% who indicated that they would all return to the office.
- 80% of organizations will continue with remote work in whole or in part.
- 91% expect that SASE will simplify administration and security.
Remote worker protection is critical
Ensuring the protection of remote workers is proving to be a very big challenge for organizations. Remote employees need the same advanced threat prevention and access controls as office users. If we take into account that, sometimes they use their own computers to telework, this situation is complicated.
One of the things that it has caused is that 72% have had to make a greater investment in scaling the resources of VPNs. The survey reveals that 74% have increased investment in security infrastructures. In the recent attack on SolarWinds, a major incident, 71% of respondents noted the inability of the network to protect the organization from new security threats as their greatest concern. The problem is that, for many, security is becoming increasingly complex and difficult to implement.
A worrying fact is that 57% of those surveyed felt they lacked time and resources to implement recognized security best practices. For example, something as essential as quickly patching software and systems poses a significant challenge for 32% of respondents. For that reason, seeing the benefits that SASE can bring in terms of simplification to remote workers in small companies, offices and large organizations could be a good option.