Navigeren door veilige externe bestandstoegang tijdens COVID

Een waargebeurd verhaal Navigeren door veilige externe bestandstoegang tijdens COVID..

Laat in de middag van 11 maart^e van dit jaar was ik bezig met de 6^e verdieping van een hoge kantoortoren in Los Angeles. Die dag werd het personeel naar de grote vergaderruimte geroepen voor een ongeplande geïmproviseerde vergadering. Eerder die dag had de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie verklaard dat het coronavirus dat zich snel over de wereld verspreidde inderdaad een pandemie was. De dag ervoor hadden we via e-mail te horen gekregen dat we allemaal voorbereid moesten zijn om op afstand te kunnen werken als de veiligheid dit noodzakelijk maakte. Op dat moment hadden we ongeveer 450 mensen in dienst, verspreid over ongeveer 30 kantoren in het hele land, waaronder een groot hoofdkantoor in DC. Het personeel in Los Angeles telde ongeveer 40 mensen en we namen de hele 6 in beslag^e vloer.

We liepen naar de vergaderruimte, namen plaats en de Operations Manager vertelde ons waar we de afgelopen dagen zo bang voor waren geweest. Tot nader order zouden we onze laptops en opladers mee naar huis nemen en onmiddellijk beginnen voor onbepaalde tijd van afstandswerk. We zouden de volgende ochtend onze e-mail controleren over hoe verder te gaan en de volgende stappen. Omdat we al bedreven waren in zoomvergaderingen en telefonische vergaderingen vanwege onze verschillende locaties verspreid over verschillende tijdzones, afstandswerk leek in eerste instantie niet zo ontmoedigend, eigenlijk helemaal niet.

No commuting, no parking, no spending extra money on lunch, and not having to get dressed up each day seemed very appealing. I saw how stressed out our IT staff looked and knew it was not going to be an easy task to get everyone connected easily and securely. The senior management staff (including the Executive team based in DC) were used to having remote access set up for them before leaving the office. With Covid, given the sensitivity of certain meetings and communications, secure remote access had to be instant, perfect, and seamless. Across the country these fire drills were taking place at many organizations big and small. Several tech giants led the way by declaring early on that their workforce could work remotely indefinitely or at least until early 2021 until further notice.

Almost overnight, anyone working in the cyber security and remote access space had to make their services easy and fast or become irrelevant. Platforms and cloud software like Box, Slack, Okta, Google Drive, Dropbox, MS One Drive, and more became the go to tools to stay connected and continue collaborating. Zoom experienced major hiccups as schools and college campuses scrambled to teach classes online. To lockdown our meetings we had a secure zoom plugin installed into our Outlook mail accounts where we could set up a meeting and invite attendees with a single sign on. A web browser became a catalog of bookmarked tools to access everything we needed to collaborate on. With Okta we had a layer of protection, but we still had to navigate between various platforms to retrieve files, work on them, try to save them and share them but not in real time. Efficiency and productivity were lost but more than that it was apparent how unproductive and inefficient our usual modes of communication and collaboration had always been once the spotlight was put on them.

Slack werd gebruikt voor snelle berichten en snelle videogesprekken en er werden verschillende groepen opgericht waartoe je behoorde, zodat managers relevante informatie konden delen over de prioriteiten waarop we ons concentreerden. Er werden andere Slack-groepen opgericht die vrijwillig meededen voor het stimuleren van het moreel en teambuilding om leuke feiten, foto's en inspiratie te delen. We vestigden ons allemaal in onze nieuwe routines en nieuwe kleerkasten, waar de bovenste helft helemaal zakelijk was en de onderste helft de hele zondagmiddag.

Most of my work was previously done over the phone, in email, or on a zoom call so my transition to remote work was straightforward regarding what apps and software I needed to stay productive. My job was focused on outreach and relationship building. Zoom fatigue is a real thing and it must be mentioned that it was quite strange at first to go from in person meetings to video meetings exclusively. With a regular in-person meeting you are focused on multiple things and can move around. In a video meeting you are looking directly at the person albeit on a screen, but it can be exhausting to make eye contact continuously and to be face to face for any length of time especially in a professional setting where you must maintain a certain demeanor and focused delivery.

Our IT staff had remote desktop management set up and could log in to troubleshoot any issue reported to the support desk. We were managing the new normal but again, what was standard operating inefficiencies around workflow, soon became glaring roadblocks of work stoppages when it came to file sharing. Remote file sharing and file access was cumbersome and there was no ability to edit in real time with someone. Box was used as a database. With most of my colleagues we could share secure links to files that other staff could access if we required them to do so or rather if they felt inclined to do so depending on their title and seniority. Working from Outlook to Box still meant having to go hunt and peck for something hoping it was put in the right place, hoping you could edit it and then save a newer version to collaborate on later while over the phone or on a video call.

The key point here is that we could only collaborate on what we had already uploaded to Box. I always wondered from a management perspective if there were some files that should not be there for security or sensitivity reasons? If you are using Box or some other file repository, who is auditing usage? Who oversees making sure the files uploaded and saved there are still relevant and pass the muster?

Wanneer jij bent op afstand werken, connectiviteit is constant nodig, en dan heb ik het niet over wifi. Een virtuele vergadering kan ogenblikkelijk een zinloze oefening worden als je niet in staat bent om je scherm te delen of toegang hebt tot e-mail of toegang hebt tot een bestand dat je op dat moment nodig hebt.

Collaboration is critical. Fast forward past March as the economy took a downturn and layoffs were imminent, many organizations needed to get back to basics quickly. Senior management from Enterprises to non-profits were and still are crunching numbers on what their core competencies are and how to best sustain viability. Efficiency is top priority while budgets get squeezed and previous fiscal year goals start to become insurmountable. To say we are in unprecedented times is a huge understatement. This is a particularly challenging time for hospital systems with a record number numbers of patients being admitted – Healthcare being only one sector in our economy. Now in November 2020, we are hearing about cyberattacks against vaccine makers and distributors and EDD benefits getting hacked.

In de Onderwijssector, College campuses are desperately trying to provide the quality standard they are famous for while locking down their systems from ransomware as students login from home. Computers can make our lives easier. For example, stay at home orders necessitate online shopping for everything from mayonnaise to laundry detergent. You can check the status of your order with a click of a button while also checking on quantity on hand and delivery date. Sharing information and collaborating on key items is what makes work fun. Otherwise you are working in a silo and when doing it remotely, it can be an isolating feeling and hard to pace yourself. But computers connected to a cloud do not necessarily make your het werk leven gemakkelijker.

Wat te doen?

Well it depends where you are sitting. If you are the decision maker then you need a bird’s eye view on everything but also be able to drill down to detail in a heartbeat. You want cross channel transparency with a Dashboard that allows you to not only keep your finger on the pulse but to be able to measure and quantify all company data as needed. You can have reports funneling information up to you, but you should be able to refer to anything anytime anywhere from any device. If you are a Director of IT or senior leadership on the information technology front, then you know your first critical priority is security. There is no quick and easy fix. Or is there? Read on.

Of u uploadt uw bestanden naar het cloudplatform van iemand anders of u bent het niet. Hoe dan ook, u moet nog steeds op afstand veilig toegang krijgen tot die bestanden. Dit is waar MyWorkDrive echt kan helpen. Ik noem het graag:

Verbinden en samenwerken zonder compromissen

Gartner beschreef vorig jaar een opkomend cyberbeveiligingsconcept als Secure Access Service Edge of SASE. They were describing the future of network security in the cloud. But how can the cloud be totally secure? After all, the cloud is just someone else’s server. Your files living on your server rack is your cloud. You can have a hybrid cloud or privé cloud maar waar wil je uiteindelijk je budget aan besteden? Bestanden migreren of werk gedaan krijgen?

Tijd en geld zijn alles als het gaat om budgettering en strategische doelen. Tijd is geld. Gedurende deze tijd in de geschiedenis is het van cruciaal belang om geen tijd te verspillen. Vooral als u rekening moet houden met eventuele overdracht van on-premises bestanden naar een cloudplatform dat u misschien kiest. Migratie naar een cloud kan kostbaar personeel en middelen wegnemen van wat u nu echt moet doen.

But for your workforce, easy to use, easy to set-up, and no steep learning curves are usually their top priority. A migration plan still must have everyone on board and trained. Again, that takes time and costs money. If you are working for the government, any government, or a law firm, or any organization that promotes confidentiality, security, and trust, you can’t afford to rely on even the big guns of shared drives and collaboration software. We have all seen instances of data leaked when a phishing Gmail mistake turned into a companies latest news headline. If you are in the Financial sector, then you have even more hoops to jump through to ensure customer privacy and security. AVG (Overheidsverordening gegevensbescherming) is in 2018 ingesteld in de Europese Unie en vergelijkbaar met: HIPAA (wet overdraagbaarheid en verantwoording van zorgverzekeringen) here in the United States, this means that legally, companies and organizations are required to protect a customer’s data and keep it private. How best to have secure remote access to files and file share in this world of constant connectivity and collaboration especially on multiple devices?

Stel jezelf deze vragen:

1. Welk budget heeft u om uw bestanden te digitaliseren en/of te migreren naar de cloud?
2. Kunt u zich de tijd veroorloven die nodig is om deze bestanden over te zetten en toch productief en concurrerend te blijven?
3. Wie beslist welke bestanden naar de cloud worden overgebracht?
4. Kunt u het zich veroorloven om voor een cloudservice te betalen?
5. Wat gebeurt er als u uw gegevens terug wilt?

So here we are 9 months into the pandemic with no sign of it slowing down as major cities across the United States start issuing stay at home and lockdown orders. For the workforce lucky to have the option to work from anywhere, it is more critical than ever to have secure remote access to files and file sharing across the enterprise for all users. No files to migrate to someone else’s cloud platform. No work stoppage. Permissions instantly set up who can access what and when. No huge learning curve, easy to set up and easy to use including a secure mobile app for work on the go. Best of all, geen VPN's om te beheren en te onderhouden. Using your already existing Windows File Shares and Active Directory Infrastructure, you can have it set up on your desktop quickly. No vendor lock-in, no syncing, no migrating.

Remotely edit and share files securely. Meet all your compliance concerns and requirements and prevent data breaches and data leaks. Secure files anywhere anytime from any device. Sounds impossible? Sounds like a miracle. No, it sounds like MyWorkDrive.

Download hier de gratis proefversie