Remote working hits productivity and revenue

The switch to remote working has left many organizations lagging in productivity and revenue due to the deficiency of their remote access solutions.

A new report from Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) provider Perimeter 81 reveals that 19 percent of IT leaders surveyed say they often or always experience network performance and latency issues when using legacy remote access solutions while an additional 43 percent say they sometimes do.

These issues have resulted in a loss of productivity for 68 percent of respondents and a loss of revenue for 43 percent.

There are a variety of methods being used to connect to business networks; 66 percent report using VPNs, 58 percent use a cloud service through a web browser, 48 percent rely on a remote access solution, and 34 percent use a firewall. The organizations still using legacy solutions like VPNs and firewalls struggle to scale, face bottlenecks, and lack network visibility.

Security, too, is an issue, 33 percent of respondents say a password is the only way they authenticate themselves to gain access to systems. While more than half of IT managers (62 percent) say they are using cloud-based security solutions to secure remote access, 49 percent are still using a firewall and 41 percent a hardware VPN. There are signs of progress though, with 74 percent of respondents adopting cloud-based security solutions over hardware due to security concerns. Following the pandemic, 72 percent of respondents say they’re likely to increase adoption of cloud-based security solutions.

"With today's increasingly distributed and mobile workforce, the traditional and perimeter-based network model no longer makes sense," says Perimeter 81 CEO and co-founder Amit Bareket. "It's no surprise that companies are increasingly moving to cloud-based cyber and network security platforms. As corporations of all sizes rely on the cloud to run their businesses, they need new ways of consuming security to effectively prevent cyberattacks regardless of their location or network environment."

When asked about the biggest concerns surrounding remote working, 61 percent of organizations believe that having to protect new devices is the greatest security concern in light of remote work, while 56 percent say their greatest concern is lack of visibility into remote user activity. 39 percent of respondents report that scalability is their greatest challenge in securing the remote workforce, while 38 percent name budget allocation as their greatest challenge.

You can get the full report from the Perimeter 81 site.

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