There is no getting away from the fact that the health crisis brought by Covid-19 and the forced confinement of the majority of the world’s population has allowed teleworking to become a new way in which to engage with employers.

Ever since the telecommunications boom and the growth in networks, we have been discussing the chance to work from home. However, despite various initiatives launched by different corporations, this option had not fully materialized. Human beings are often reluctant to change, as this will generally force them to leave their comfort zone. Having said this, nothing better than a serious crisis to get rid of obstacles to organizational rearrangements.

This crisis has also proven that the tools that allow people to work remotely are available and, after some difficulties at the very beginning, problems have been solved quickly and companies that had not contemplated this option before have been able to overcome connectivity issues and offer teleworking solutions, although, in many cases, safety issues and threats coming from the Internet connection itself have to be resolved, together with the need to expand the office network to the employee’s home.

Setting up a private network

Companies that opt for having part of their workforce working from home must consider the Internet access of employees as an extension of their own network. As a result, they must be able to separate corporate traffic from that of the private user, as long as the Internet traffic itself is not intercepted. A great solution is to use VPN networks with encrypted traffic rerouting at source.

Network managers are trying to set up and maintain this type of connections in an easy and safe manner, combatting security problems, traffic interruptions and offering monitoring solutions that allow for quick intervention.

Home Wi-Fi

Another safety issue is closely related to the Wi-Fi network used by employees while teleworking. Ideally, it should not be visible or accessible to ill-intentioned devices. Remotely managed Wi-Fis can help companies keep that threat under control.

Lastly, purchasing an efficient antivirus/antimalware becomes indispensable, since a laptop used at home for purposes other than work are the perfect entry point for this sort of attacks.

Transitioning to large-scale teleworking was hard for companies that had to adapt in the midst of an emergency. However, most are “learning as they go” and implementing or consolidating procedures geared towards teleworking. In addition, from an organizational standpoint, the current crisis has proven many tasks can be handled remotely, as opposed to what many companies thought before. Even if teleworking was not the company’s preferred way of working, it has now become a critical factor in its ability to recover. The emergency situation created by the health crisis may shape a new work model, as companies seem ready to take the plunge.

The SDN / SD-WAN technology used in our CNM SD-WAN solutions developed by Teldat and based on a centralized management of networks create a safe and reliable infrastructure that help companies adapt to these new changes.