Daily Management Of A Borderless Enterprise
Published on 07 July 15
John
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The borderless enterprise is becoming an increasingly greater fact of life for 21st century businesses. Once upon a time a company's IT resources were all located in-house in one centralized place and easily maintained and monitored, ready to be accessed by the employees who all worked in the building. Now the users have left the building and scattered across the state, country, even the world, and the resources have followed them out the door.
It's a world where everyone has access to the cloud, Software-as-a-Service (Saas), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and the ability to use their personal mobile device at work, a practice called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). It offers unparalleled flexibility and opportunities for people in far-flung places to come together and collaborate with minimal fuss, and has elevated telecommuting and teamwork to a whole new level.
Unfortunately, it's also a pain in the neck to manage, as we're about to see.
It's a world where everyone has access to the cloud, Software-as-a-Service (Saas), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and the ability to use their personal mobile device at work, a practice called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). It offers unparalleled flexibility and opportunities for people in far-flung places to come together and collaborate with minimal fuss, and has elevated telecommuting and teamwork to a whole new level.
Unfortunately, it's also a pain in the neck to manage, as we're about to see.
Bring Your Own Device
In our fast-growing mobile world, it was inevitable that eventually people would ask if they could use their own personal devices in order to do their jobs. On the surface, yes, it's a good idea. That makes one less thing that companies have to buy for their employees, and it's a device that the latter is already and comfortable and familiar with. Besides, since most people keep their mobile devices close by, they could be prevailed upon to do some work-related stuff even after hours.
Unfortunately, it can be difficult for an IT department to keep track of all these different and non-regulation devices. How much bandwidth are these devices taking? How many resources are they gobbling up? Are they all following the same security protocols?
BYOD: A good idea, but hard to oversee.
Unfortunately, it can be difficult for an IT department to keep track of all these different and non-regulation devices. How much bandwidth are these devices taking? How many resources are they gobbling up? Are they all following the same security protocols?
BYOD: A good idea, but hard to oversee.
Cloud Services
Infrastructure and Software as services are a great concept. Rather than allocate funds to purchase, support, and maintain equipment and applications, a third party handles it on a monthly subscription basis. Like BYOD, this is a good idea, except for the fact that the third-party providers may have different ideas about SLA and best-effort availability than the IT department of the business in question.
In-house issues with programs or hardware are resolved quickly by the on-site IT department professionals. Once those resources are offsite and anin outsider's hands, everything changes.
In-house issues with programs or hardware are resolved quickly by the on-site IT department professionals. Once those resources are offsite and anin outsider's hands, everything changes.
Increased Mobile Usage
With more people using all of those mobile devices and accessing Wi-Fi networks, cloud storage, and other data center resources, it becomes more difficult to get a solid handle on who is using these resources and what they're doing with them. In a borderless enterprise environment, IT staff can find it more difficult to control and monitor this increased traffic.
How Can IT Departments Respond?
It's an accepted axiom that "Knowledge is power", and in order to collect knowledge, one must have the right means. Any effort on an IT department's part to get a better grasp of computing in a borderless enterprise environment starts with somehow gathering that information.
That's why the first step for any such undertaking is having IT get their hands on some good network monitoring tools. Such an application allows the IT department to monitor the performance and availability of things like cloud, SaaS, and in-house applications.
It's a daunting task, trying to keep track of multiple users scattered all over the map. A reliable network monitoring tool is a huge help in regaining some of that control, while still letting the business enjoy the benefits of a borderless enterprise setup.
Read "More than just an IT shift, cloud fuels the new engine of business innovation, says Oxford Economics survey" for more insights into IT and the cloud.
That's why the first step for any such undertaking is having IT get their hands on some good network monitoring tools. Such an application allows the IT department to monitor the performance and availability of things like cloud, SaaS, and in-house applications.
It's a daunting task, trying to keep track of multiple users scattered all over the map. A reliable network monitoring tool is a huge help in regaining some of that control, while still letting the business enjoy the benefits of a borderless enterprise setup.
Read "More than just an IT shift, cloud fuels the new engine of business innovation, says Oxford Economics survey" for more insights into IT and the cloud.
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