Minda Zetlin interviews Ari Bose, Chief Information Officer of Brocade, about how CIOs must prepare for the office of the future.
How will the office of the future be different from what we're used to today?
Most offices will be virtual, consisting of on-site collaboration and remote work environments. The most commonly used devices will be tablets and smartphones. Nothing tethered, not even desk phones--only smart phones and wireless devices.
Personalization will be the norm. For instance, tablets will have personalized portals, where employees can see and collaborate on items that are relevant to them, including alerts, work items, tasks to be completed, social media, collaborative meetings etc. All this will be presented in the form of portal dashboards and video will be pervasive both for internal and external communications.
Hoteling [in which employees work in unassigned spaces that can change from day to day] will be used in the majority of work place environments. The proliferation of the Internet, BYOD, and the globalization of business have changed the way people live, work, and communicate, and BYOD will be even more mainstream than it is now. Today, success is not about having more offices or more people. It is about making the right people available at the right time and in the right way.
What will be the biggest challenges facing IT?
Mobile devices come in all shapes and sizes, from smartphones, notebooks and tablets, to the new-breed convertibles and detachables. While mobility boosts enterprise employee efficiency by delivering anywhere-access to business data and systems, it poses security risks to the network. Many security managers have already discovered the disconcerting implications: less control than ever over enterprise data access from myriad consumer devices including a groundswell of mobile devices and more difficulty determining which devices are accessing which systems and what data. So as use of personal mobile devices grows and becomes pervasive inside and outside the office, employers are struggling to enable the necessary security.
What must IT leaders do to adapt to this new reality?
IT will always have to manage devices; we will always have to manage users, but what we manage about them can be more focused. Supporting this future environment will mean specific skills will need to be developed. BYOD will bring challenges from a security perspective as well as the need to manage intellectual property. Traditional standard managed desktop and laptop support will need to be transitioned to supporting only corporate applications, not devices.
IT will need to protect data privacy and secure communications seamlessly in this wide-open collaborative environment without impacting employee productivity. An organization can address many BYOD privacy and compliance concerns by focusing on business assets. It is now possible, and preferable, for IT to secure mail, apps, content and users browser experience by applying different policies to different user groups. The MDM market is flooded with vendors offering integrated and stand-alone tools to manage sandboxed enterprise applications, corporate data containers and secure Web browser environments. If you are only managing apps and content, there is no way you can make a mistake and see or wipe personal data. This approach generally allows a company to extend BYOD to a much larger audience.
Support for increased pervasive video usage will mean creating or augmenting end user services teams with video support skills. Network engineers will need to enforce traffic prioritization to ensure video traffic does not impact mission critical transaction processing. IT will need to ensure wired and wireless infrastructure become seamless, so meetings started on-premises can easily transition from corporate networks to public data networks as employees complete the meeting on the road or from home.
What will IT departments struggle with in the future?
A struggle in the near future could be transitioning support to tablets, smartphones, and wearable devices. Support will transition to services from hardware support. Since there will be few desktops, VDI [virtual desktop infrastructure] will need to be adopted and supported.
Anti-malware and virus support for heterogeneous devices will become challenging as well, as will securing corporate data and separating it from personal data. Communication costs will need to be managed as the number of remote employees continues to grow and as a result, IT will need to support a robust communications infrastructure with greater wireless dependence.
What advice would you give today's IT leaders who want to prepare for the office of the future?
I would suggest that they start exploring and investing in preparing for the office of the future. Invest in VDI to support BYOD which will enable the transition of corporate laptops and desktop support to tablets and smart phones. Investigate and invest in wireless infrastructure to enable remote workers. Start exploring security software to protect the enterprise from malware originating from BYOD devices. I would also recommend that they automate and prepare for remote support, which implies investing in automated software distribution, remote software administration and troubleshooting. Invest in Web-based collaboration technologies and prepare networks for traffic prioritization as video adoption grows.
As video becomes pervasive, know the end-user. This is as much about culture and user preference as it is about technology. A solid understanding of the user's communication habits, frequently used business tools, and preferred devices is key to deploying a positive video experience. Pervasive video is flexible enough to empower a wide range of valuable applications. This flexibility can also generate confusion. Organizations should consider the best ways to leverage pervasive video and focus on those specific applications. The best way to make video pervasive is to provide a user experience strong enough to empower new applications. Support staff should pay careful attention to the quality of the user experience for users around the world.
Strengthen the network. Mobile devices require a consistent and reliable user experience, which depends on a well performing network. And plan to scale. In order to be pervasive, video must be available throughout the organization and beyond. If users cannot reach those they seek over video, they will look for other means. Once pervasive video has been deployed, internal champions should be identified who will not only embrace video, but whose very use of video will motivate others to do the same.
Ari Bose is the Chief Information Officer of Brocade. He is responsible for the strategic transformation of the global Brocade IT organization. With more than 30 years of experience in the high-tech industry, Bose has held a number of CIO positions at networking and other high-tech companies. Most recently at Polycom, he served as senior vice president and CIO, where he led the transformation of the global IT organization. He was also responsible for overseeing the company's internal global visual communications network. Prior to that, Bose was senior vice president and CIO at UTStarcom, and he has held senior IT positions at companies such as 3Com, Bay Networks and Apple.
