Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, working remotely was already more popular than ever before. One Gallup survey in 2019 found that more than 40% of Americans worked from home occasionally, and in recent years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) noted that roughly 16% of Americans (nearly 30 million people) now work remotely on a regular basis.

In the past week, we have seen an incredible change in how the country is reacting to the pandemic. Just last week many organizations were attempting to create or solidify contingency plans “if” the need to transition to a remote workforce arose - this week, that became a reality for a large majority of organizations across the globe. From finance and marketing to technology and education, working from home has suddenly become the “new normal” for the foreseeable future, and securing your remote workforce has become a top concern.

All companies, including those not yet directly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, have a limited amount of time to make sure that they are prepared if/when the virus hits their area, maybe even directly in their organization. Right now, companies are advised to do a function-by-function audit as well as a holistic overview to identify areas needing immediate attention— addressing network security gaps, revisiting work from home policies, or tackling potential operational shortfalls, such as lack of cloud communication tools. 

The IaaS market is projected to post a CAGR of 31.45% between 2020-2024. (Market Reports World)

Worldwide Spending on Digital Transformation Will Reach $2.3 Trillion in 2023 (IDC)

This is the final post in a three-part series where we’re taking a closer look at various cloud-related solutions, what’s trending, and partner expectations as we head into 2020.

By 2020, the number of connected devices across all technologies will reach nearly 21 billion. -Gartner

This is the second in a three-part series that will run monthly through the end of the year where we’ll be taking a close look at various cloud-related solutions, what’s trending, and partner expectations as we head into 2020.

It’s common knowledge that cyberattacks are increasing in frequency every year, and companies of all sizes are continuing their migration to the cloud at a record-setting pace; as a result, while these are not a new phenomenon, both cloud accounts and credentials have become the primary targets for black hat hackers.

This is the first in a three-part series that will run monthly through the end of the year where we’ll be taking a close look at various cloud-related solutions, what’s trending, and partner expectations as we head into 2020.

Q4 is upon us, and we’re entering the home stretch for the year—and the decade. Businesses of all sizes are looking back on 2019 to audit crucial infrastructure and evaluate performance and cost-effectiveness to inform both their short-term organizational investments as well as long-term planning.

The infiltration of mobile devices in the workplace isn’t new news; although it may be hard to believe, mobile devices entered the workforce just a little more than a decade ago. More recently, the influx of BYOD, the ever-growing number of remote workers, and the mind-blowing pace at which technology is advancing have kept IT departments on their toes and CIOs awake at night trying to manage it all. As such, it should come as no surprise that with this increase comes growing strain and an increasing number of obstacles facing a CIO; they and their staff need to continuously shift their priorities and strategies to accommodate the current challenges that are plaguing their organization and adapting to the constant changes.

Understanding the Alphabet 

Before diving into network soup and getting a better grasp on how the various solutions work together, it is imperative to understand them individually.

According to IDG Research , The SD-WAN market is expected to reach $8B by 2021. SD-WAN sales and implementations are growing. The report indicates that adoption rates increased from 35% to 54% over the past two years, with 90% of their respondents saying they are actively researching, piloting or about to upgrade to SD-WAN. And the reason for growth is to solve for a few business challenges, mainly: optimizing networks to support cloud technologies, simplifying network management and improving application performance which all, in turn, help deliver on a better customer experience.

No matter what type of business your company conducts, even if it is technology-based, your business can benefit from an outside set of eyes. The technology and data surrounding cybersecurity are constantly changing and evolving. This means that while you may have some of the most brilliant tech minds around grinding out your code, their focus is not necessarily security -- and the result is vulnerability.

It’s interesting to note that device loss accounts for 41% of breaches, compared with 25% that derived from hacking and malware, according to Trend Micro. Overall, there has been a 300% increase in mobile device OS vulnerabilities since 2011, and businesses are realizing the increasingly critical need to protect company—and customer data. As networking environments have evolved, IT departments have adapted to growing security threats in mobile devices. Cabir, the first virus that infected smartphones, reared its ugly head in 2004, and by the time iPhones and other smartphones emerged, a whole new generation of security woes had been born.

Although unified communications (UC) systems and contact center solutions have previously been thought of as separate entities, cloud technology has increasingly facilitated collaboration between the two. The Cloud removed the restrictions of on-prem hardware which enables the contact center solution's remarkable versatility and fluidity - both crucial strengths required to provide the increasingly personalized and convenient services demanded by customers in the digital age.  

As you continue to evolve your portfolio to keep up with the evolution of technology, learning how to bundle next-gen technologies, such as network and Unified Communication (UC), can help you make a more organic transition to selling digital transformation solutions, which can be easier to manage and scale as you grow your business.

Blogs are informal articles written for the purpose of showing your thought leadership and expertise on a topic. Blogging provides a myriad of benefits not only to your website, but to your business overall.

Here are five quick tips to help you get started on the path to blogging.

Survey says 95% of IT leaders see a direct connection between communications technology and business profitability.

The expectations of customers today include brand interactions and experiences that are completely seamless and effortless no matter the location, time or touchpoint. Welcome to the Age of the Customer. In this era, digitally-savvy customers are changing the rules of business, creating opportunities for companies that can adapt to the evolving environment and risking the sustainability of those that can’t.

TBI is committed to providing our partners with valuable information that helps drive sales and grow their businesses. We surveyed hundreds of customers from several of our large partners, asking them about their current technology and future needs. We talked about everything from their technology assessment cycle to their disaster recovery plans.

It’s apparent that U.S. organizations have accepted that cloud is here to stay; A recent analysis from Maverick Research found that more than 80% of CIOs estimate that more than half of their business will be conducted on cloud infrastructure by 2020, and roughly the same number predicted that applications supported by a SaaS platform will support more than half of their business transactions.

Unified communications as a Service (UCaaS) delivers a wealth of advantages in productivity and collaboration by integrating voice, chat, video/audio conferencing, faxing, and email. These benefits, though, come with several security challenges and often include mandatory industry standards that must be adhered to.