As the shift to remote work continues, organisations face significant network challenges. The following six issues illustrate how remote work is stretching traditional network boundaries and offer insights into overcoming them.
1. Connectivity Issues
VPNs were not designed for the entire workforce to connect simultaneously. As usage spikes, VPNs hit capacity, leading to congestion and frequent disconnects. This hinders productivity and frustrates employees.
2. Poor Application Performance
Home office setups struggle with last-mile connection issues and overloaded VPNs. Business apps face competition from residential network traffic, resulting in slow and inconsistent performance, which affects productivity.
3. Authentication Overload
Remote workers often face numerous, repeated login prompts. Managing multiple passwords and authentication processes can be frustrating, increasing helpdesk tickets and impacting user experience.
4. Limited User Visibility
IT teams lack visibility into which users are accessing specific corporate resources. Traditional monitoring tools fail to provide insights into off-network users, raising security concerns.
5. Security Vulnerabilities
Without the corporate firewall, remote devices pose a risk to network security. Home devices often lack compliance checks, increasing the risk of data breaches and unauthorised access.
6. Slow Update Processes
Pushing updates through VPNs can be slow and inefficient. Routine patches and updates take significantly longer over remote connections, diverting IT resources from more strategic tasks.
As organisations adapt to a remote-first model, addressing these challenges is crucial to ensuring secure and efficient network operations. VMware’s solutions are designed to optimise network performance and enhance security for the distributed workforce.