As Asia’s businesses struggle with series of social,political and natural disturbances, how to manage and maintain operations whenstaff are forced to work and be productive as a result of their inability tomake it to the office is becoming an increasing, and all too regular, concern.
The challenge for Asia is that despite, once againbecoming the centre of the global economy, it is still prone to instability anddisruption, both natural and man-made. Theconvergence of some of the most dynamic and concentrated economies in theworld, is now regularly offset by the fact we reside in one of the mostnaturally turbulent and unpredictable regions in the world.
Volatility – a new norm
So, for many companies in Asia, business resilience andcontinuity, once an afterthought, is now a priority.
The recent disturbances in Hong Kong, bushfires inAustralia, and the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak across Asia and beyond, haveleft many businesses struggling to cope with employees who are physically unableto make it to the office yet still required to be “present” and productive forthe business by their employers.
Technologysteps up in time of need:
As millions ofpeople remain isolated across the region, the pivotal role of technology, andhow it helps keep the world’s economic engine running has been pushed into the spotlight.
Over the past few turbulent months, a range of software,solutions and applications have ensured that prescient Asian businesses have managedto continue operating while navigating the recent unpredictability anduncertainty.
Without a doubt cloud technology has helped. The adoptionof public, private and hybrid cloud services has meant that the access to, andavailability of, critical data has been maintained.
At the same time, the transition from hardware-based tosoftware defined infrastructure has meant that physical access to datacentresis no longer required and central operations can be handled remotely or by askeleton staff. Thus, the heart of many organisations has continued pumping.
A truly mobile workforce
VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) and DaaS (Desktop asa Service) are perfect examples of how technology is keeping Asia’s businessesrunning. VDI is a cloud-hosted desktop normally located in an on-site datacentreand operated and maintained by in-house IT personnel.
Theadvantages are it provides the ability to customise and control the on-sitehardware and environment - ideal for companies with highly sensitive data. The flexibleinfrastructure can also be easily expanded in small steps. Ideal in the face ofunforeseen, increased demand - such as we have seen with the recentunpredictable events.
But, the true benefit for the enterpriseis that it provides mobility and flexibility for personnel without compromisingbusiness security,productivity or performance. It letsstaff work from anywhere, on any device with secure and complete access to their work desktop, filesand network.
At the height of the Hong Kong unrest, the city’sfinancial giants used VDI to maximise the safety of their staff, avoiding unpredictableand hazardous commutes, allowing them to operate safely and securely at peakcapacity.
DaaS on the hand is a fully outsourced solution providing avirtual desktop. It neither relies on, nor consumes, any internal hardware. Itprovides the same flexibility, safety, security and access as VDI – but it isfully handled by a third party and hosted on their cloud.
The intelligent enterprise
VDI and DaaS have grown to embody the intelligent enterprise. Not only have they become critical for business resilience andcontinuity, they also provide benefits to digital enterprises during lessvolatile times:
efficiency: as a centralised resource they are single systemsto troubleshot and a single upgrade or patch. As they consume less bandwidth theyhelp reduce power and save energy.flexibility: users can access their workstations and companydata from anywhere on any devicesecurity: with a single server, data is more secure andeasier to protect and upgrade. They also provide the ability to restrict accessto certain users so any compromise can be swiftly isolated – ensuring networkintegrity
Finally, for VDI, recent improvements have also madeit more accessible and attractive for more organisations by reducing the time,effort, and cost of setting up the infrastructure.
It is a software based future:
Together VDI and DaaS models provide Asia’s businesses with a simple and accessible option forensuring their staff remain as productive and efficient no matter where theyare physically located. And the twomodels lookset to become central pillars of the region’scontinuity strategy as businesses seek to mitigate future risk and disruption.
However, what of those less fortunate businesses? Thosecaught with a workforce isolated from the office and unable to work. Well,there is relief at hand.
Well, as VDI and DaaS are cloud based solutions, virtual workspaces forteams, customers, or partners can usually be up and running in under an hour.Isolated staff can then have safe and secure access to any application simplyfrom their home web browser, with no software download or upgrade required. It’salmost as simple as point and click.
For Asia’s intelligent businesses, their prudentapproach in a volatile region is already paying dividends.
For the rest of the region’s companies, thesooner we all embrace the modern tools we require to keep our staff mobile andproductive, our business resilient to disruption, and our economies growing inturbulent times, the sooner we will cement the region’s pivotal role. It’s upto all of us to ensure Asia continues to lead the global economy for the nextcentury.