With so many of us working from home full time for the last 16 months, VPNs have become essential tools for companies to keep their staff working in a safe environment. What we mean by “safe” is mainly about your online presence whilst performing daily tasks for your job.

The Covid-19 pandemic increased opportunities for remote work four to five times more than before, according to a report from McKinsey & Co. Although many office-based workers had no choice but to leave their desk jobs and make the move to work from home in early 2020, remote work appears to be here to stay. The rapid transformation brought forward by the pandemic has muddied the definition of remote workers versus lone workers, but it’s essential not to confuse the two.

18 months later, organizations around the globe are slowly but surely starting to welcome their employees back to the office – or at least thinking about it. But this is not a “back to normal” kind of thing. Most will recognize that something’s different this time around. Firstly, there is no clear one-size-fits-all return-to-office strategy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only had a profound impact on everyone across the globe; it has also fundamentally changed the way organizations function. We are nearing one and a half years since remote work became the norm and organizations had to adapt to this new mode of working almost overnight. This rapid transition wouldn’t have been possible without the massive technology, workflow, and process upgrades undertaken by IT departments.

As managed services provider (MSP) technicians know, remote access gives an authorized user the ability to enter another user’s computer or network through a network connection. This access is often established via a remote desktop protocol (RDP), which is a network communications protocol from Microsoft® that is specifically designed for remote management.

The global pandemic continues to fluctuate, but the reliance on IT services and teams to support service continuity in the public sector remains steady. To ensure network operations continue running at peak performance, there are several actions government IT teams can take to consistently maintain a network architecture capable of supporting a remote workforce. IT tools like support tickets and the IT service desk directly support end users and organizational goals.

The world of work has changed dramatically over the last year and, at Redgate, we’ve been reflecting on what this might mean for our business, and the ways that we work together in the future. From 2022 onwards, we’re aiming to offer Redgate staff a flexible-hybrid working model across our global organization.

Responsibilities have increased for many employees over the last year. The combination of job pressures, new virtual work environments, and personal responsibilities has caused employees to feel overwhelmed. In a 2021 Indeed survey, 52% of employees reported feeling burned out, up from 43% a year earlier. For individuals in roles that serve the entire enterprise—such as human resources and legal—this administrative work compounds quickly.