Remote work, initially a temporary response to global circumstances, has become a permanent fixture for many enterprises and the clients we serve. This shift magnified the need for fast, secure access to critical applications from any location, pushing businesses to rethink traditional security strategies.

With the growing adoption of cloud services and hybrid work models, the attack surface has inevitably expanded, rendering traditional security measures insufficient. To address these evolving threats, businesses must leverage modern security solutions that provide secure, resilient access to applications across diverse locations, devices, and networks.

While SD-WAN, zero trust, and SASE are already well-known for their ability to enhance network performance and security, their importance has become even more pronounced in today’s rapidly changing threat landscape. In this article, we revisit how these network security solutions and technologies can help businesses improve their security and network performance.

Listen: The Next Big Thing In Networking

The Role Of SD-WAN In Modern Networking

At the core of many modern network strategies is SD-WAN, which simplifies the management of wide-area networks by decoupling network hardware from the control mechanisms. This allows businesses to build a more agile WAN infrastructure at a lower cost. SD-WAN also optimizes traffic using a mix of legacy multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) and broadband internet, improving performance, especially for remote workers.

According to the 2023 research by Ponemon Institute, 44% percent of organizations have deployed or will deploy SD-WAN and cloud-delivered security in the next 12 months. From a security standpoint, SD-WAN uses encryption and VPNs to secure data as it travels between branch offices, data centers, and the cloud. This makes it particularly beneficial for enterprises with a distributed workforce.

The Rise Of Zero Trust

Traditional network models trust devices within the perimeter by default. In contrast, zero trust assumes that no entity can be trusted by default, regardless of location. Every user and device must be authenticated, authorized, and continuously validated before accessing critical resources.

Zero trust is both a security philosophy and an architectural approach to network security. Enterprises are increasingly adopting this strategy, with 15% of high-performing organizations indicating to adopt and implement Zero Trust within the next year. Zero trust is especially crucial in businesses that rely on multiple clouds and SaaS platforms. By implementing zero trust, enterprises can better protect against threats like unauthorized access and data breaches while with various regulatory requirements.

A Unified Approach To Networking And Security

As hybrid work models grow in popularity, SASE becomes a preferred solution by converging WAN capabilities and cloud-delivered security services. This comprehensive approach to networking and security addresses the growing complexity of modern IT environments by simplifying network management and secure, seamless connectivity for a distributed workforce.

According to Ponemon Institute, 49% of enterprises have already deployed or plan to deploy SASE. However, its adoption is expected to rise as companies recognize the trending benefits of unifying networking and security. The good thing about SASE is that it delivers both SD-WAN and security services as a cloud-based solution directly to the source of the connection, whether a remote employee, a branch office, or an IoT device.

Unified SASE: The Future Of Network Security

As the demand for integrated network security solutions grows, many businesses are looking to consolidate their SASE components into a single platform. By doing so, enterprises can simplify their branch infrastructure, reduce costs, and provide a better user experience.

One of the significant advancements in the evolution of SASE is the introduction of unified SASE. This approach is especially attractive because it combines security and networking into a single, cohesive solution, thus enabling businesses to manage these critical functions through an integrated platform. According to Gartner’s 2022 Market Guide for Single-Vendor SASE, 65% of enterprises will consolidate individual SASE components into one or two explicitly partnered vendors over the next two years. This trend highlights the growing demand for streamlined, efficient solutions in today’s complex IT environments.

A unified SASE solution offers several key benefits:

• Simplified branch and network management: Organizations can eliminate the need for multiple hardware appliances by integrating SD-WAN and security into a single platform. This integration enhances operational efficiency and simplifies management.
• Enhanced security: The solution extends zero trust controls to all users and devices, regardless of their location, whether they are at a branch office, working from home, or traveling. This comprehensive approach ensures consistent security across all access points.
• Cost savings: Combining security and networking functions into one platform allows organizations to streamline their infrastructure. This consolidation leads to reduced operational costs and more efficient use of resources.
• Superior user experience: Users can enjoy a seamless experience by optimizing application performance and ensuring secure, reliable access from any location.

A prime example of unified SASE is HPE Aruba Networking’s approach. Combining their award-winning Security Service Edge (SSE) with industry-leading SD-WAN into a cohesive solution, the unified platform simplifies the deployment process by offering a single vendor solution. This process ensures seamless management and eliminates the complexity associated with multiple vendors.

The solution is also built upon HPE Aruba Networking SD-WAN, which includes:

• EdgeConnect SD-WAN, which features a built-in next-gen firewall that lets users safely remove physical firewalls and routers in their branch offices. For small edge or branch sites, the new EC-10104 Model offers a cost-effective solution to manage and streamline operations efficiently.
• EdgeConnect SD-Branch
• EdgeConnect Microbranch

Moreover, HPE Aruba Networking’s edge-to-cloud SASE solution leverages zero trust network access (ZTNA) to provide least-privilege access to all people and devices. It also offers comprehensive protection against data security threats and malicious web traffic through:

• Secure web gateway (SWG)
• Cloud access security broker (CASB)
• Digital experience monitoring (DEM)

HPE Aruba Networking’s unified SASE solution stands out by offering flexible licensing options to fit a wide range of budgets and requirements. This ensures that businesses can tailor their solution to meet current needs while allowing the freedom to scale and adapt as those needs evolve over time.

Final Thoughts

As businesses continue to adopt hybrid work models and expand their cloud presence, securing remote and distributed environments through SD-WAN, zero trust, and SASE is essential. However, as enterprises look for more streamlined network security solutions, is emerging as a key player in simplifying IT infrastructure, reducing costs, and strengthening security, all while delivering an exceptional user experience.

WEI’s cloud security experts are ready to help secure your cloud environment. With personalized security assessments and custom-built SASE solutions featuring advanced technologies like HPE Aruba Networking, we provide the expertise you need to confidently drive digital transformation and protect your critical assets. Contact us today to get started.

Next Steps: Traditional data centers are struggling to keep pace with the rapid evolution of technology. As organizations shift towards distributed, edge-cloud-centric models, the need for a modern, agile, and secure data center has never been more critical.

WEI, in partnership with HPE Aruba Networking, is excited to present a comprehensive tech brief that explores how you can revolutionize your data center with cutting-edge automated solutions. This tech brief is your gateway to understanding how automated data center solutions can transform your business. Whether you’re looking to modernize your existing infrastructure or plan for future growth, this guide offers the insights you need to make informed decisions.

The post Transforming Enterprise Security: The Role Of Various Network Security Solutions appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Enterprises everywhere are leveraging their computer networks to attain a competitive advantage for not just operational efficiency, but also employee satisfaction. Network information systems are being utilized to improve communication and collaboration amongst employees, increase productivity, and accelerate decision-making.

By collecting, storing, and analyzing large amounts of data, companies gain insights into customer behavior and market trends that allow them to act preemptively ahead of their competitors. In a time when economic inflation is on everyone’s mind, digital technologies are streamlining business processes to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and achieve pricing advantages.

Today’s Modern Campus

Being that WEI is a technology services and solutions provider, you may assume that our use of the word “campus” refers to the campus network that connects an institution’s devices within a specific geographical area. These campus networks are typically comprised of multiple interconnected subnets, each one serving a specific building or building cluster within a comprised area.

On the other hand, when we talk about today’s modern “campus” we aren’t just talking about technology. We’re also referring to the modern college campus. A traditional college campus requires connecting thousands of students with their instructors and peers to nurture ideas and promote learning. The modern college campus provides students and faculty access to shared resources such as computers and servers, as well as theaters, workout facilities, public gathering places, and sporting arenas. The campus network and the college campus have a lot in common: higher education institutions can maximize their effectiveness to engage students and ensure their success by fusing these two campus concepts together.

A Location-based Network And Community

The tentacles of a college campus is similar to a township that includes residents, retail businesses, restaurants, government services, administrative offices, and public gathering spots. There can be lots to do with so many connected experiences, and that’s what brings us to location-based networking (LBN).

LBN utilizes location data to connect people with other users or resources nearby. Anyone with a smartphone is familiar with the concept of using Google Maps for instance. You can find all the pizzerias within a five-mile area, identify their serving hours and average wait time. You can share your location with your closest friends who might be nearby. Many restaurants provide their customers the ability to pay their bill with their phone. This holistic experience is what students desire as prefer a digitally-connected community.

5 Ways LBN Helps Transform The Campus Experience

Prospective students have grown up with the concept of LBN whether they are technologically minded or not. They expect it, which is why colleges and universities must provide the LBN experience to attract and retain students. WEI has identified five ways that LBN improves and maximizes the campus experience:

1. Provide location-specific information such as the location of classes, events and services. Students can check the expected wait times for the local cafeteria or student services. They can reserve study rooms or check real-time availability. School service managers can also analyze traffic data to adjust hours as needed, saving the school both time and money.
2. Improve campus safety by allowing students and faculty to report safety concerns or suspicious activity quickly and easily. They can receive real-time alerts about potential safety hazards, impending weather, or area emergencies. Notifications can alert all connected users within a designated area of a building or campus area and provide instructions on how to respond.
3. Increase social connectivity and collaboration amongst students and faculty. Students can be matched with peers that share common interests while remote learning students can interact with their professors just as well as those in the classroom.
4. Improve resource allocation by providing real-time asset tracking to school administrators and managers, giving them the ability easily locate an asset and analyze its utilization history.
5. Increase participation rates for school events, clubs, and other offerings through push notifications to students based on their location and interests.

The Juniper Location-based Campus

Juniper Networks has proven success in developing and delivering LBN solutions to higher education institutions. Find out how schools such as and the are leveraging location-based networking to fully maximize and leverage the campus network to provide modernized, streamlined, connected digital experience for students and faculty. It is why every college needs the .

Next Steps: This white paper by WEI identifies how Juniper Networks’ location-based networking helps higher education institutes overcome complex technology challenges. Readers will better identify:

• Concerns of higher education IT professionals
• Why network infrastructure is a differentiator
• Challenge of improving remote experiences
• Value of a virtual network assistant

The post 5 Ways Location-Based Networking Improves The College Experience appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Back in 2016, Georgia State University decided to address the annual phenomenon known as “summer melt” in which a sizable number of students enrolled during the summer session would fail to enroll in the fall. The school implemented a chatbot project called that was designed to regularly connect with incoming students. This practice, commonly referred to as nudge technology by reminds students of upcoming meetings and deadlines. Additionally, and in the interest of this blog article, nudge technology also uses AI to answer frequently asked questions that incoming students often have.

In its first four months, Pounce exchanged nearly 200,000 messages with students, a volume of work that equates to 10 full-time workers. Later, Pounce began monitoring student records to identify potential opportunities or issues that may impact their scholastic journey or educational performance. The project proved a resounding success as the dreaded summer melt was reduced by 21 percent. As an added bonus, first-generation students receiving the messages earned final grades about 11 points higher than their peers.

Colleges Competing For Fewer Students

According to the , four million fewer Americans in 2022 enrolled in college compared to 2012. Colleges are also losing too many students who have already started their academic journey. A showed that 32.9% of undergraduates fail to complete their degree program. But initiatives such as Pounce are working to reverse this trend, ensuring that students remain in school and earn their degree.

Students Value Technology-Driven Colleges

While technology can be used to effectively retain existing students, it can also be a great way to recruit new students. The desire for a personalized experience is as strong as ever. Two-year students enrolled in the 2021 fall semester

• 70% wanted more online courses.
• 57% desired hybrid course options.
• 63% wanted more digital materials and digital resources utilized in their courses.
• 59% wanted more technology for fully in-person courses.

Students Desire More Integrated Technology Options

Students want more than just digital curriculum resources. According to the 2021 Juniper Remote Workplace and Public Spaces Consumer Survey, 95% of surveyed consumers said they’d prefer to attend schools and public places that offer connected experiences over places that do not. In the Juniper Networks study, student age adults were asked about what digital experiences they valued:

• 40-45% were more likely to go congregate in public places that offer new wireless conveniences using their mobile devices.
• 45% much preferred the ability to automatically check-in without stopping at a check-in desk.
• 41% highly valued the ability to use contactless payment services at the register.

Whether its booking a computer in the library, getting a cup of coffee at the campus barista, or streaming a favorite movie in their dorm room, college students expect a seamless digital experience that stems from prior engagements with digital giants such as Meta, Netflix, and Google Maps.

How Juniper Networks Helps Higher Educational Institutions

To seamlessly connect your entire college campus and ensure that students benefit from the digital experience, a high-caliber IT network is required. To achieve this, many colleges and universities are turning to Juniper Network’s location-enabled network solutions that utilize intelligent automation for easy management and greater resilience. Recent examples include the following:

• The is the #15 top public university in the country according to S. News and World Report’s America’s Best Colleges. The school turned to Juniper to architect an ultra-fast agile network that would efficiently meet the exponential bandwidth needs of its campus. Juniper gave them the ability to automate routing configurations and validation tasks that improved reliability and network performance.
• The wanted to augment their network to achieve their new directives and business objectives. Juniper delivered a tenfold increase in network capacity that gave them the agility to move workloads between their on-prem location and the cloud. Juniper also delivered Wi-Fi infrastructure that blanketed their entire campus including high traffic public spaces.
• The was saddled with a legacy layer 2 network that was unreliable and was no longer able to support their expanding academic programs. Juniper refreshed its connectivity for all 35 campus buildings as well as its data center without interruption while also simplifying their network management processes.

Juniper has dedicated a lot of resources to learning about the challenges of higher educational institutions and provide solutions to overcome them. These solutions include SND-enabled universal routing platforms and low latency 100Gbe switches that feature modular designs and automation.

These solutions are also backed by Marvis, the Juniper virtual assistant that utilizes natural language processing along with natural language understanding that allow it to communicate and empower human IT support teams. Juniper has the technology, the innovation, and the understanding of high education to help your organization meet the stringent demands of students and customers alike now, and into the future.

Next Steps: This white paper by WEI identifies how Juniper Networks’ location-based networking helps higher education institutes overcome complex technology challenges. Readers will better identify:

• Concerns of higher education IT professionals
• Why network infrastructure is a differentiator
• Challenge of improving remote experiences
• Value of a virtual network assistant

The post Why Higher Education Turns to Technology to Meet Today’s Challenges appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

According to , remote workforces offer an abundance of positives, including increased productivity, stronger performances from team members, greater employee retention rates, and lower costs. Unfortunately, this revolutionary transition hasn’t been so cut-and-dry for all industries. To name just a few, enterprises within the retail, manufacturing, and professional services industries have faced significant obstacles in their digital transformation journey.

In this blog, we expand on the common pain points for these mentioned industries and identify how HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect Microbranch serves as a viable solution.

Retail

With the immeasurable convenience offered by online shopping, many retailers are taking a look at how they can bring in new customers and retain their existing customer base.

For many retailers, this has meant incorporating top-of-the-line technology designed to improve their customers’ experiences in their store. Some of those devices include electronic shelf labels, interactive mirrors, facial recognition systems, and mobile apps. Unfortunately, implementing these new technologies creates a new complication: bandwidth and connectivity. If these struggles weren’t enough, retailers also don’t have onsite IT professionals to address any issues as they come up.

Here are a few of the features HPE Aruba Networking provides that address those common issues:

• Improved Network Performance: SD-WAN optimizes network traffic by directing it along the most efficient path. For retailers, this means that their new devices will not overload their dispersed systems.
• Simplified Management: With centralized management, IT teams can easily monitor and manage network traffic from a single interface, making it easier to troubleshoot issues and ensure business continuity. Having a dedicated IT team onsite doesn’t have to be a consideration if centralized management can address the problem.

Manufacturing

One of the common struggles for larger companies is providing network connectivity to remote manufacturing sites. Because manufacturing companies operate at a global scale, stable network connections are limited and expensive.

Here are a few key capabilities HPE Aruba Networking provides manufacturers:

• High-performance branch gateways with Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) for seamless deployment.
• Licenses with unrestricted bandwidth for every SD-WAN gateway, leading to smooth network operations.
• Policy-based routing for over 3,200 applications, enabling efficient traffic management.
• Virtual gateways and hub routing options available for AWS and Azure, guaranteeing a flexible and scalable infrastructure.

Professional Services

This industry includes architects, accountants, engineers, and lawyers. Geographical distribution is a common characteristic of professional services organizations. Despite this, many still use legacy MPLS lines to connect their local offices to the main data center. These connections are not only costly but also have limited bandwidth. Consequently, file transfers such as engineering CAD files or legal documents take an unnecessarily long time and aren’t always efficient. Additionally, professional service organizations are often dealing with sensitive, confidential information, making security a primary concern.

Here are a few solutions HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect Microbranch offers:

• Enhanced Security: SD-WAN provides end-to-end encryption of data, which protects against cyber threats and ensures secure communication between remote workers and company resources. This also includes policy enforcement firewalls, DPI (Deep Packet Inspection), web filtering, and IDS/IPS (Intrusion Detection System/Intrusion Prevention System).
• Reduced Costs: SD-WAN eliminates the need for expensive hardware appliances and reduces ongoing maintenance costs associated with traditional WANs and MPLS lines.

Is EdgeConnect Microbranch Right For Your Enterprise?

EdgeConnect Microbranch is a versatile solution that enables organizations to support a variety of use cases. These include distributed contact center operations, telehealth programs, IT and developer support, as well as mobile locations such as retail pop-up shops, mobile clinics, kiosks, conferences, and more.

Despite their differences in nature, the use cases share common requirements for connectivity, reliability, performance, and security. Thankfully, EdgeConnect Microbranch provides these essential features in a streamlined single-AP form factor. With this innovative solution at their disposal, organizations can easily meet the demands of diverse use cases without compromising network quality.

Final Thoughts

If you’re searching for a secure, stable tool to help your enterprise transition to a remote/hybrid workforce or opening doors to additional locations, EdgeConnect provides the most flexibility for growing businesses. Contact WEI today to learn how you can secure your dispersed workplace without compromising on network speed.

Next Steps: If your enterprise would like to learn more about SD-WAN and how to meet the developing demands of digital transformation, download our latest tech brief. identifies the three main components of HPE Aruba Networking’s powerful EdgeConnect Enterprise platform:

• Physical or Virtual SD-WAN Appliance
• Orchestrator
• Boost

The tech brief also expands on:

• The advanced SD-WAN solutions of today
• Why basic SD-WAN is no longer enough
• Why MPLS hub-and-spoke topology is obsolete

The post How EdgeConnect Helps All Industries With A Widespread Workforce appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Due to no staffing, our pharmacy will be closed on Thursday, December 21, 2022.

For months, signs reading like this have been a frequent occurrence at retail pharmacies across the country. Amid a national shortage of pharmacists and technicians, pharmacy closures and reduced hours have become the new norm. As a result, pharmacies have extended wait times to fill prescriptions, had less availability for vaccines and patient consults, and have seen growing customer dissatisfaction.

The sad reality is that the shortage is likely to worsen. But technology can help retail pharmacies weather the talent shortage.

According to the , the U.S. will see at least a 2 percent decline in pharmacists over the next ten years. Fewer workers and the upsurge in online retailers and tech-enabled startups entering the healthcare delivery space will make competition for qualified talent fierce.

Can Technology Help Retail Pharmacies Weather the Talent Shortage?

The short answer is yes. While there is no one perfect solution to overcome a worker shortage, implementing new technologies can alleviate many issues created by a lack of employees. For example, the manufacturing industry has struggled to fill jobs for more than a decade due to the “great retirement” of baby boomers exiting the industry and a lack of interest among younger workers to enter the sector. In response, manufacturers have invested heavily in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to reduce human involvement in repetitive and physically demanding tasks. The impact has been greater efficiencies, fewer injuries, and less quality issues on production lines.

While the pandemic ushered in many technology changes for retail pharmacies, more opportunities remain available.

According to a survey by Surescripts, nearly half of pharmacists (48%) reported an increase in technology use in the 18 months following the pandemic. The survey concluded, however, that “there still appears to be plenty of room for technology to improve everyday workflows and frustrating processes.”

Five Areas Technology Can Make the Biggest Impact on Retail Pharmacies

Technology leaders feel a growing pressure to find technology solutions to combat their retail pharmacy’s staffing issues. Digital transformation initiatives may be considered across the company, but which ones can significantly impact labor-related issues? WEI has implemented solutions to tackle five of retail pharmacies’ most pressing needs, resulting in reduced capitalized costs, shortened time to market, minimized operational expenses, and an improved customer experience.

1. Reduce Prescription Fulfillment Delays
   

Prescription verification is a critical last step in the filling process that requires a pharmacist’s sign-off. When faced with a shortage of pharmacists, stores may be forced to delay filling patient prescriptions for hours or even days, worsening patient dissatisfaction.

Fortunately, new virtual verification technologies can alleviate this issue. A pharmacist working miles away can be sent a high-resolution image of the medication to verify the prescription remotely. The highly secure technology solution complies with state laws and is a game changer for retail stores, helping prevent delays and gain efficiencies with existing staff.

2. Eliminate Medication Dispensing Errors
   

A technician (or a pharmacist if technicians are in short supply) spends considerable time manually processing hundreds of prescriptions daily. Unfortunately, as with many manual processes, human errors occur, a study in Patient Safety News reported that 68% of medication errors occur during administration.

With the introduction of digital drug dispensing systems (DDS), pharmacies have experienced zero errors and accelerated prescription processing. Per a study published in Innovations in Pharmacy, manual processing generated an average of 2.73 errors per month, while the DDS yielded zero errors. In addition, the digital system filled more prescriptions per month than staff members did by hand.

Such systems, which involve medication management software and medication dispensing machines, provide a dependable approach to medication management across locations. And these systems free up pharmacists to spend more time on profitable offerings, such as point-of-care testing, medication adherence services, and personal consultations.

3. Improve Medication Inventory Visibility
   

Another area ripe for improvement is medication inventory management. The timely availability of medications for patients directly impacts patient safety, satisfaction, and outcomes. Unfortunately, many stores rely on manual, error-prone methods, such as “eyeballing the bottle,” to capture inventory levels, methods that can cost companies millions of dollars annually.

For pharmacies to successfully manage real-time prescription medication inventory and monitor prescription expirations, planning teams need the right tools and technology. Automated systems, including wireless digital scales that communicate with a company’s inventory management system, are being utilized to support chain-wide inventory counts, forecasting, and replenishment.

4. Eliminate Manual Monitoring Activities
   

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have enough day-to-day tasks to attend to without the added responsibility of checking refrigeration temperatures. But to ensure a pharmacy remains CDC, VFC, and FDA compliant, these checks are required.

The introduction of cloud-based wireless temperature sensors enables remote temperature monitoring of vaccine and medication storage units and automated validation and data backups for compliance managers. Such systems are easily scalable to ensure compliance across multiple locations.

5. Streamlines Processes and Clerical Tasks
   

As noted above, pharmacists are spending more time handling paperwork and other clerical tasks. The widespread use of mobile technologies has created new opportunities for pharmacies to digitize many paper-based processes. This assistance is vital for teams that may be shorthanded or are busy retraining green personnel.

Retail Pharmacies Turn to Technology Partners to Support Digital Initiatives

Developing and implementing the right solutions is a massive undertaking for most in-house retail technology teams. By partnering with WEI, nationwide pharmacy retailers have a knowledgeable technology advisor who proves solutions work and delivers efficiently and accurately to go to market quicker. Our tailored solutions can:

• Reduce capitalized costs: We standardize across locations by combining best-of-breed technology and award-winning expertise.
• Shorten time to market: By providing effective material planning and inventory stocking strategies we enable fast rollouts. Our integrated logistics drive efficiency and accuracy.
• Minimize operational expenses: Our solutions reduce in-store installation efforts and generate savings via custom integration, fulfillment, and delivery programs.
• Improve customer experience: With innovative, scalable, agile response to evolving in-store technology.

Next Steps: Would any of the above-mentioned technologies help your nationwide pharmacy retailer locations? Let’s talk. We have developed technology solutions that can be quickly implemented to solve these pressing challenges. Complete the form below to request a call from a member of our technology team.

The post 5 Solutions to Alleviate Challenges From Retail Pharmacy Staffing Shortages appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

The way we work is changing. Traditionally, we went to an office and worked with our team in person, five days a week. But thanks to advancements in technology, that’s no longer the only option. Increasingly, people are splitting their time between the office and home. This trend is called the hybrid work experience. And while it has many advantages, it can also be challenging from an end user perspective and an IT perspective.

That’s where enhanced technology solutions come in. Providing tools that make remote and collaborative working easier ensures the hybrid work experience is seamless and productive for everyone. In this blog post, we further explore how enhanced technology solutions are improving the hybrid work experience and some of the benefits you can expect.

Improved Communication And Collaboration

One of the challenges of the hybrid work experience is maintaining effective communication and collaboration between employees who are in the office and those who are working from home. Enhanced technology solutions have made it easier for employees to stay connected and collaborate on projects, regardless of location. This is especially helpful since reported in 2021 that “nearly 60 percent of remote workers said their company operates in two to five time zones.” Forward-thinking technology solutions allow organizations to improve communication and collaboration among their hybrid workforces.

Dell Technologies’ recent product launch includes the . Its features are designed to meet the needs of collaboration, delivering improved audio quality for both the user and others on the call. Neural noise cancellation helps to reduce unwanted background noise (anyone have loud kids or pets at home?), while distortion reduction delivers louder output levels without feedback. In addition, the proximity microphone adds a brighter, clearer tone to speech, making it easier to be heard in noisy environments. These features can help make the hybrid work experience more efficient and enjoyable for everyone attending your virtual meeting/presentation.

Increased Flexibility And Productivity

Hybrid work also provides employees with increased flexibility and productivity. For example, a cloud-based document management system can allow employees to access files from anywhere, making it easier to work from home. By investing in such solutions, employers can make the hybrid work experience more efficient and effective for all involved.

Dell’s portfolio, which includes the , , and more, is a new way of working that delivers an enhanced technology experience by combining the best of the office and remote workplaces. With Dell Optimizer, workers can connect to two wired or wireless networks at once for faster data transfers and downloads. It also delivers less buffering and up to 30% lower latency. Bandwidth management prioritizes conference apps while working from anywhere. Automatic network switching connects to a stronger network when one is available. These types of hybrid work experiences are designed to optimize employee productivity and collaboration while providing enhanced security and control.

Improved Security Measures

Security is always a concern when it comes to technology, but it becomes even more important when businesses adopt a hybrid work model. With enhanced security measures like two-factor authentication and data encryption, businesses can protect their data from being accessed by unauthorized individuals, whether they are in the office or working from home.

The hybrid work experience is the new norm, and Dell Technologies is at the forefront of this with its commercial portfolio that includes an integrated artificial intelligence (AI) software suite. This allows users to have a more intelligent PC with built-in AI, which comes in handy for the concealment of sensitive information if an onlooker or intruder is detected. In addition, the PC can automatically dim when the user looks away from the screen to protect data and conserve power.

Dell Technologies Enriches The Hybrid Work Experience

With the rise of the hybrid workforce, Dell Technologies has developed new products and features to address the unique needs of this increasingly mobile population. They have made it a priority to create a productive experience for employees who are constantly switching between in-person and virtual work. With the latest Dell commercial portfolio, IT teams are better able to select the necessary tools and technologies that enable employees to collaborate seamlessly, work intelligently, and stay secure. By providing enhanced technology solutions, Dell is helping to make the hybrid work experience more productive and efficient.

The hybrid work model is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. And with these enhanced technology solutions, businesses can improve communication and collaboration to increase flexibility and productivity, which can help you meet your enterprise goals.

Contact our experts today if your business would like to learn more about creating a holistic hybrid workplace solution. We have experience across all Dell systems and can help create custom solutions for your hybrid team.

Next Steps: Improve your hybrid work experience by downloading our tech brief, .

The post How Enhanced Technology Solutions Improve The Hybrid Work Experience appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

We’ve written plenty on how the professional world has changed since COVID-19. All industries experienced one significant change or another, and it can be argued that the IT sector was affected more than any other due to the many industries it supports. The IT landscape has witnessed vast shifts in workplace environments, devices, technology needs, and application hosting. This massive amount of change in a short period of time has made it challenging for IT personnel and organizations to stay up to date on evolving technology needs and issues.

Enter . This solution is surging in popularity as it offers a flexible way for enterprises to keep pace with innovation, meet business needs, optimize network performance, and improve user experience. In our latest blog article, I identify and discuss the key attributes driving NaaS adoption and how it can help your enterprise succeed.

Top Reasons To Adopt NaaS Now

The as-a-Service model has gained steam in recent years as more and more IT leaders have grown more comfortable with subscription-based managed services. My WEI colleague, Greg LaBrie, on this consumption model trend.

Does anyone remember the days of signing out a company laptop for those weekend projects? Some of us sure do. Remember, enterprises traditionally invested significant resources to IT specialists who designed, built, and operated their networking infrastructure. Employees regularly connected to networks in-house with devices owned by their enterprise. Hardware had to be procured, pre-staged, cabled, installed, and configured. Unfortunately, this model required vast amounts of financial resources to set up and maintain. Not only that, but it also made it difficult to stay up to date with the dynamic needs of technology and the business environment.

Enterprise networks have clearly evolved. Gartner estimates that in 2022 alone, worldwide annual network spending will increase 6.7% to $79.04 billion. Company budgets, however, are not limitless. There is a growing need for businesses to invest their money thoughtfully and strategically. The adoption of NaaS is one way to meet both the technological and financial needs of companies today. The following are the to adopt NaaS now.

1. Changes In Workplace Environments And Devices. Even before the pandemic, laptops and mobile devices allowed users to access enterprise applications outside the office on non-enterprise networks. When workplaces were forced to adapt to work-from-home policies due to COVID, more flexible, agile models were needed.
2. Evolving Technology. As a result of the shift in workplace and device usage, the way we connect to on-premises networks has evolved. The introduction of cellular, WAN, and SD-WAN solutions and constant innovation in technologies like 5G and Wi-Fi 6E have made it challenging to adequately keep pace. Equipment becomes outdated more quickly, and new technology requires trained personnel.
3. Application Hosting. The development and adoption of SaaS removed the need to connect users with physical in-house devices to centralized applications within a data center. Web-based applications now enable access anytime and anywhere and ensure connectivity for the edge is a top priority.
4. Hybrid Work Model. The pandemic instituted a remote work model that only a small percentage of knowledge workers had consistently experienced. And while the opportunities for people to work exclusively from home are , the hybrid model remains abundant. COVID changed the ways IT staff must plan and procure their networks. As remote work and access have continued, network priorities have shifted. Organizations are now looking to preserve cash, and large capital investments for strategic planning have largely been put on hold.

The Benefits Of NaaS

enables organizations to keep pace with innovation, meet rapidly changing business needs, and optimize network performance and user experience through a cloud-like subscription model. Further benefits of NaaS include:

• Financing Flexibility: NaaS offers a critical alternative to upfront capital expenditures (capex) with a usage-based model (opex). This allows organizations to address their business needs in a way that makes sense for them.
• Enhanced Security: The fast deployment of new features and functions enhances security and lowers operational risk. Enterprises can launch their services and capabilities faster, while keeping their organizations safe from security vulnerabilities caused by out-of-date requirements or configurations.
• Proactive Management: Risks are mitigated with proactive advisory and management capabilities. These capabilities include AIOps driven insights or highly skilled networking experts to ensure deployment of the latest product features, functions, or configurations.
• Scalable Centralized Management: NaaS cloud management capabilities enable organizations to scale networks easily. Added managed services can be implemented to oversee all network operations.
• Sustainability: NaaS helps alleviate security and cost-related fears associated with old hardware resources. The repurposing and proper disposal of equipment is important, but costly. Sustainable reuse and retirement are key attributes of a NaaS offering. This allows organizations to meet sustainability goals more easily.

NaaS With HPE Greenlake

HPE Aruba Networking’s NaaS, through HPE Greenlake, has reinvented network infrastructures by creating a simplified plug-and-play experience. It removes the heavy burden of long-term planning and budgeting by delivering necessary hardware, software, and services in a single, seamless monthly subscription package. Key benefits include:

• NaaS can be implemented on whatever scale enterprises feel comfortable with, and they can scale up when needed.
• On-premises and hybrid networks are managed through a self-service portal.
• Provides real-time data and security analytics, enabling a proactive approach where issues are identified and dealt with before they become disruptive.
• Aligning your budgets with network usage gives management insights to make strategic decisions.
• New businesses and startups can avoid costly capital expenditures and avoid the cost of supporting legacy infrastructure.

NaaS delivers network deployment, management, security, and performance while remaining agile, flexible and cost-effective. Contact WEI today to learn more about how HPE Aruba Networking NaaS with HPE Greenlake can take your network performance to the next level.

Next Steps: See why enterprises are catching on to the latest “as-a-Service” trend in our fresh whitepaper titled,

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Hybrid work is quickly becoming the predominant model for many organizations. Its popularity stems from the fact people can work from home, the office, or anywhere else. Approximately of employees in the U.S. prefer a hybrid work environment compared to fully remote or fully on-site. This creates the essential need for office networks to accommodate increased bandwidth and other adaptations. In this article, we cover the importance of a flexible wireless architecture and five strategies to help enterprises meet their needs with hybrid workforce solutions.

Why A Flexible Wireless Architecture Is Important

Flexibility is a relative term when it comes to wireless architecture. Having easy and efficient scalability is necessary to deal with unexpected increases in network traffic along with demands for new services. A flexible wireless architecture is also vital for Wi-Fi security. Your network should be able to support newer technologies like Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, along with security frameworks such as zero trust, SASE, and network segmentation.

Flexible wireless networks can help organizations meet unexpected performance demands. As employees work online and switch from their laptops to their tablets or mobile devices, a flexible wireless architecture helps with the transportation of media from both on-premises and cloud environments. Here are five strategies that can help companies achieve these benefits and adapt their Wi-Fi networks to handle the constant change in hybrid work technologies.

1. Ensure a consistent and secure experience for a hybrid workforce.

Hybrid workers need consistent network performance and user experience to be able to work efficiently from any location. Wireless network security is also an extremely important aspect of hybrid workforce solutions. It should not only match the measures of protection that employees would have in the office, but your system should be able to secure personal data and cloud services across remote Wi-Fi networks.

Luckily, there are improved remote work solutions specifically designed to enhance user experience for a hybrid workforce. According to , “The ESG study found that 44% of enterprises have worked to deliver corporate Wi-Fi to home offices as a direct result of the pandemic.”

2. Adopt unified cloud-based management solutions.

Over 90% of enterprises have adopted at least one cloud-based application to deliver business services. Naturally, cloud-based network management solutions are the ideal architecture for almost any company. A flexible wireless architecture engineered for cloud-based network management has many benefits including:

• Efficiency in operations.
• Allowing remote IT staff to access a centralized cloud management portal.
• End-to-end management of multiple locations such as the office, home, and branch locations.
• Consolidating and anonymizing data sources to increase the speed of AI and machine learning integration.

3. Refresh, upgrade, or modernize campus Wi-Fi networks to address accumulated technical debt.

The pandemic brought a new surge in demand for Wi-Fi networks. It became necessary to innovate hybrid workforce solutions, such as making sure networks can accommodate heavy video and voice traffic without affecting network performance, scalability, security, and manageability.

It is recommended organizations upgrade their infrastructure to Wi-Fi 6 and 6E. This upgrade can deliver greater bandwidth that can help your network support IoT and edge computing solutions.

4. Implement a smart recommendations engine.

Distributed environments have made the job of manually resolving network issues exceedingly complex. Integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning with hybrid workforce solutions is necessary for optimized network performance and quicker problem resolutions, especially in an always-on environment.

5. Extend security models from campus to remote work.

When organizations have such a highly distributed environment, a larger attack surface is created. Having consistent and tightly incorporated security across all Wi-Fi environments, including on campus or in the homes of employees, should be a top priority for enterprises with a hybrid workforce. Instead of hiring new security professionals, organizations should deploy integrated capabilities to their Wi-Fi networks to support zero trust and SASE environments.

Hybrid Workforce Solutions

Many hybrid workforce solutions can truly enhance a flexible wireless architecture such as HPE . This innovative cloud-native architecture provides automated network management, edge-to-cloud security, and AI-powered insights necessary for hybrid workspaces.

To cope with the massive amounts of data businesses acquire, it’s clear that today’s network architecture needs to be flexible to accommodate AI-powered and predictive tools. HPE Aruba Networking’s ESP is highly scalable and can help accomplish those needs as well as improve business agility and optimization. This platform can identify and fix problems at the network edge before they impact devices or applications. It is also an ideal solution for those working from multiple locations. With ESP, IT teams can see what is connected to the network no matter where they are working, ultimately giving enterprises the ability to do cloud-managed networking at a large scale.

Hybrid work will continue to evolve, and hybrid workforce solutions like HPE Aruba Networking’s ESP can provide more flexibility and freedom for people to work more efficiently from anywhere. To learn more about ESP and what a flexible wireless architecture can do for your organization, contact WEI today.

Next Steps: See why enterprises are catching on to the latest “as-a-Service” trend in our fresh whitepaper titled,

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Gone are the days of working solely from the office. Although there are perks to working on-site such as better security and network connectivity, most people do enjoy being able to work from anywhere. It’s no surprise that of executives are accommodating hybrid work. Employees have a new outlook when it comes to work since COVID, and that is why businesses are figuring out a better post-pandemic office strategy for their teams.

Ensuring enterprise technology works the way it’s supposed to is probably the most important aspect of hybrid or remote work. Updated technology can empower employees to work more efficiently by being able to collaborate easier as well as have 24/7 access to information needed for their job. Hybrid workplace technology can also gain better insights on troubleshooting IT issues. As the leader of the Client Product Group at Dell Technologies, , states, “Hybrid work is no longer an afterthought or a privilege, it is the standard. While employees are moving between locations to get work done, creating a productive experience is the priority.”

An Advanced Hybrid Work Solution

New research from tells us that “44% of people want their leaders to empower them to choose their preferred working pattern and provide the necessary tools and infrastructure to do their jobs.” To better support any post-pandemic office strategy, organizations need to invest in powerful technology from better laptops to upgraded security features.

Having a hybrid work solution such as Dell’s new portfolio that includes Latitude PCs can help organizations upgrade PCs to stay up to date with security, efficiency, and more. Here are a few reasons why upgrading your hybrid workplace technology is vital for any business.

1. Improve Privacy

Major security incidents are happening more frequently than ever and are continuing to rise. Therefore, it’s crucial to ensure your hybrid workplace solution can fight security vulnerabilities. Dell’s latest commercial portfolio has an integrated artificial intelligence software suite that powers intelligent PCs. One of its many capabilities is allowing users to hide sensitive data on their screen from a suspected intruder. The PC will also automatically dim once the user looks away in order to protect data and preserve power. It may be easier to protect all employees when working on-site, but as hybrid work is here to stay, businesses must adapt with a post-pandemic office strategy such as .

2. Maximize Performance

Implementing hybrid work causes many enterprises to rethink team communication and collaboration strategies. Finding tools that can free employees from needing to work on-site every day is an important aspect of hybrid work. There needs to be a seamless transition for team members to track projects, share files efficiently, and communicate through video and other means. Hybrid work solutions like Dell Optimizer includes multi-network connection, which allows users to connect to a number of wired or wireless networks at once. This leads to quicker data transfers and downloads so employees can work with more efficiency and ease.

3. Enhance Innovation

Upgrading technologies in any business can truly propel innovation by making many work processes more efficient. For example, Dell Optimizer has features that improve background noise cancellation while on a call. Also, the Latitude PCs from Dell make it easier to work from anywhere with the latest 5G and Wi-Fi 6E tools. These types of hybrid workplace technology advancements can give users and IT admins more flexibility, allowing for more productivity and a better work-life balance. Creating a workplace culture that values personal time and ensures employees have all of the necessary tools to get their job done can boost innovation. Team members will be more likely to reach their full potential when they can easily be productive, connected, and centered.

Conclusion

When deciding what devices to use for your post-pandemic office strategy, it’s important to determine which device types will make workflows and daily tasks easier while also protecting sensitive data when employees are working in the office or somewhere else.

There is no doubt that a hybrid workforce is the norm for many companies now and in the future. This concept lends itself to flexibility, innovation, and productivity. Along with that, the right hybrid workplace technology is essential in supporting this new way of working. Organizations equipped with updated digital tools such as Dell’s new technology portfolio aimed at enhancing hybrid work can create a better environment for employees and help power operations.

If your business would like to learn more about creating a hybrid workplace solution that can help your team and organization grow, contact our experts today. We have experience across all Dell systems and can help create custom solutions for your hybrid team to reach organization goals.

Next Steps: Enhance your hybrid work experience by downloading our tech brief, .

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The number of remote workers rose dramatically during the pandemic and has steadily increased since. In fact, report more than half of their workforce works remotely at least two days a week. This changes the way enterprises utilize their networks to best support users and devices connected from remote locations. Networks play a critical role in helping companies communicate and connect. This is why IT teams are changing the way they think about networking to help embrace the constant changes in security and performance. IT departments can ensure employee experience is simple and consistent with advanced remote workforce solutions.

The Challenges Of Remote Work

A majority of companies had to make an unplanned and quick transition to allow their workforce to operate from home. Only miniscule of employees worked from home before the pandemic and almost three-quarters never worked remotely. Now that remote workers have increased unexpectedly, many organizations are experiencing a rise in cyberattacks due to a dispersed workforce that creates system and network vulnerabilities. In turn, this shift has created network architecture and support for IT teams.

Organizations are also at an increased risk because workers require secure access to data from anywhere using cloud applications. Employee productivity also depends on the ability to stay secure, the quality of network speed, and the reliability of their network connections. This is why new remote workforce solutions, such as EdgeConnect Microbranchfrom HPE Aruba Networking, are evolving to combine enterprise-grade wireless solutions with SD-WAN (software-defined wide area network). SD-WAN improves the performance and user experience in branches and on campuses and now it can do the same for the remote workforce.

SD-WAN Solutions For Home Workers

To address the challenges enterprises face while they implement and expand remote work, HPE Aruba Networking has introduced EdgeConnect Microbranch. It has been designed to simplify the complexity of remote work networking for businesses. This solution has also enhanced security and unified management to meet the critical needs of any business.

HPE Aruba Networkingexplains, “IT can remotely deploy and centrally manage secure network connectivity for hundreds or even thousands of remote workers or small office employees to deliver an in-office experience using HPE Aruba Networking Central and any HPE Aruba Networking access point – without need for a gateway.” This advanced remote network solution has added SD-WAN capabilities that help deliver better-performing connectivity from the edge to the data center to the cloud. EdgeConnect Microbranch has been offered as part of HPE Aruba Networking’s new bundle called Edge Services Platform (ESP), which helps provide a remote office experience through remote access points (RAPs).

These SD-WAN capabilities include policy-based routing, tunnel and route orchestration, SASE (secure access service edge) integration, and enhanced WAN visibility. These added functions are designed to allow companies to mimic and offer an extensive range of in-office and campus connectivity services to remote workers with no gateway or new hardware required. This facilitates the objective of increasing productivity and security.

The Benefits Of EdgeConnect Microbranch

HPE Aruba Networking’s Edgeconnect Microbranch improves remote workforce solutions with its new SD-WAN features. Here are some noteworthy benefits:

• Cloud-managed Wi-Fi: Any HPE Aruba Networking Access Point (AP) can be used to provide dependable, high-performing connectivity to offer the same experience and security whether employees are at home or in the office.
• Intelligence policy-based routing: This automates how traffic should be routed to endpoints based on rules for specific applications to enhance performance and security.
• Automated route and tunnel orchestration: APs can organize VPN tunnels on demand and reroute traffic as needed.
• SASE and Zero Trust: This applies policy-based routing to orchestrate tunnels and direct certain remote user traffic for cloud security inspection to extend SASE and Zero Trust architecture to home offices.
• WAN health troubleshooting: Dashboard views provide near real-time updates on WAN availability and utilization that can help accelerate problem resolution.
• Access to in-office resources: Workers can plug VoIP phones or wired printers directly into the AP to have secure access to on-campus resources using corporate SSIDs.

Conclusion

Overall, new remote workforce solutions such as EdgeConnect Microbranch can better support remote work. These solutions also help IT ensure secure and reliable access for remote workforces by extending WAN and providing employees with an efficient in-office experience.

IT teams can also manage environments with more ease with cloud-based network management and Zero Touch Provisioning. This helps IT monitor remote locations and troubleshoot issues in real-time while overseeing network utilization, latency, and other connectivity issues.

If you are one of many businesses that have adopted remote or hybrid work, contact WEI today to learn more about remote workforce solutions to enhance home office environments.

NEXT STEPS: SD-WAN is ideal for campus-based networks or distributed enterprises, or any enterprise with remote/branch offices. Explore the top three benefits of SD-WAN in our short video below.

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Hybrid work solutions. That’s a term that can make network administrators a little queasy if their hybrid workforce is consistently submitting IT support tickets for one common issue or another. Granted, the term “hybrid work solutions” was never really tossed around IT departments until just a few years ago. Now, it is the new standard for both your established workforce and those applying to vacant positions.

In the post-pandemic modern world, enterprises have experienced a rise in hybrid workers as the number of individuals working exclusively at home have continued to decrease. At a high level, the hybrid model serves as a happy medium for in-office and at-home preferences. to get work done from multiple locations, so creating a productive experience for them no matter where they are is your IT team’s ongoing priority.

Flexibility is the name of the game. According to a , 52% of employees want their employers to adopt hybrid work solutions. Employees recognize that there are times when working on-prem makes total sense as it fosters teamwork and collaboration, but they still want to retain the ability to work remotely for those times when location is an irrelevant factor. Because flexibility is so highly valued by professionals today, companies can use hybrid work models to attract and retain talent. It is also a way to lower costs while sustaining organizational productivity at the same time.

This is all great in theory, but what happens when the rubber meets the road? Are you, as an IT leader, ensuring your team delivers on a hybrid solution that satisfies all enterprise end users?

Dell Has Your Required Hybrid Work Solutions

Dell refers to today’s agile workforce as the Do-Anything-From-Anywhere World. To pull that off, businesses must ensure that their hybrid workers have the right tools for the job. That’s why Dell has placed such an incredible emphasis on ensuring they have the right portfolio of intelligent computing devices, accessories, software, and services that not only foster agility, but also facilitates greater productivity and security. That starts with offering persona-based PCs to satisfy the different needs of multiple employee roles.

Persona-Based Solutions

Workers need a complete endpoint solution to ensure they can work both autonomously and collaboratively. To do this, Dell is empowering their PCs with the power of AI. Dell Optimizer is an integrated AI software suite that provides intelligent privacy features to conceal sensitive information within unsecure environments. It features the world’s first simultaneous multi-network connection that allows users to connect to two wired or wireless networks at once for faster data transfers and downloads. Dell Optimizer can even analyze a worker’s immediate surroundings and utilize neural-noise cancellation technology to ensure that remote communicative sessions are audibly clear and pristine.

Flexibility at the Enterprise Level

Enterprise leaders must always remind themselves that flexibility isn’t just a demand from clients. Forward-minded companies must also be agile enough to quickly adapt to the fast-changing dynamic business environments of today. That’s a fancy way of saying you must support your workforce, too. Are you certain you have the right technology infrastructure in place for the coming years? Do you know how much storage capacity and processing power you will need in 2023 or 2024? Think about how useless the forecasts you made in 2019 for the coming year were because of the pandemic and supply chain challenges. The old way of capitalizing large infrastructure deployments is simply outdated.

Companies can no longer continue the expensive practice of overprovisioning and investing in long-term fixed assets – this is far too risky. Companies need adaptive technology solutions that provides flexibility in resource allotment and finance allocation. That’s why Dell Apex Flex on Demand is the right solution at the right time.

What is APEX Flex on Demand?

gives you the ability to not only acquire the right technology you need but to also scale the right amount, so you only pay for what you use. We aren’t talking about a cloud-first solution, but you are financing in a similar fashion to the cloud. Remember, we’re still talking about allocating storage, server, hyper converged infrastructure, and data protection services on-prem. Apex Flex on Demand threads the needle to meet the balance of cost and flexibility in a way that was unimaginable just a few years ago.

What you’re paying for isn’t hardware or software. You pay for actual capacity usage. Whether it’s a server or a storage repository, utilization is comprised of two components: Committed capacity and buffer capacity. Our team will help you establish what your fixed committed capacity should be and how much buffered capacity will be required in the future. You aren’t billed for that buffer by default, but if the need arises for it, you instantly have access to it. Because buffered capacity is billed at a higher rate, you can modify the capacity ratio to adjust to workloads that have increased beyond the initial committed capacity to reduce costs.

Deployment and Payment Made Simple

Dell delivers and deploys your desired technology on-prem according to best practice and configured with your predicted capacity ratio. Raw and usable capacity data is measured throughout each day to create a daily and monthly average using locally installed software. This usage data is then securely uploaded to the Dell Financial Services Database where it is validated, verified, and processed by a billing specialist. Reports are then made available to the customer for validation prior to payment. Some of the benefits that customers have realized include the following:

• A 25% lower storage acquisition cost
• Deploying new storage capacity proved 92% faster
• Costs due to unplanned outages fell by 64%

If these positives are not enough, please consider this: While there are similar solutions abound, Dell is the only solution provider that caps monthly at 85% usage of total installed capacity.

Conclusion

You can refer to it by a variety of “as-a-Service” connotations. The best way to sum up Dell’s Flex on Demand offering may be Innovation-as-a-Service. It’s just another example of how Dell is providing the right hybrid work solutions that companies need for both now and in the future. It’s time for you to ensure that your business objectives are satisfied in a totally dynamic world.

Next Steps: that explains how Dell Technologies has elevated the hybrid work experience for both end users and IT administrators. We focus on the perspectives of privacy, connectivity, and collaboration.

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When became the norm due to COVID-19, companies rushed to give their employees access to the tools and software they would need in order to effectively perform their jobs at home. Two years after this transition, organizations and their employees seem to be settling in. According to , “25% of all professional jobs in North America will be remote by the end of 2022.” Remote work, or at least a hybrid option, will most likely be permanent workforce models for many businesses, which obviously leads to new challenges for IT. In this article, we cover IT network challenges, what HPE Aruba Networking’s EdgeConnect Microbranch is, and how it can help your enterprise stay protected while working from home.

Remote Work Trends That Challenge IT Teams

IT teams have been confronted with a host of pandemic-related challenges. With the lasting implementation of remote work, enterprise networking teams need to manage and support a great deal of dispersed home office locations for the foreseeable future.

One challenge for enterprise technology teams is dealing with IT issues out of the home office. These can be difficult to resolve since IT teams have no visibility beyond their own environment. This creates new and higher demands on IT for remote network security and performance.

Additionally, the dangers of cybersecurity are more evident than ever, making it particularly difficult for IT teams to keep up with effectively protecting their organization’s data. IT workers have held tremendous responsibility over the last few years to help their businesses prevent, detect, and recover from cybersecurity threats not seen even five years ago. This has forced security teams to refocus on the value of cloud-enabled security tools such as

What Is HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect Microbranch?

EdgeConnect Microbranch, part of HPE Aruba Networking ESP (Edge Services Platform), is an industry-leading home office and small office networking solution for hybrid work environments. It comprises access points (APs) and a new suite of SD-WAN services. It also builds upon HPE Aruba Networking’s proven history of delivering robust connectivity, security, and zero-touch onboarding experiences to the home office through its popular With this resource, enterprise IT departments can ensure employee experiences are consistent at any location via a single Wi-Fi AP. EdgeConnect Microbranch delivers a full range of on-campus connectivity services to remote personnel, which can accelerate troubleshooting, maintain corporate protections, and ultimately, connect your distributed workforce.

Key features of EdgeConnect Microbranch include:

• Cloud-managed Wi-Fi
• Intelligent policy-based routing
• Automated route and tunnel orchestration
• SASE and Zero Trust
• WAN health troubleshooting
• Access to in-office resources

These elements make it easier for IT to provide high-quality connectivity to employees working from home by extending the WAN from the campus to remote work locations.

Why Are Remote Work Solutions Necessary?

Normalizing remote work affects how IT manages each hybrid workspace, and as a result, one of the many challenges IT teams face is cyber threats in the home office. Just last year, ransomware hit record highs at an alarming rate. Networking and security teams now need to cope with extending on-campus Zero Trust and securing access service edge (SASE) frameworks to a sizeable number of remote offices located at the edge.

Using remote work solutions such as EdgeConnect Microbrandch gives IT teams better control and visibility into the remote network. This way, they can optimize the network and ensure remote workers have access to their required resources and experience the same high-quality service as they would in the office. This can also aid the IT team in protecting against security threats without disrupting the productivity of those working from home.

There is an immediate need for all enterprises to identify new collaboration tools to fulfill the needs of remote work. Taking advantage of solutions like EdgeConnect Microbranch can ensure secure and reliable access for remote workforces. Cloud-based network management can help IT troubleshoot issues impacting remote workers along with managing highly distributed environments more easily.

If your organization is ready to improve its remote work solutions and get the assistance required to meet the demands of the distributed workforce, EdgeConnect Microbranch can help. Contact WEI today to start improving your Wi-Fi reliability and supporting your remote workers with new technology solutions.

Next Steps: Download and read WEI’s free tech brief,

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As enterprises look into the future of a post-pandemic environment, many CIOs recognize the need for a better strategy that supports a remote and hybrid workforce. While many switched to a work-from-home model as a response to the pandemic, of employees want to continue working from home permanently.

Until recently, the solution to secure enterprise networks has been the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) which function like a tunnel back to the company network. However, with the distributed nature of a remote workforce, VPNs possess limitations and security risks. So, what’s the better solution to secure your network and provide access to applications no matter where employees work from? That would be Zero-trust network access (ZTNA).

CIOs see the value of ZTNA to provide their enterprise with the security they need while supporting a modern workforce. ZTNA is the future of enterprise security. Within the next year, 60% of enterprises will phase out traditional VPNs and use a . To date, only 15% of organizations have completed a transition to a zero-trust security model. Let’s take a closer look at two different ZTNA models and why the future is bright for zero-trust network access.

Client-Initiated Or Endpoint-Initiated ZTNA

The first zero-trust network access model is known as endpoint-initiated ZTNA or a client-initiated ZTNA model. This model is software-defined and based on the Cloud Security Alliance architecture which uses an agent on a device to create a secure tunnel to the enterprise network. This agent performs an assessment to determine the security risk of a user’s request to access an application using information such as their identity, device location, network, and the application being used. After building a risk profile, the agent connects back to the application over a proxy connection, and if the information meets the organization’s policy, access to the application is granted. The beauty of this model is that applications can be on-premises or cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

While this model does provide greater security than VPNs, it comes with its own set of challenges. Managing the agents on devices can become a chore for your IT department unless a central management solution is able to coordinate deployment and configuration. Unmanaged devices need to be handled by other means, such as a network access controller (NAC).

The Service-Initiated Or Application-Initiated ZTNA Model

The service-initiated model uses a reverse proxy architecture based on the BeyondCorp model and is also known as application-initiated ZTNA. The biggest difference from client-initiated ZTNA is that this model does not require an endpoint agent. Instead, to create a secure tunnel and perform a risk assessment profile, it uses a browser plug-in.

Where the client-initiated ZTNA can be used for both on-premises and cloud applications, a key disadvantage to the service-initiated ZTNA is that it’s limited to cloud-based applications only. With the application’s protocols needing to be based on Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)/Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), it limits the approach to web applications and protocols, such as Secure Shell (SSH) or Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) over HTTP. Because of this shortfall, at this time, the service-initiated ZTNA model is not the best option if your enterprise has a combination of hybrid cloud and on-premises applications.

The Future With ZTNA

The first step in implementing a complete zero-trust solution is addressing the need for secure remote access. ZTNA can be applied to remote users, home offices, and other locations by offering controlled remote access to applications that is easier and faster to initiate while providing a more granular set of security protections than traditional VPNs.

Establishing a zero-trust model across vendors can be difficult as components often run on different operating systems and use different consoles for management and configuration. By selecting integrated and automated tools, you can overcome the challenges of implementing ZTNA. Using a service-initiated model with an integrated firewall-based and SASE approach allows for ZTNA capabilities with a simplified management and application policy whether your users are on or off the network.

Fortinet ZTNA Solution Improves Your Enterprise Cybersecurity

With remote work here to stay, it is clear that a traditional VPN approach is no longer enough to provide your enterprise with adequate security. ZTNA solutions are a better way to secure access, no matter where your employees are, and improve controls around application access. To learn how can provide your enterprise cybersecurity strategy with the best ZTNA model, contact WEI today.

Next Steps: Download our executive brief, “.”

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It is common practice today for artificial intelligence (AI) to be integrated throughout the components of the datacenter, but what if you could harness the power of AI for your enterprise personal computers (PC)s? Imagine a laptop that could learn how its assigned user actually works and adapt to it to optimize the user desktop experience. Now, that would be something! It also happens to be reality thanks to the world’s first AI-based optimization software for workstations. AI-driving computing is available at the desktop level thanks to Dell’s Precision Optimizer that learns and responds to the way each one of us works.

Dell Precision Optimizer AI Technology

Getting the most out of your digital workforce today is more important than ever in a hypercompetitive global world. Expanding efficiencies through small incremental steps throughout the workday can culminate in greater productivity on a surprising scale over time. The platform does that by improving the critical areas of your PC such as application performance, battery runtime, and multimedia components. Here’s a list of some of the AI-driven components that are constantly working for you:

• ExpressResponse uses built-in AI to manage the speed and performance of your most utilized applications. It boosts application launch times and analyzes how each one consumes resources to identify optimization opportunities.
• ExpressCharge continually regulates screen brightness, CPU performance, and Bluetooth resources to maximize your battery potential every day.
• Context Sensing Technology that automatically detects your presence and wakes the system in time for you to log on. Of course, it also detects your exit as well and locks the PC to enforce enhanced security measures.
• Waves NX Technology provides intelligent audio that can filter out background noise and prioritizes voice streams by adding brightness and clarity for conferencing and podcasting. Input audio signals are continually analyzed to ensure louder output levels without annoying feedback.

Each of these AI-driven enhancements culminate in experienced By maximizing the performance of your PCs, you maximize the productivity and effectiveness of your digital workforce. The right tool in the right hands creates a powerful combination.

Expanding the Possibilities with AI, PCaaS

We live in extraordinary times when standard computer users have access to AI-driven technology to empower them. But here’s something else to ponder – what if you could deploy and provision laptops to your remote employees regardless of where they were located without involving internal IT support personnel at all? In fact, let’s take it a step further. What if your IT personnel never had to touch your enterprise PCs? Let’s top that off with the ability to have a high-performance computer in the hands of all your employees with no upfront investments required and no hassles of ownership. It almost seems too good to be true!

Introducing PCaaS from Dell

It is true, however. Just as Dell now delivers the power of AI in its Precision Desktop series, Dell is revolutionizing the way in which organizations finance and support their enterprise computer fleets. Just like any “as a service” solution, Burdens such as financing the purchase of them, supporting them, updating them, securing them, and retiring them at the expiration of their life cycle. In exchange, you pay a predictable price each month for the culmination of services.

It starts with the direct receipt of a laptop by your employee regardless of location. The machines are provisioned with the exact software portfolio required by that designated user and it is ready for operation on day one. Most organizations implement a 4-5 year product cycle when it comes to PCs. That’s understandable as it requires a substantial outlay for each refresh. Dell’s PCaaS best device policy follows a three-year refresh cycle, which means that employees get faster access to technology as well as the responsiveness that new machines have out of the box.

Continued Support Throughout Post-Deployment

Once deployed, it is time for support where AI is utilized as well. Dell’s AI-driven telemetry and predictive analytics help detect and resolve technical issues before they can become disruptive problems. When additional support is needed, subscribers get 24×7 priority access to Dell’s ProSupport team that includes onsite visits the next business day. You can take it a level further by having Dell ProManage services become an extension of your own IT department. Let Dell-trained technicians handle day-to-day end user support and device management, which frees up your own personnel to focus on value added projects for the organization. Users can choose their preferred mode of assistance using the online service portal.

Because hardware issues are now handled by technicians that are specialized in the user’s device, problems are solved faster, allowing work to presume more quickly. Even further, the advantages of a PCaaS program are evident at the end of the refresh cycle as the responsibility of disposal are saddled on Dell. No more paperwork or finding someone to cart off old hardware that no one seems to want anymore.

Once again, all these benefits culminate into real savings. According to a Forrester Total Economic Impact study commissioned by Dell, PCaaS customers experienced the following results:

• A savings of 5.2 hours of support labor per device over its lifecycle.
• A 20% reduction in device lifecycle costs.
• Employees had use of devices 2 years newer than average.
• Users received their devices faster by an average of five days.

Empower Your Enterprise With PCaaS. WEI can help.

PC as a Service is a whole new way of approaching the challenge of dealing with the product life cycles of your enterprise PCs. It might not seem conventional at first, but there’s nothing conventional about the AI-driven Dell Precision Optimizer, either. If the combination of reduced costs, compressed product life cycles, and the latest empowering technology sounds good then find out more about Dell PCaaS by contacting WEI.

Next Steps: Discover the five critical ways modern technology enables remote work productivity by

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As another year has concluded, we have reached that time to review the IT trends of 2021. Most IT professionals could use an extra minute to catch their breath as last year continued to push many IT departments due to the pandemic’s outbreak in 2020. To gain some perspective on our year-long journey, we sat down with two senior executives at WEI, David Fafel, and Greg Labrie, to get their perspectives on the relevant IT trends that came about in 2021. We also pulled data from a commissioned study we did in partnership with concerning the state of digital transformation in 2021. The study involved an audience of IT decision makers (ITDMs) across multiple industries that provided insightful and surprising information concerning their IT initiatives in 2021.

Remote Work Transitions to Hybrid Work

Could anyone have predicted where we are now when it comes to workspace utilization? While so many organizations implemented remote work strategies overnight, they most likely operationalized these same strategies as a temporary stopgap. As many people return to their desk, companies are now utilizing traditional office space as more of a “touchdown” area for employees to congregate during select days of the week. Typical activities include team building, brainstorming, client interaction, departmental meetings, etc. For many in the workforce, this new concept is a welcome change, thus leading to the hybrid work model’s rising popularity. Still, it involves working remotely, which invokes change in so many other areas. For IT, it means that connectivity has now shifted to the employee’s home, wherever that may be.

In turn, companies that have adjusted to a scaled mobile workforce have also achieved a dynamic recruiting advantage over their competitors. During the current labor shortage, these forward-thinking companies are recruiting talent far outside their local area because they realize employees can be productive no matter where they reside. If you don’t have employees in your traditional building any longer, you’ve also essentially shifted some of the network and connectivity costs to the employee. It has also freed IT personnel, at least somewhat, from some of their usual support duties as employees have become more self-sufficient with their own IT needs. We use the term “somewhat” because the 80/20 rule comes into play; twenty percent of a company’s personnel will always need help and that select group is consuming a lot more time to remotely support them as internal IT doesn’t have control of these remote workspaces.

Zero-Trust Networks Taking Shape

In 2021, enterprises realized that their expedient transition to remote work architectures required revaluation as remote work permeated within their culture. In an environment in which work can now be performed anywhere, the old reliance on perimeter security architectures is now outdated, and companies are rushing to adapt zero-trust networks. In a zero-trust environment, you don’t treat end users any differently when logging in at the office, or if they were to connect from home or at the local coffee shop. We are now living in a validate-first world in which trust must first be corroborated on all devices. These days, you can no longer assume that traffic originating within the LAN is legitimate because there are just too many avenues for attackers and malware to infiltrate.

Bad Habits Still Present in 2021

We all know smoking is bad for us, yet the people we know and our favorite fictional television characters still do it. Similarly, we know that backups are the golden ticket that can save us from the brink of cybersecurity disaster, yet too many IT professionals are not applying this practice correctly. Many are using backup strategies from a decade ago, or more. Localized backups are too prone to attack and hackers are expertly taking out these systems in advance of the primary attack. Cloud backup technology has greatly advanced, and we are seeing more companies trust the cloud and embrace it because it completely segregates your backups from your on-premises environment.

To continue with the health analogy, we know that a healthy diet and regular exercise are of great benefit, but we procrastinate on practicing these good habits until a major medical event occurs. While ransomware continues to be a mounting problem, too many enterprises continue to use a reactionary approach when combatting it. Ransomware is a war that requires proactive measures. We need network intelligence and network monitoring tools at the network layer to monitor what is happening across the IT environment. For example, why is Lucy suddenly accessing the payroll system? We know she has access privileges, but the timing of this activity seems odd. These small, yet important, instances are why we need to stop threat actors from launching attacks from deep within our enterprise’s network.

IT Staff Augmentation

One of the most surprising things we discovered in the IDG commissioned study was how much companies are utilizing staff augmentation strategies. The pandemic is showing us the value in having the ability to transform quickly to implement new strategies. Having a strategic workforce plan that can attract the required talent for a project as quickly as possible is now imperative. Companies are having to contend with serious skill gaps when it comes to areas such as cybersecurity, DevOps, automation, and cloud computing within their own organization. Companies have found that the traditional approach to full-time hiring is too slow and reactionary to inject the proper talent into their organizations.

To meet this challenge, companies are turning to staff augmentation strategies. We found that a surprising 82% of survey respondents in the IDG study considered IT staff augmentation to be highly important for their organization with more than one in ten respondents ranking it as critical. Respondents also reported that nearly 40% of IT staff is considered temporary.

How Did Companies Spend Their Budgets in 2021?

Companies continued their quest to digitally transform their organizations as 60% of respondents allocated funds toward transformational directives. The top five most popular IT investment objectives are listed below:

• 64%: Improving data security
• 51%: Improving operational and process efficiency
• 38%: Improving the customer experience
• 37% Gathering and analyzing data to make better business objectives
• 34%: Driving new revenue through innovation

Respondents were also asked which technologies they considered to be the most crucial to achieving their digital technology strategies. The top five technologies are:

• 25%: Hybrid cloud (private and public)
• 24%: AI enabled technology
• 21%: IoT technology
• 18%: Hardware
• 18%: containers

Hybrid IT Architectures and Multi-cloud Strategies

The IDG study showed that hybrid IT was the preferred architectural goal of companies in 2021 with 55% of respondents describing their current environment as such. Another 37% reported that their organizations are headed in that direction, but aren’t quite there yet. These hybrid architectures are making use of multiple clouds as 46% reported as having a fully-optimized multi-cloud strategy. These multi-cloud strategies are allowing companies to match workloads to their most optimal cloud environment, giving them maximum flexibility while reducing their dependency on any one cloud service provider.

Improving data security was the top use case for cloud technology according to 59% of respondents. There is no doubt that companies are recognizing the value of utilizing cloud-based security solutions. Improving the speed of IT service delivery was mentioned by 50% of respondents, making it the second top use case.

Want More Insights into IT Trends o 2021?

Next Steps: If you would like to learn more about the IT trends that emerged in 2021 and what strategies and controls that companies within your industry used to accelerate their digital transformations and overcome the many emerging challenges, you can download our new white paper titled, “” In it, you will find a lot of great information summarized from the IDG study.

You can also contact us to speak with one of our SMEs to gain additional insights related to your own unique environment and business objectives. It was another year of innovation and growth for WEI, and we look forward to helping our current and future customers achieve their IT objectives as much as possible.

The post A Year in Review: IT Trends 2021 appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

On September 28, 2021, HPE announced a for HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform. This platform provides customers with unmatched capabilities to power digital transformation for their applications and data.

These modernizations will further accelerate HPE’s transition to a cloud services company, and give customers greater choice and freedom for their business and IT strategy in the hybrid work environment.

This announcement represents HPE’s entry into three large, high-growth software markets – unified analytics, data protection, and Adoption Framework.

What The New Cloud Services Are

The three new offerings, which add to the growing platform of HPE GreenLake cloud services, allow customers to innovate with agility at lower costs.

The new innovations are as follows:

• : Open and unified analytics cloud services to modernize all data and applications everywhere – on-premises, at the edge, and in the cloud. HPE GreenLake for analytics will be available in the beginning of 2022.
• : Disaster recovery and backup cloud services to help customers address ransomware head-on and secure data from edge-to-cloud. HPE GreenLake for data protection will be available in the beginning of 2022.
• : A comprehensive, proven set of methodologies, expertise, and automation tools to accelerate and de-risk the path to a cloud experience everywhere. The HPE Edge-to-Cloud Adoption Framework is available now.

How HPE GreenLake Analytics Are Optimized For Hybrid Environments

This is HPE GreenLake’s first cloud-native unified analytics and data cloud services optimized for hybrid environments. The analytics enable customers to accelerate modernization initiatives. They are built to be cloud-native which avoids complex data migrations to the public cloud. Now analytics and data science teams can leverage the industry’s first cloud-native solution on premises, scale up Apache Spark lakehouses, and speed up AI and ML workflows.

Included in the new are:

• HPE Ezmeral Unified Analytics: Modernized analytics and data lakehouse platform optimized for on-premises deployment.

• HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric Object Store: Kubernetes-native object store optimized for analytics performance, providing access to all data sets within edge to cloud.
• Expanding HPE Ezmeral Partner Ecosystem: Delivers a rapidly growing set of successful solutions from ISV partners that enable customers to build their analytics engines.

How HPE GreenLake Data Protection Innovation Protects Customers’ Data

Within the September 28 , HPE entered the rapidly growing data protection As-a-Service market with HPE GreenLake for data protection. The new cloud services are designed to modernize data protection, overcome ransomware attacks, and deliver faster data recovery.

The new include:

• HPE Backup and Recovery Service: Backup as a service offering that provides policy-based automation to backup and protect customers’ virtual machines across hybrid cloud environments, eliminating the complexities of managing backup hardware
• HPE GreenLake for Disaster Recovery: HPE plans to deliver Zerto’s industry-leading disaster recovery as a service through HPE GreenLake to help customers recover in minutes from ransomware attacks.

How HPE Adoption Framework Accelerates Cloud Experience

HPE has also a proven set of methodologies and automation tools to enable enterprises to take a data-driven approach to achieve the optimal operation model across all hybrid work environments – the HPE Edge-to-Cloud Adoption Framework.

The HPE Edge-to-Cloud Adoption Framework leverages HPE’s expertise in delivering solutions on-premises to meet a broad range of business needs for customers across the globe. HPE has identified multiple critical areas that enterprises should consider and measure to accomplish an effective cloud operating system.

Are You Interested In HPE’s New Cloud Services?

HPE is a global edge-to-cloud company helping organizations accelerate outcomes by unlocking value from all of their data. Built on decades of reimagining and innovating, HPE delivers unique, open and intelligent technology solutions. HPE’s new cloud services for the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform allows customers to accelerate innovation, deliver compelling experiences, and achieve high-level business outcomes. If you’re ready to make the change now, contact WEI to begin building a custom solution for your business.

NEXT STEPS: this executive brief to learn the power of the OpEX model for IT investments and find the middle ground for future It investments.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has forever reshaped the way we work. At the onset of the pandemic, companies were forced to rapidly transition to working from home. A year and a half later, it appears remote working won’t be fading away anytime soon. One found that 87% of professionals hope to continue working from home, even after the pandemic is over.

As a result, the pandemic has also impacted talent recruitment and retention. Employers are having a difficult time attracting and retaining high-quality employees and a are coming to the conclusion that a of work is the most effective solution. With this model, employees can decide whether they want to work from home or work in the office.

However, once enterprises decide to utilize a hybrid work model, the next problem is ensuring users have the technology they need to be successful.

Keep reading to learn three reasons why investing in cutting-edge, modern technology will successfully guide your business forward in the new era of remote working.

1. Improves Employee Experience

Having up-to-date technology, like modern desktops and laptops, empowers the remote workforce to be productive day in and day out by making work easier and more enjoyable. Giving your team the right tools will allow them to reach their full potential by accessing resources and staying connected to their team members, whether they are working remotely or working in an office.

Additionally, having the right tools boosts employee retention. When you make a great first impression on new hires by offering the latest and greatest technology, their productivity is strong right away. This also strengthens the company culture and improves employee morale. When it comes down to it, offering a positive employee experience starts with providing team members the tools they need to do their work technology is a huge part of that.

2. Modern Technology Ensures Business Continuity

When you invest in , you get the peace of mind that comes with knowing your employees in the office and remote aren’t being bogged down by slow and bothersome systems. Additionally, you don’t have to worry about little things like hardware or software incompatibility and inconsistent internet connectivity.

Having modern technologies allows every employee to access internal resources and applications. If you’re worried about unauthorized logins or if an employee accidentally downloads a virus, invest in modern PC lifecycle management platforms (MPCLM) that enable IT to manage machines remotely. You’ll be able to ensure your remote workforce and in-office employees are always working productively when you invest in new desktops and laptops alongside modern IT tools to keep your business connected.

3. It Allows Your Remote Workforce To Innovate

Modern technologies offer a variety of benefits, but the most important by far is innovation.

By ensuring your remote workforce has the tools they need to succeed, you empower your team to reach their full potential at work every day. Through these modern technologies, you enable your team to have real-time connectivity and collaboration, which allows your team to brainstorm, test and implement new ideas faster than ever before.

This, in turn, speeds product development and reduces time to market, which offers your enterprise a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Additionally, it helps your team find and focus on high-value activities, further boosting engagement and output. Empowering remote employees is the key to success when growing your company and allowing them to have the technology to guide them is absolutely essential.

Dell’s Technology Solutions Can Help You Find Success

It boils down to this: Choosing which desktop and laptop devices will power your operations is the most important decision you can make for your remote workforce. With Dell’s wide range of models and excellent specifications you can’t pick incorrectly. Partnering with an organization like WEI can also help with this decision and build a program that helps empower your remote employees.

Are You Ready To Transform Your Remote Workforce?

is committed to helping enterprises transform the way they do business. To support this, innovation is at the forefront of all their solutions, enabling you to transform your infrastructure and accelerate the innovation you need to stay competitive. If you’re ready to make the change now, contact WEI to begin building a custom solution for your business. We have expertise across all Dell systems and can help architect a custom solution to achieve your desired business outcomes.

NEXT STEPS: this executive brief to learn the TOP FIVE factors for driving digital innovation in your enterprise.

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While 2021 hasn’t brought a definite end to pandemic-era IT challenges like many hoped, other technology predictions have held steady, largely propelled by the new remote working and hybrid workforce standard. Examples include the continued proliferation of internet of things (IoT) devices, the accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies, and an increased interest in software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) technologies.

With that in mind, in the article below, we discuss five SD-WAN edge trends that will help IT leaders plan for what’s coming next and make informed decisions about their SD-WAN strategies, as shared by .

1. SASE Will Continue To Gain Steam

To fully take advantage of the benefits of digital transformation and a remote or hybrid workforce, enterprises need to make improvements to their WAN and security architectures instead of just focusing on one or the other. This is especially important as cybersecurity threats continue to multiply and remote workforces serve as tempting targets for bad actors.

Secure access service edge (SASE) offers the security needed to handle these evolving workforces while ensuring a consistent and enjoyable user experience for employees.

2. IoT Security Challenges Will Require New Solutions

In addition to remote workforces, the continued proliferation of IoT devices has created its own security challenges. Zero trust access and granular segmentation at the new WAN edge, which can enforce distinct security policies for each class of IoT endpoints, will be key in securing these devices and preventing them from being utilized by cybercriminals.

3. SD-WAN, SD-Branch, and SASE Will Be Essential To Edge Success

When it comes to security, a multi-pronged approach ensures that data will stay secure, regardless of the threat. By combining SD-WAN with cloud-first connectivity and steering, SASE, which provides a more direct way to connect users to business resources, and SD-Branch, which offers an easy way to simplify the branch even as IoT adoptions create new complications, enterprises can enhance their security posture while also improving operational efficiencies.

4. Edge Strategies Will Continue To Evolve As Circumstances Require

While many hoped that at this stage we would be in the post-pandemic era, the virus continues to impact enterprises and IT on a daily basis, delaying plans to return to the office and necessitating technologic creativity when designing and implementing infrastructure. Looking ahead, as we do eventually reach the end of the pandemic, enterprises will continue to utilize edge strategies to improve security and user experience for remote and hybrid workforces.

5. Enterprises Will Utilize Software-Defined Principles To Support Growth

As we’ve seen with SD-WAN, software-defined strategies are proving to be the most efficient and logical step forward for the modern enterprise. Beyond SD-WAN and SD-Branch, these software-defined principles are being applied to other areas of the enterprise, including the data center and campus LAN. To stay competitive in the market and ready for unexpected change, enterprises will need to adopt these strategies throughout their digital environments.

SD-WAN By Aruba And Silver Peak

In 2020, , the parent company of Aruba, acquired , a global leader in SD-WAN solutions. Through this acquisition, Aruba and Silver Peak are working together to provide customers with the very best in SD-WAN solutions, while also significantly reducing costs.

Silver Peak’s SD-WAN offerings will strengthen the by expanding Aruba’s cloud capabilities. Additionally, through a combination of Silver Peak’s SD-WAN and Aruba’s SD-Branch offerings, customers can simplify branch office and WAN deployments, benefiting remote workers and supporting cloud-connected distributed enterprises.

Are You Interested In SD-WAN From Aruba?

Regardless of your specific use case, Aruba offers the SD-WAN and edge computing solutions your enterprises need to be successful. By transforming WAN and security together, enterprises can discover increased benefit from their current and future investments in cloud-computing. Beyond the initial advantages of SD-WAN solutions, IT will experience additional benefits through reduced management complexity and overall lowered costs.

NEXT STEPS: SD-WAN is ideal for campus-based networks or distributed enterprises, or any enterprise with remote/branch offices. Explore the top three benefits of SD-WAN in our short video below.

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In the past year and a half, securely facilitating remote working has become a priority for a majority of enterprises. It’s also become clear that remote working is going to be a longer-term or permanent working model enterprises will need to support.

In the early days of the pandemic, ensuring uninterrupted access took priority over security, but as time has gone on, enterprises have started the process to replace emergency patchwork measures with secure, long-term solutions.

Thankfully, there are a variety of strategies available to secure both off- and on-premises infrastructure. In this blog, we’ll be discussing the current state of secure access service edge (SASE), zero trust architectures, and software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN), as shared in a recent report by Ponemon Institute and sponsored by .

Simplifying Through SD-WAN

At its core, SD-WAN is a simplified approach to managing the wide-area network (WAN) architecture. This is achieved by decoupling the network hardware from the control mechanism, allowing enterprises to build WAN infrastructure at lower cost and with better performance.

In terms of security, architecture utilizes encryption and VPNs to secure traffic, offering significant benefit for enterprises with a remote or hybrid workforce.

In the course of their research, Ponemon found that 44% of the 598 North American IT professionals surveyed as part of the study considered themselves “familiar” with SD-WAN technology, compared to 64% who expressed familiarity with zero trust and 45% that were familiar with SASE.

In terms of implementation, 35% of respondents indicated that they had already deployed or will deploy SD-WAN within the next 12 months.

Ponemon also found that when it comes to implementation, a majority of respondents found that, “the network team has the most influence in the deployment of SD-WAN solutions with advice from the security team.”

Take Control With Zero Trust

Zero trust describes both an IT solution and a security philosophy. When utilizing zero trust as part of a networking strategy, enterprises take the approach that no device can be trusted by default and that mutual authentication provides enhanced protection compared to other methods.

As previously identified, Ponemon found that respondents were overall more familiar with zero trust strategies than SASE and SD-WAN. That also translates to implementation, with 43% of North American respondents indicating they had deployed or will deploy zero trust within the next 12 months.

It was also found that enterprises that self-reported as “highly confident” in their security architecture were more likely to have implemented at least one of these security strategies, with a majority of organizations within that group having implemented zero trust (48%) compared to SASE (43% ) and SD-WAN (33%).

Utilize The Cloud For Security With SASE

For many enterprises, architecture is an attractive networking solution because it simplifies both WAN and security by delivering both as a cloud service directly to the source of the connection. This is particularly helpful for organizations with remote or highly mobile workforces that frequently utilize cloud applications.

Of the three strategies covered by Ponemon in their study, SASE was the least utilized, with only 30% of North American respondents having already deployed or planning to deploy SASE in the next 12 months.

In terms of implementation, a majority of respondents indicated that when it comes to SASE, they would select a “best-in-breed” vendor when, “deploying both SD-WAN and cloud delivered security for a SASE architecture.”

It was also found in the course of the study that a majority of respondents said they would “use leading vendors who focus on cloud-delivered security services” when implementing cloud-delivered security services.

Take Your Network Security To The Next Level With Aruba

If your enterprise is interested in any of the security strategies discussed above, WEI and Aruba can help. offers the holistic security and architectural simplicity needed to stay competitive in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape. By taking advantage of Aruba’s full portfolio of security solutions and out-of-the-box integrations, enterprises can fully secure their remote, hybrid, or on-premises workforces. What’s more, you don’t have to go it alone. Our team of Aruba experts are ready to answer your toughest questions. We have extensive knowledge across Aruba’s entire network security portfolio and can architect and deploy custom solutions unique to your business needs. .

NEXT STEPS: See how Aruba is helping enterprise companies secure their remote workforce with Aruba Remote Access Points in our tech brief below. And ask us about our experience with Aruba RAPs!

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Someday, the daily struggle and uncertainty of the pandemic will only be a memory. However, the way we do business has been forever altered and remote workforces are likely here to stay.

In early 2020, companies were forced to rapidly transition to working from home. More than a year later, as vaccines roll out and the virus subsides, it appears as though the remote work trend won’t be going away any time soon. In fact, one found that 87% of professionals hope they can continue working from home.

Although the want teams to return to the office, employers are increasingly coming to the realization that they might have a hard time attracting and retaining top talent if they don’t allow their teams to work remotely. For this reason, the majority of employers are moving forward with plans to continue with a remote workforce or implement a , where some folks work from the office and others work from home.

To support hybrid or remote workforces, companies need to invest in powerful laptops that enable employees to do their best work, regardless of their location. Utilizing laptops is one way to be sure your users have the tools they need to be successful.

Here are five reasons the right technology will help your organization get to the next level and thrive in the new era of distributed work.

1. Boosting the employee experience

With the right tools in place, you’re equipping your team with what they need to reach their full potential. Instead of struggling to access resources or stay connected to the team, employees that are given Dell laptops are empowered to work productively day in and day out, using up-to-date technology that makes work easier and more enjoyable.

Utilizing new technology can also help your enterprise make a great first impression with new hires, which increases productivity and engagement while strengthening company culture. This, in turn, boosts retention.

2. Facilitating meaningful connections

A found that 45% of workers missed the social interactions they had with their coworkers after being forced to transition to remote work.

Although technology can’t completely replace face-to-face interactions, it can help remote workforces stay connected to their teams. New cloud-based project management tools and real-time chat platforms are allowing users to work collaboratively from home. And when coworkers need to talk through something in more depth, they can hop on a video call in a few clicks and “see” each other for a little face time.

That said, these new communication tools and platforms need hardware they can run efficiently on. There are few things more frustrating for employees than having to fight against their technology during video calls or missing important messages due to computer malfunctions.

With the right tools, your remote workforce can collaborate together on an increasing number of projects and form meaningful connections with each other, which makes work more social once again, just in a different way.

3. Keeping operations humming along

When you invest in modern technology, you enable your remote workforce to work with purpose and accomplish more. On top of that, you won’t have to worry as much about things such as incompatibility, slow-loading machines and a wonky internet connection that moves at a snail’s pace.

Worried that your employees will invariably download viruses and malware, misconfigure their devices and otherwise misuse their machines? Don’t be. You can also invest in modern PC lifecycle management platforms (MPCLM) that enable IT to manage machines remotely.

4. Future-proofing your tech infrastructure

By embracing the power of modern devices and tools that enable IT to easily manage them over the internet, organizations are able to future-proof their technology stance. When new solutions emerge, IT administrators can roll them out to the machines of all users automatically, empowering companies to always ensure they’re providing their employees with the best tools for the job.

Thanks to MPCLM technology, IT can deliver bespoke digital solutions to employees rapidly, without having to endure lengthy procurement and provisioning processes on a continuous basis. At the same time, IT can also test laptops and desktops remotely to ensure they are operating at optimal capacity. They can also train employees to make sure they can use every tool productively.

5. Accelerating innovation

Each of these benefits adds up to the biggest one: innovation.

By ensuring that your employees have the tools they need to succeed, and that those tools evolve with the times, you empower your team to reach their full potential at work every day. Through real-time connectivity and collaboration, the hardware you rely on can enable your team to brainstorm, test and implement new ideas faster than ever before.

This, in turn, helps you bring new products to market faster, accelerating innovation and driving competitive advantage while working more diligently to delight your customers.

Utilize Dell Laptops For Your Hybrid Workforce

What it boils down to is this: Choosing which laptops and desktop devices will power your operations is one of the biggest decisions you can make.

With so much on the line, you really can’t afford to pick the wrong models. And this is precisely why it makes sense to join forces with a partner organization that can help you build the perfect solution for your business instead of doing it on your own.

come at variety of price points and offer different options for storage, operating systems, and features. Dell laptops can also be tailored to suit the needs of each user to match the work they will be doing.

Dell also offers a number of 2-in-1 models that function as both a laptop and tablet, offering increased flexibility for your users for meetings, presentations, note taking, and more.

Are Your Looking For A Partner To Support Your Remote Workforce?

is committed to helping enterprises transform the way they do business. To support this, innovation is at the forefront of all their solutions, enabling you to transform your infrastructure and accelerate the innovation you need to stay competitive. We have expertise across all Dell systems and can help architect a custom solution to achieve your desired business outcomes.

NEXT STEPS: Your business needs infrastructure that is flexible enough to support a hybrid workforce. Take a look at the TOP TEN reasons why enterprise IT leaders run their business on Dell VxRail in our paper below.

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