As we move into 2022, enterprises must keep evaluating their IT infrastructure. Read the article on Toolbox.

The past two years have taught us that organizations that strategize to future-proof their organizations thrive, while those that stick to traditional technologies and processes will become obsolete. Amitabh Sinha, CEO at Workspot, talks about how enterprises need to be flexible and look at new ways to securely support remote work and agility.

Despite tremendous transformation over the past few years, there is still quite some ground to cover when it comes to the enterprise IT landscape. As we move into 2022, enterprises must keep evaluating their IT infrastructure, particularly as it remains clear that remote work and hybrid work environments are here to stay.

PC Is Moving to the Cloud

As we look ahead into the upcoming years, many enterprise organizations will begin to assess the benefits of adopting Cloud PCs and SaaS solutions to replace on-premises, physical hardware and costly VDI solutions. Cloud PCs can provide improved security, agility, and support for a hybrid workforce. This technology is poised to enhance how IT teams deliver equipment to end-users and access to corporate apps and data regardless of where employees/partners are located.

As we continue to see increased adoption of the hybrid work model, companies of all sizes will need to invest in solutions to navigate the added challenges from an increasingly remote workforce. Specifically, SMBs will likely choose a cloud PC solution based on simplicity and cost. They may not need much customizability, so they may be adequately served with standard Windows server, Windows 10, or Windows 11 configurations, a more limited choice of MFA, and default or included security tools.

Larger enterprises will likely require solutions that enable more flexibility and better integration with their current tech stack – such as identity and access controls, ITSM, and SIEM tools. Cloud PC vendors who can offer a SaaS platform with desktop service level agreement, which ensures customers get the availability and uptime they need for productivity, will hold significant advantages over those who don’t. Cloud PCs are precious tools for businesses looking to support a remote workforce, improve business agility, and increase efficiency across their tech stacks.

Adopting a Multi-cloud Strategy

The benefits and value of the cloud have touched nearly every organization regardless of their size. Gartner predicts that cloud spending will exceed 45% of all enterprise IT spending by 2026. Evaluating cloud strategies is an ongoing task, from top leadership to the IT teams activating those plans.

If anything, the increased cloud adoption we’ve seen in recent years has shown us that all clouds are not created equal. For example, some cloud providers have optimized networks that allow rapid global scalability or hourly usage models. Others offer better price-performance for GPU-accelerated workloads like CAD/CAM or engineering applications.

SaaS platforms that run on cloud infrastructure will also expand their support to span multiple clouds as an abstraction layer. Examples include Google Anthos and Workspot, where a single user interface can simplify deployment and management of resources across multiple clouds. This capability reduces the learning curve for administrators while expanding access to the optimal cloud for a given workload.

Digital transformation – and more specifically, the transition to the cloud and multi-cloud approaches – creates a more complex IT environment that has spurred interest in new IT personas, requiring new skill sets and new IT roles to manage and operate cloud operations at scale. In this context, during the past year, we’ve seen an uptick in organizations’ use of specialized cloud personnel – cloud architects (54% in 2021 compared to 37% in 2020); DevOps engineers (53% in 2021, up from 40% in 2020); and cloud security architects (42% in 2021 versus 30% in 2020).

Beyond the Cloud

While digital transformation has been on most IT organizations’ minds for years, the need to support hybrid work introduces an extraordinary tailwind. Organizations have realized they need to listen to their employees and provide them with the flexibility they require and the tools that make them productive or risk losing them. Their strategies include advancing cloud adoption and rebuilding their tech stack, transitioning from the early, unsustainable solutions forced by the pandemic to a more long-term strategy. The goal? To provide a highly-scalable system that enables fast and secure access, no matter where employees or contractors are based.