Sample this: By 2020, the number of connected devices is expected to grow to 50 billion and these devices will interact in multiple ways to exchange information. Couple this with the fact that the workplace has become more distributed with geographically dispersed teams often having to interact across multiple time zones expecting to be able to exchange information through their device of choice. Today’s younger generation of employees is tech savvy and prefers to connect form anywhere seamlessly for work.
Add to this as the population grows, higher traffic congestion is leading to employees preferring to opt for work from home or work from near home facilities to save time. To attract and retain this kind of workforce, organizations today are under pressure to create flexible, dynamic, connected workplaces that enable seamless collaboration, boost innovation, improve productivity and enhance employee engagement.
Modern day workplace
The demand for a ‘Connected Workplace’ is high and a Cisco survey indicates that 81% of CEOs believe that digital technology can create high value in operational efficiency of a workplace while 91% of employees feel that digital technologies can transform their workplace for the better.
Keeping this in mind, Cisco has designed a suite of solutions for the next generation workplace that include a portfolio of collaboration endpoints and specifically crafted architectures that make working more intuitive and promise a consistent user interface to overcome the barriers of adoption while being easy to install and maintain.
Cisco network architecture (DNA) promises flawless connectivity across any workspace and helps to support and optimize bandwidth intensive applications across densely populated workplaces. An intelligent architecture, the Cisco DNA provides insights into employee and visitor behaviour thus ensuring safety of information exchanged.
Seamless and secure connectivity through technologies like WebEx makes broken meetings ‘a thing of the past’, and helps remote, dispersed employees connect with each other through their device of choice while protecting intellectual assets. With WebEx, joining meetings is a breeze, audio and video are clear, and screen sharing is easier than ever. Employees can forget about the technology, to focus on work.
The digital workplace
In an era where Digital Transformation is changing the way employees work, the explosion of users, devices, apps and data has created an urgency to ensure that network topology is equipped to support transformation. As technologies like cloud, mobile, social and Internet of Things continue to disrupt business models, organisations world over, seek networks that provide end to end visibility, programmability, and automation so that they can provide a secure and seamless employee experience.
Most employees in today’s workplaces like to access corporate data via their device of choice and interact in multiple ways to exchange information across time and physical space. Critical information will move between machines and men, and between organizations and individuals exposing data to increased threats. As networks grow in complexity and devices continue to proliferate, it becomes essential to provide a layer of security that protects valuable data from unauthorized access.
One way to do that is by network segmentation… basically breaking down the network into smaller components to secure the entire ecosystem of devices, applications, users, and systems so that data is exchanged only between authorised entities. Organizations must put in a framework to identify all elements of a user request, check appropriate devices/apps, and apply access-control to protect against a breach.
At Cisco we have developed the first of its kind intent-based networking solution for enterprises that provides automated end-to-end services (segmentation, analytics, quality of services etc) to secure the enterprise, simplify IT operations, mobilise the workforce and engage with customers in a better way.
Called Software Defined Access (SDA) it allows automation of access policies for users, devices and apps across the network and helps to gain insight into what is hitting the network without compromising on security. SDA provides end-to-end network segmentation so that IT becomes more agile to support the transition from cloud to device and from WAN to edge across both wired and wireless environments.
Given the above, organizations that wish to personalize workspaces and make them more dynamic and digital can opt for Cisco solutions and not only provide better employee experience but also reduce energy consumption, increase real estate utilization, save time and cost.
To learn more about Cisco’ collaboration solutions for new age workplaces please visit:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/cisco-on-cisco/connected-workplace.html
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