Solution Provider Gives IT Pros a Six-Point “Workplace of
Tomorrow” Readiness Checklist
Farmington Hills, MI, June 19,
2012 – IT professionals know they have to plan today to be
ready for the technological demands that will come their way
tomorrow. Infrastructure changes and adaptations don’t just
happen overnight. As a result, there has been significant
buzz in the industry lately about what the “workplace of tomorrow”
will look like from an IT perspective. According to
Logicalis, an international IT solutions and managed services
provider (http://www.us.logicalis.com/),
tomorrow’s workplace will allow people to collaborate seamlessly
throughout their organization, their industry and the world.
The question for CIOs today is determining whether their IT
infrastructure is ready to meet the challenge.
“When we talk about BYOD and borderless
networks, we’re not talking about wish-list items anymore.
Anytime, anywhere communication has become a technological reality,
and the demand for these services from IT is growing daily,” says
Mark Kelly, vice president of Communication & Collaboration
Solutions, Logicalis. “CIOs have to take a hard look at the
IT systems they have in place today and determine how to best build
upon that infrastructure to be ready to be a part of tomorrow’s
workplace.”
Some of the most important questions CIOs are
asking themselves today include:
- Do we have a current and
future-proof switching environment in place?
- Do we have best-practice QOS
processes and procedures in place?
- Do we have robust security
and security policies in place?
- How effectively do we manage
our network today and will it meet our needs tomorrow?
- What applications will we
need to add to our network?
- What emerging technologies and
challenges do we need to plan for?
To help IT pros answer these questions and
define where they are along the borderless network continuum,
Logicalis has identified six of the most vital success factors when
preparing today for tomorrow’s business needs.
Six-Point “Workplace of Tomorrow”
Readiness Checklist
1. Quality of
Service: CIOs need to ask themselves if they are ready to
deliver the kind of quality of service that their users already
expect. Tomorrow’s workforce demands anytime, anyplace
connectivity with uninterrupted access to networks, applications
and data. The new standard is 100 percent reliability. IT
pros who aren’t sure their infrastructure can meet that expectation
are finding it’s critical to bring in partners now that can provide
the necessary products, solutions and services to help them get
ready.
2. Security:
Tomorrow’s workplace will open the gates to an array of new
security challenges. Outsiders will bring wireless devices into the
company’s network and inside users will take the network outside of
the company’s domain. It’s important for IT pros to choose
technology partners that can deliver the tools and expertise they
need to secure their network equally well from the inside out and
the outside in.
3. Speed:
Business networks need to handle ever higher resolutions, volumes
and user expectations - and the demand will only grow for these
capabilities. Only through careful planning will IT pros be
confident that their network is highly capable, reliable and faster
than most.
4. Wireless
Access: Work is no longer a place, it’s an activity.
Wherever businesspeople go, they expect their workplace to go with
them. Fast, reliable wireless access isn’t a bonus, it’s a
commercial necessity. And it’s becoming IT’s job to make sure the
company’s businesspeople are constantly connected – with or without
wires.
5.
Multi-Device: Tomorrow’s workforce will continue to
communicate and collaborate with an ever-changing array of devices.
Companies can’t know every device people will choose to use in the
workplace, yet the ability to allow people to “bring your own
device” is a must. As a result, it is the responsibility of
the IT department to ensure the infrastructure is ready to support
them when, where and how they want to work.
6.
Consistent Experience Worldwide: People expect to
have consistent tools, technologies and standards of service.
For IT, that means building and supporting a unified global
infrastructure so the company’s users can communicate in a variety
of ways on a myriad of devices wherever they are in the world.
- To learn more, visit
Logicalis’ Tomorrow’s Workplace micro site here.
- Logicalis is a Cisco Gold
certified partner; to find out more about Logicalis’ relationship
with Cisco, click
here.
About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international IT solutions and
managed services provider with a breadth of knowledge and expertise
in communications and collaboration; data center and cloud
services; and managed services.
Logicalis employs almost 3,000 people
worldwide, including highly trained service specialists who design,
specify, deploy and manage complex ICT infrastructures to meet the
needs of over 6,000 corporate and public sector customers. To
achieve this, Logicalis maintains strong partnerships with
technology leaders such as Cisco, HP, IBM, CA Technologies, NetApp,
VMware and ServiceNow.
The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of
over $1.2 billion, from operations in the UK, US, Germany, South
America and Asia Pacific, and is fast establishing itself as one of
the leading IT and Communications solution integrators,
specializing in the areas of advanced technologies and
services.
The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec
Limited, listed on the Johannesburg and London AIM Stock Exchanges,
with revenues of over $5 billion.
For more information, visit http://www.us.logicalis.com/.