Four Keys to Delivering Hybrid and Remote Workforce Capabilities

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Today’s work-from-anywhere paradigm brings key challenges that organizations must address through IT transformation. Employees in a hybrid workforce need consistent performance with the ability to effectively multitask from anywhere in the world, connected through various networks. This means devices need adequate processing power for faster application performance, even when running complex workloads like video calls.

Additionally, mobile employees need device stability with consistent connectivity, including wireless connections for collaborative projects with security beyond the network firewall. Technology needs to work in an integrated way, including security assurances and expandability options with various devices. Further, IT teams are faced with managing all those devices remotely—from updates to patches and troubleshooting.

In meeting these challenges, organizational digital maturity and IT readiness determine technological capabilities, performance, and ultimately, productivity. Digital maturity marks how prepared an organization is to understand and flexibly adapt to dynamic customer and employee technology needs and demands because of marketplace shifts.

Organizational IT Readiness

Elements of IT readiness include an honest assessment of existing architecture and systems capabilities for things like device portability, data management, and compute power. It means employee software is fully enabled for collaboration, appropriate access, and security. And the IT team has the capability to handle remote workforce management with device updates, patches, and troubleshooting. This type of readiness accelerates identifying, and proactively preventing, potential issues that can cause problems.

By not handling digital maturity gaps in infrastructure or hybrid work challenges, organizations face risks that could jeopardize bottom-line results. For example, reduced employee productivity because of limited compute or inconsistent connectivity will likely yield leaner revenues. When employees are dissatisfied or feel unsupported in their technology, talent retention becomes a challenge. And when security is inadequate, the result is an exposed surface and greater vulnerability to a potential cyberattack.

Four Critical Success Factors for Hybrid Digital Workers

Organizations need to support work-from-anywhere employees with four key capabilities, including:

  1. Ubiquitous compute to handle complex workloads, employee multitasking, and working with any device from any location using wireless communication and networking technologies.
  2. Pervasive connectivity to ensure employee devices communicate with multiple systems wirelessly in a synchronized way for consistent access to information.
  3. Cloud technologies for edge compute, meaning data processed closer to its source to preserve data security, faster performance, and new feature deployment.
  4. Artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate and help support compute, connectivity, and cloud technologies for employees and remote IT management to automate routine tasks like daily backups, software optimizations, and permissions management for security.

IT Transformation with Intel and Microsoft

Intel and Microsoft have teamed up to deliver technology solutions that address each of these critical success factors and support IT transformation initiatives.

Employees and the IT team can get more done, more simply and more securely, with better compute power and connectivity—regardless of workspace location—by using Windows 11 Pro devices on the Intel vPro® platform powered by 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processors.

Windows 11 Pro for business is built for hybrid work, with optimized productivity enhancements and a more intuitive experience for ubiquitous compute. The Intel vPro platform delivers built-in multilayer security and remote manageability, along with several other vital capabilities, including:

  • Intel® Hardware Shield: Provides three groups of security technologies out of the box.
  • Intel® Control-Flow Enforcement Technology (Intel® CET): Helps defend against common malware that modifies an application’s normal flow so that an attacker’s malicious code is executed instead.
  • Intel® Threat Detection Technology (Intel® TDT): Provides cyberattack monitoring and increased security performance at the hardware level.
  • Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT): Provides remote access to devices for diagnostic and management functions, even if they are powered down or the operating system is nonfunctional.
  • Intel® Endpoint Management Assistant (Intel® EMA): Supports process automation and managing devices remotely beyond the firewall and into the cloud.

Additionally, Intel® Edge-Centric FPGAs and Microsoft Azure IoT ensure performant cloud technologies at the edge. Microsoft Azure IoT is an Internet of Things (IoT) solution that allows enabled devices to communicate with one or more back-end services hosted in the cloud. Intel Edge-Centric FPGAs are built for small form factors, low power, and cost-sensitive deployments at the edge and beyond. This is a powerful combination for secure edge-to-cloud computing.

Meet Intel’s Latest Platform—12th Gen Intel Core Processors

Intel’s newest 12th Gen Intel Core processor features a new hybrid architecture that dynamically adjusts how it processes workloads based on usage. In other words, it works smarter vs. harder, yielding faster performance, accelerated AI with hardware enhancements, and exceptional visual graphics density for video on laptops, mobile, and PC devices.

The 12th Gen Intel® Core™ vPro® platform also supports Wi-Fi 6E with the Intel® Connectivity Performance Suite (Intel® CPS), which continuously optimizes Wi-Fi performance for remote worker collaboration. Intel CPS is leading-edge technology that is part of the Intel vPro and Intel® Evo™ platforms. Essentially, Intel CPS prioritizes voice and video packets and picks the best wireless access point for better performance.

Altogether, the 12th Gen Intel Core processor in combination with Intel vPro works as a stable, comprehensive platform that delivers fast performance, visual quality, built-in security, and remote management for today’s hybrid workforce.

The reality today is that digital employee performance depends on built-in security, accelerated compute capabilities, and automated data processing to be able to work from anywhere. The hallmark of success for today’s wherever workspace means employees use the technology that optimizes their productivity from any location, no matter the workload requirement. A future-forward, edge-to-cloud-enabled IT infrastructure, streamlined for efficient operations, leads to a digitally ready organization for increased employee satisfaction and staff retention, as well as positive bottom-line organizational benefits.

Be sure to check out all of Connection’s Intel-powered technologies, so you can be assured of the right solution for your business needs.

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