This is a guest blog post by Stacey Loew, Sr. Director, Technical Marketing, ATSG.

Hybrid work is being heralded as the next great disruption in the workplace, and although there was already a trend towards working from home, the pandemic accelerated the transition. With all these rapid changes, it was quickly revealed to organizations that they need the right mix of remote work tools and protocols in place to preserve productivity while also ensuring employee safety.

The focus for organizations today is to truly enable the work-from-anywhere model, which is a seamless blend of in-person and remote work, with the right mix of secure remote-access technology that maintains maximum uptime.

This shift in focus can present a challenge to many organizations as they navigate what is most important to their strategy, the tools to evaluate, and the different solutions available. ATSG is here to help. In this blog post, we will cover the priorities and the technologies you should consider when implementing your hybrid work strategy.

First, let’s review three top priorities your organization should consider when making your hybrid work technology choices.

Priority 1: Addressing Connectivity and Security Issues Head on

Secure connectivity must be a top priority. When users can’t connect quickly and securely, they can’t collaborate.

Complicating things, a single company may have many different devices and access points spread across the globe. Therefore, it’s so important to find a security solution that’s device and location irrelevant — in other words, it can operate freely regardless of where and how the user is working.

This is one of the benefits of Citrix technologies when they are paired with robust managed services. Citrix is an all-in-one cloud-based security solution that isn’t tied down to any specific network, device, or location. It allows an organization to maintain safe connections, regardless of location, 24x7xAlways access, and address common pain points for secure connections, including:

  • Applying a single, uniform connectivity/security policy for remote and in-person workers
  • Avoiding slowdowns and backlogs that hamper productivity
  • Staying agile in the face of a changing tech climate

Priority 2: Finding a Scalable and Cost-Effective Solution

Cost is always a concern, and this is no exception for the hybrid-work environment. When some users are at home and some are in the office, how do you predict the costs involved? How do you ensure the company can scale if you suddenly add 10 or even 100 new remote workers?

This aspect of hybrid work can be tricky to navigate. In a way, it seems cost-effective to allow employees to use their personal devices and work from home. But security threats can make remote work seem less favorable.

That’s why it’s so important to have a hybrid-security solution in place that’s designed for the hybrid workplace and uses the cloud to solve issues like budget allocation and scalability. With Citrix solutions:

  • It doesn’t matter which device users have. Citrix just needs an internet connection.
  • It doesn’t matter where the employees are. They all access the same system.
  • It doesn’t matter how fast the organization is growing. Scaling up is simple.

Priority 3: Provide a Positive User Experience

New research on the hybrid-work environment shows the importance of team unity and health. When your remote workers feel abandoned, or if in-office workers are feeling left behind, the entire organization’s productivity will suffer.

Users want to feel connected through an easy-to-understand system they can use with little to no training. Accomplishing their daily tasks should be intuitive with minimal anxiety about tech issues.

That’s why Citrix makes it easy to sign on and start working through the cloud-based portal. All users experience a multifactor single sign-on that leads to everything — SaaS applications, secure files, cloud-based sharing options, and more.

This delivers a positive user experience where, from the user’s perspective, everything simply works. They just sign on and start working in moments. If any issues arise, they can be handled through in-house IT staff and/or your managed services provider.

Now that you have reviewed organizational priorities for your teams and how Citrix technologies can support and drive that, let’s review the technologies available that are leading the industry in innovation.

Virtualization and desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) solutions allow for the adoption of a virtual workspace that keeps your network, data, and employees secure.

Why Your Company Should Adopt Virtualization

Many organizations have incorporated a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) into their workflow to maintain productivity and ensure cybersecurity for remote employees.

VDIs and other cloud-based workspaces come with many different benefits that can help organizations shift their operations to a hybrid model. Some of these advantages include:

  • Accessibility from anywhere: Cloud-based workspaces empower your employees to work from anywhere. This also means that you can hire from anywhere, so you can find the most qualified candidates for filling positions.
  • Increased business: Because you can have different employees working from various time zones, you can offer more services around the clock rather than only serving customers during conventional office hours.
  • Improved security: Quality cloud-based workspaces, such as a VDI or DaaS, offer organizations exceptional security to keep their business and data safe. VDI and DaaS solutions also feature automatic backups so that you can recover your data if something goes wrong.
  • Less reliance on internal IT: With a cloud-based solution, you don’t need to rely as heavily on an IT team. You don’t need to worry about constantly upgrading your hardware from an in-office solution because cloud-based solutions are online. After your initial implementation, your organization experiences the convenience of non-intrusive and no-cost updates that keep your cloud-based solution at its best.
  • Cost-effective: Your organization can save money by avoiding hardware upgrading costs, and you don’t need a full IT team to keep the cloud-based workspace going.

Incorporating a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) Solution

Desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) solutions offer organizations powerful and scalable tools for working in a virtual space. Remote employees can access their work desktops from anywhere, even from handheld devices. This creates an enormous amount of flexibility that can increase your team’s productivity.

Incorporating a DaaS solution also means that you’re future-proofing your organization. Like other cloud-based solutions, you only need to initially implement the DaaS solution rather than continuously upgrade hardware. DaaS solutions also make collaboration straightforward and instantaneous. You could have two employees working together on opposite sides of the globe in real time.

Implement Citrix through ATSG

Using a cloud-based solution, such as DaaS, is crucial for working remotely. Fortunately, Citrix offers organizations robust and secure solutions that are perfect for increasing productivity.

With ATSG’s Citrix solutions, you have many customizable options. You’ll have great cloud-based tools for working remotely, while also securing and maintaining your organization’s network data and integrity. ATSG also offers analytics tools and support for further improving your cloud-based solution. Get the most of your remote team by signing up for Citrix through ATSG. Contact us today to learn more.