But when remote work is no longer the exception but the expectation, a successful transition requires updating current strategies to meet its evolving demands.
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Today’s digital work environment needs more than just adequate bandwidth for texts, emails, and occasional downloads. The remote workforce relies on virtual meetings and secured access to enterprise applications, both of which work best with uninterrupted, high-quality connections. Furthermore, employees could be working from home, the airport, a moving train, or, on occasion, for the highly motivated, even the beach.
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Thus, a modern connectivity solution must extract the most from the available infrastructure at the end user’s location, wherever that may be. Also, it must be easily portable to meet the WFA or hybrid model’s demand for flexibility and mobility. Finally, as the number of remote devices grows while cyber threats are on the rise, the solution must be easy to secure and easy to manage for IT.

The connectivity-pains often reported by remote employees are:

• When working from home Network quality is unstable, often limited by internet providers, and worsened by competing demands from family members.
  
• When working in public spaces Network quality is poor, if any connection exists, and public WiFi access is cumbersome.
  
• When facing network issues Getting IT to diagnose remotely is difficult.
  

At the same time, with the rapid rise of cyberattacks, security is a top concern for most companies. Employees are expected to follow company security protocols, such as using more complex passwords, not sharing passwords or connections, updating home router software frequently, or even using a different router than what the ISP provides, etc. This places unrealistic demands on the technical know-how of most remote employees. Furthermore, when home connections are shared among family and friends, the company network will be exposed to additional security threats.

So, what are some of the strategies companies deploy today?

• Equip remote employees with 4G equipment, e.g., a MiFi or a consumer-grade 4G router While this approach may help provide a more stable internet connection, security and manageability issues remain. With coverage dependent on a single mobile operator, performance may still be an issue while on the move or in remote areas.
  
• Rely on VPN clients on company devices such as laptops or smartphones VPN clients connect directly to enterprise servers or through thin clients like Citrix. While this approach may address security concerns, more often than not, it leads to unstable connections and poor application experience. Furthermore, when the connection quality is poor and not managed, employees may download secure documents and then work outside the safe zone.
  
• Implement remote access points, e.g., with solutions from HP or Cisco Remote access points extend an enterprise’s infrastructure. This approach addresses security and manageability as employees do not directly connect to consumer CPEs or 3rd-party access points. However, network quality is not part of the consideration, and neither is portability.
  

These approaches, alone or in combination, satisfy only some of the requirements of the modern remote workspace, with crucial shortcomings:

• Network performance remains constrained by the end user’s local infrastructure, whether it is an ISP or a mobile operator. For companies with a remote global workforce, this can be particularly problematic.
  
• Network quality is neither actively monitored nor managed, potentially affecting the endpoint experience, especially while under competing bandwidth demands. For remote teams that rely on videoconferencing, poor video or audio quality can severely hamper their productivity.
  
• Portability, except for MiFis, is not addressed.
  

Celerway bridges these gaps and fully meets the modern expectations of remote work connectivity:

• Network performance and connection quality are continuously maximized. When the end user’s local infrastructure is augmented with mobile data from various operators or additional connections from different ISPs, CelerwayOS continuously monitors and dynamically manages all available connections. Users experience multiple networks as a single, seamless, and high-performant connection, always with the best possible network quality.
  
• End-to-end security is maintained and easily managed. CelerwayOS encapsulates traffic with WireGuard, a lightweight and modern VPN. Users experience secured connectivity that is robust and unaffected by performance degradation usually associated with traditional VPNs.
  
  Moreover, with Nimbus, our cloud-based remote administration platform, IT can configure and monitor all CelerwayOS devices and orchestrate timely security updates from one powerful and flexible platform.
  
  Lastly, designed and built with Zero Trust in mind, CelerwayOS devices easily integrate into this modern security framework.
  
• The solution is portable by design. Celerway GO, our most compact device, delivers the power of CelerwayOS in one palm-sized, mobility-friendly package.
  

Meeting the connectivity demands in the modern remote workspace requires updating current strategies. Find out how Celerway GO delivers on the new expectations of performance, security, manageability, and portability.