By Graham Bushkes, Country Manager for Canada, Fortinet
There is a growing sense of optimism across Canada now that the initial shock of transitioning to a remote workforce is over. And now, as conversations begin to shift to bringing the economy back online, discussions are taking place inside organizations as businesses consider what new normal operations will look like once sequestering is over.
Now that IT teams have room to breathe, they can also take time to process the lessons learned over the past several weeks, and what role those lessons will play in shaping a new long-term business strategy. More than anything, organizations coming out of COVID-19 absolutely need a secure, distributed infrastructure that will help them resume – or even accelerate – their digital transformation. But they must also ensure they are well positioned to support their current high levels of remote work for the foreseeable future, as well as maintain the ability to quickly adapt in the event of another crisis or disruption to business continuity.
A secure SD-WAN solution can provide assurances in all these areas, and more.
Optimize your remote workforce
Migrating to SD-WAN is increasingly seen as the ideal solution for safely and efficiently connecting branch offices. It can instantly address the many challenges that come with supporting remote workers – especially power users, including remote IT technical support or executives who need secure access to a wide range of networked resources, such as corporate finance, customer information, and other sensitive data. A Secure SD-WAN solution can also supports multiple WAN connections, including MPLS, broadband, and LTE, making it easier for IT teams to load-balance remote workforce traffic and ensure redundancy in case of WAN link degradation or failure.
Keep people productive
Demand for critical voice, video, and screen sharing applications was already growing before COVID-19. And now, the sudden and massive shift to remote work across industries has intensified that pressure even further. IT teams can leverage SD-WAN solutions to monitor critical applications such as these in real-time, guaranteeing and maintaining necessary performance to support business-critical functions. This enables administrators to quickly define business policies with precise service level agreements and avoid network latency or packet loss that can degrade the quality of connections. The SD-WAN solution can then automatically choose the best possible WAN link, and provide employees with a seamless user experience.
Secure cloud adoption
As companies resume their digital transformation, the cloud will continue to occupy centre stage. That includes a range of cloud-hosted applications that may not offer optimal levels of security on their own. Secure SD-WAN solutions designed for the cloud can automatically boost the security footing of any organization while also ensuring applications are always steered to the best performing WAN link – ensuring uptime, availability, and cutting-edge security features.
As IT teams look to the future, those who have not explored SD-WAN should begin to seriously consider how the right solution can help them withstand future system shocks while laying a groundwork for efficiency and productivity.
Learn how Fortinet Secure SD-WAN enables security driven-networking. Learn more about how to maintain business continuity through broad, integrated, and automated Fortinet Teleworker Solutions.
