What does the future hybrid workplace need from its network to deliver optimal employee experiences?

Secure your hybrid workforce

Protect people and systems everywhere with always-on, embedded security. Take this opportunity to deliver strong and consistent enterprise security to your remote workforce. Go beyond VPN connectivity and extend security policies to home offices using a zero-trust fabric with end-to-end segmentation.

Cybersecurity is more critical than ever. NTT research found¹ that:

To survive and thrive in the new hybrid workplace era, organizations must be able to secure applications, devices, and data–wherever they are being used. Adding application security monitoring will help protect your organization and your users from attacks and vulnerabilities. A larger hybrid workforce means a bigger potential attack surface and greater security risks. As a result, organizations need to move away from traditional, perimeter-based security models to a
zero-trust model and deploy new networking solutions at campus and branch locations.

_{1 Embracing the Hybrid Workplace, Cisco, May 2021}

Zero-trust networking

Zero-trust networking uses a security model based on a philosophy of “never trust, always verify.” While traditional network security approaches verified the user identity once, zero-trust networking continuously authenticates and monitors each network access attempt:

Establishes an initial level of trust every time a device or end point accesses the network
Enforces trust-based access by providing the minimum level of
access needed
Monitors end points to verify trust for as long as they are connected
to the network

The shift from primarily in-office work and data access to remote workers and cloud-based access has changed the threat landscape. Security threats and breaches are more numerous and more advanced. Securing the organization’s perimeter is no longer enough, as shown in Figure 1. Organizations’ security policies must encompass all users and resources, wherever they are located.

Customers can realize many benefits with zero-trust networking:

Combine IT and OT network devices into a single network, with segmentation, saving costs
Support remote work environments by enforcing user policies no matter the user’s location
Automate policies and security
Use security policies to meet business needs, evolving policies as business needs change

Figure 1 The expanding IT landscape requires a new security approach

Click image to enlarge

Digitize the workplace to improve the overall experience

Support the physical and mental wellbeing of employees continuing to work from or returning to the office. As hybrid and remote working models become increasingly prevalent, technology is seen as the most important enabler of workplace strategies, followed by the quality of employee collaboration, employee well-being, and the employee experience.

Research findings indicate that organizations which have digitized their workplaces effectively have been able to improve teamwork, agility, and the ability to deliver a connected experience, regardless of where employees are working. According to the 2021 NTT Global Workplace Report:

Every laptop, phone, camera, and IoT device that connects to your network provides data and insights that can help you achieve better outcomes by making your business safer, your building smarter, and your wireless connectivity more seamless. For example, using existing Wi-Fi infrastructure, you can monitor and implement reduced social density. You can also collect and use network data to bring in new or enhanced guidelines for distancing.

Check out:

NTT Managed Collaboration Services: NTT and Cisco deliver tailored end-to-end consulting, deployment, and managed services to empower businesses and enable flexible and future-proofed hybrid workplaces.

Optimize connectivity

Ensure fast and seamless access to campus, branch, and multicloud applications from anywhere.

Organizations need to deliver the same great user experience to everyone, no matter where they are working. Eliminating imbalances of user and application experience helps ensure strong levels of inclusivity and productivity.

Connections need to be fast and reliable for both onsite and remote access. Security should create as little friction as possible.

One of the key components in establishing a hybrid workplace is a software-defined WAN (SD-WAN). SD-WAN greatly improves overall network performance for enterprise users while reducing costs and lowering IT support time for managing the environment. Operations are flexible and scalable, business applications perform reliably, and worker productivity increases. Remote workers benefit from guaranteed bandwidth, visibility, and manageability.
Encompass the entire location with Managed Campus Networks, providing the best possible digital experience for employees, customers, and devices connecting to the campus network — seamlessly integrated and aligned to the organization. Agile, adaptive networks include automation, AIOps, and predictive analytics to deliver agility, performance, efficiency, and security.

Remote users working across networks need to connect in seconds without cumbersome, multi-level sign-on procedures. The SD-WAN should include advanced licensing, firewalls, and URL filtering for enhanced security. Adding software tools will extend visibility beyond network boundaries, giving granular views into applications across the Internet, cloud, and SaaS to proactively identify items that could affect the users’ digital experience.

Check out:

NTT Managed SD WAN Services: NTT's Managed Network Service for Cisco® SD-WAN is designed to realize the benefits of your multicloud strategy. Management operations are simplified, carrier cost is optimized, and business agility is achieved through consistent service levels and application availability.

NTT Managed Campus Network: NTT’s Managed Campus Network Services accelerate technology and operations transformation through automation, AIOps-enabled platforms, and analytics. Together with Cisco, NTT delivers the best digital experience for employees, customers and devices connecting to your campus network.

Transform your operations with observability

Eliminate the guesswork when it comes to ensuring exceptional digital experiences. The tradition of individually monitoring the performance of applications, infrastructure, and networks is not enough. Modern architectures demand that monitoring evolves into a process that offers actionable insights into digital business applications and experiences—known as observability. The more you see, the better insights you draw.

True observability needs to look beyond a single layer, which provides only a siloed view. It needs to understand the interaction and interdependencies between multiple systems in distributed system architectures. It needs to help bring teams and business context together to identify the root causes of performance issues, prioritize fixes based on potential business impact, and take action more quickly.

Advanced tools allow you to:

Bridge the gaps created by traditional, siloed network monitoring tools
Provide a proactive and comprehensive view of the application experience
Maintain visibility across the complete digital supply chain
Monitor activity proactively from your users to any application in any cloud across any network, ISP, API, or third-party service that is critical to business continuity

Check out:

NTT Modern Observability Services: NTT brings a solution that provides greater visibility, proactive performance management, and automated issue identification to resolve network and application issues in a timely and secure manner through their partnership with Cisco companies AppDynamics and ThousandEyes.

Create smarter hybrid workplaces

Smart hybrid workplaces can help organizations address the challenges and create meaningful user experiences. The network takes isolated systems like HVAC, lighting, alarms, and security and assembles them into the
building’s brain. That brain relies on data, so it’s important to facilitate onboarding of IoT sensors that tell the building what’s happening.

Smart buildings can change how we work.

Check out:

Smart buildings are more than a layer of technology added to other utilities. Smart buildings provide a transformative approach to building management, worker safety, security, and the overall workplace experience. Learn more.

ASHRAE case study

When ASHRAE (the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and
Air-Conditioning Engineers) began searching for new headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia (USA), they wanted to showcase the latest developments in building technology. They chose to refurbish an existing structure and set goals to make the facility carbon neutral, provide an enhanced employee and visitor experience, and reduce overall operating costs.

ASHRAE worked with Cisco and NTT to implement intelligent building management systems to optimize core functions and create a smart workplace. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic introduced a greater focus on health and safety within the facility.

The new headquarters building provides a smart platform for ASHRAE to respond to changing needs of the organization now and in the future. The building management system provides visibility into the workplace environment and the physical performance of the building. Benefits include the following:

Optimized employee and visitor experiences
Connected workplace
Next-generation meeting spaces
Health and safety monitoring
Sustainability

Learn more.