The work from home shift has revolutionized IT Departments more than any invention ever could.
When closets became offices, and commutes morphed into strolls around the neighborhood, corporate IT was left scrambling. Many companies were ill prepared to support remote workers and this shift exposed security vulnerabilities.
“The level that this pandemic made everybody go right at home, immediately created tons of risk around how you’re going to support traditional security. That was out there and remote workers and remote security, it changed the dynamic tremendously.”
While that dynamic had been changing for a while, it was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. On this episode of IT Visionaries, we sat down with Bob Venero, President and CEO of Future Tech Enterprises, a global solutions provider that works closely with the Fortune 500. Bob explains why companies that have shifted to a philosophy of bringing your own devices, are opening themselves up to a bevy of productivity and security challenges. He also dives into the level of security challenges the pandemic has caused and how his company is aiding those enterprises through this big pivot.
Main Takeaways:
- No. 1 in our Hearts: The rise of software as a service is evident with many companies moving to a public cloud infrastructure, but companies still must focus on hardware components as well. Hybrid infrastructure models, where companies have a mix of public cloud and on-premise are the only way to ensure a company can avoid drops in productivity in case an internet failure occurs.
- Is this BYOD?: With more employees working from home, companies have started to deploy a bring-your-own-device approach — a service where employees are provided with stipends and allowed to pick out their own device. The problem with this approach is it opens the company up to a lot of productivity flaws, including employees buying models based on price and if it can actually perform the duties of the job.
- It’s a Skill Issue: While many developers have focused heavily on producing software components, a ripple effect is that it has created a big gap in terms of personnel that can actually develop hardware products and service those products.
For a more in-depth look at this episode, check out the article below.
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The pandemic changed a lot of things for employees. Old workout rooms became offices. Daily commutes morphed into strolls around the neighborhood. But perhaps one of the biggest effects of the work-from-home shift was how vulnerable an enterprise’s network became.
“The level that this pandemic made everybody go right at home, immediately created tons of risk around how you’re going to support traditional security. That was out there and remote workers and remote security, it changed the dynamic tremendously.”
While that dynamic had been changing for a while, it was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. On this episode of IT Visionaries, we sat down with Bob Venero, President and CEO of Future Tech Enterprises, a global solutions provider that works closely with the Fortune 500. Bob explains why companies that have shifted to a philosophy of bringing your own devices, are opening themselves up to a bevy of productivity and security challenges. He also dives into the level of security challenges the pandemic has caused and how his company is aiding those enterprises through this big pivot.
Started in the basement of Venero’s home, Future Tech Enterprise has risen to one of the leading IT service and solutions providers for the education, aerospace, healthcare, defense, and manufacturing industries.
“We cut our teeth on a proprietary emulation board that helped customers in connecting their IBM systems into other types of systems,” Venero said. “That’s how the start was and it was really a hardware focused organization at the very beginning.”
But while the company started as a hardware-focused entity, much like every other company in the technology space, it has shifted its focus to lean more heavily on supporting software-based products.
“What we’ve seen over the years is a shift in the way that organizations are looking at utilizing infrastructure, technology and cloud,” Venero said. “I will tell you that we do a tremendous amount of hardware, but whether you’re buying from Google or Amazon, you’re seeing that shift there, but with that shift comes risk.”
That risk is one of Venero’s worst-case scenarios, that companies invest so heavily in their cloud infrastructure that they completely neglect to have any form of hardware on site.
“If a business is solely run in the cloud, and something happens to that connectivity, then the organization basically stops and shuts down,” Venero said.
Which leads to a bigger question; if companies are shifting most of their technology spend to software-based products, what is happening to many of the skilled workers that developed hardware-based products?
“A lot of folks are now driven away from that skillset because they believe [software is more valuable],” Venero said. “This ties to ITSM and all of those tools that are out there, hardware is still one of the key factors.”
According to Venero, hardware will alway be a key component, but one of the reasons that he believes hardware systems are being devalued is the rise in companies deploying a bring-your-own-device strategy — a form of technology onboarding where employees are either given a stipend to purchase a computer, or use an existing device.
“Because you have the folks that are so cost conscious that PCs are so expensive, they don’t take a look at the bigger piece of it —which is the productivity curve that’s lost based on going to a BYOD device,” he said. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen. People look at the wrong dollar amount, they look at the cost of that unit. But they’re not looking at all of the risks associated with bringing your own device.”
Venero expanded on that risk, citing PCs that are not only not designed to meet the needs of the corporate lifestyle, but also the cybersecurity risks as well. To hear more about Venero’s concerns about BYOD companies, the future of the employee hiring experience and more, check out the full episode of IT Visionaries!
To hear the entire discussion, tune into IT Visionaries here.
