The move to hybrid work is on. And to support and accelerate it, IT executives are counting on Desktop as a Service (DaaS). According to the results of a Pulse survey conducted by Citrix Systems, nearly 75 percent of 300 IT and security leaders across North America, EMEA, and APAC say DaaS is a key enabler of secure work within their organization, and more than 50 percent have or plan to implement it in the year ahead.
“Three years ago, IT organizations around the world were forced to enable remote work with unprecedented scale and speed, and they invested heavily in VPN and other basic remote access tools to do it, said Tim Minahan, Executive Vice President of Business Strategy, Citrix. “It got them through, but many are beginning to realize there is a better way forward and are building a more modern approach to support the flexible models that will drive the future of work using DaaS as the foundation.”
Enabling the Future of Work
Hybrid work models are fast taking hold and have set the stage for an era of greater innovation and business growth. But they have also created a host of new challenges for IT to manage, as employees are working at home, in the office, on the road and any number of locations in between, in some cases, using their own devices and connecting through public networks.
Regardless of where or how they work, employees want simple, secure and reliable access to the systems and information they need to do their jobs. While traditional, VPN-based environments can be used to deliver it, they can be difficult to scale. With DaaS, IT organizations of any size can quickly and easily deploy secure remote desktops and scale them up or down to provide all employees – not just FTEs, but contingent workers, seasonal workers, temp labor, freelancers, designers and even partners – with safe and managed access to the applications and information they need to work from anywhere without putting their corporate resources at risk.
Recognizing this, more than half of the respondents to the Citrix-Pulse survey (58.66 percent) say they have or will implement DaaS solutions over the next 18 months. And the vast majority (81.33 percent) plan to increase their investments in the year ahead.
When asked to rank the top three benefits they expect to reap in making the moves, those polled cited:
- Increased security (41 percent)
- Cost savings (39.67 percent)
- Increased IT efficiency (13.33 percent)
“Work has fundamentally changed, and as the results of our Pulse survey reveal, IT is changing with it,” Minahan said. “In embracing DaaS, IT organizations are charting a new course that will allow them to meet the needs of a distributed work force without compromising security and deliver on the promise of hybrid work.”