This Is the Tech That Companies Need for Remote Work

PCMag's sister site Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD) does regular in-depth studies on all aspects of IT technology, and its latest is called The Future of Remote Work. Conducted in May and June of this year, the survey polled 414 IT infrastructure managers and executives, asking questions about their plans and implementation strategies for the new normal.

A key finding was what these IT professionals believe are the most important technologies you'll need to have to keep your hybrid workers, well, working. According to the study, 61% of remote-work architects are focusing on updating their security immediately, while only 18% believe they'll need to address that need in the next two years.

Even more popular than security was collaboration. You name the vendor—Google, Microsoft, RingCentral, or Slack developer Salesforce—and if their products have collaboration features, they're being updated or revamped to stay competitive in a suddenly booming market. That puts the onus on IT managers to evaluate as many new solutions as possible so as not to miss anything their organization might need. SWZD's study bore that out, with 63% of IT managers evaluating new solutions right now and only 10% pushing it off into the next 24 months.

A cloud-service help desk is another important requirement, as are virtual desktops via desktop as a service (DaaS): 44% and 41% of respondents, respectively, are evaluating such platforms right now. Unfortunately, scrambling to implement new technologies seems to be the primary driver. Putting new day-to-day management tools in place to handle those new technologies is on the back burner, with only 22% of respondents looking at such tools right now and a minuscule 10% thinking they'll need to do so within the next two years. Worse, that figure includes not only IT management utilities but employee monitoring tools as well.

You'll need new tech to be successful with hybrid work, but the study also found that technology is responsible for many of the chief blockers to the new normal. For example, 55% of IT pros feel that supporting those workers is going to be difficult, and 55% believe they're going to run into internet connectivity issues, especially in rural areas (69%).

Recommended by Our Editors

Make Hybrid Working Easier With Desktop-as-a-Service

5 Tips From the Experts on Making Remote Collaboration Work for Your Team

How Much Is Hybrid Work Really Going to Cost?

Other interesting findings include some stats on how different generations feel about remote work. According to SWZD's respondents, 35% of millennials and 36% of Gen Xers have some concerns about working this way, compared with 22% of baby boomers. Even so, all three groups strongly want to incorporate remote work in some way. That may not jibe with how their managers feel, though: When executives were polled on which work roles would be best for this kind of model, 59% favored individual contributors (meaning employees with only functional responsibilities and no management duties). The IT department received a 57% hybrid-work endorsement, but it looks like most middle managers and executives will continue to spend most of their time in the office, as those roles received only 45% and 32% of executive endorsements, respectively.

Finally, one remote-work factor that most employees aren't considering—but business owners are—is real estate. According to the study, organizations that own their offices are 28% less likely to endorse remote work compared with businesses that rent their spaces, which are more supportive of remote work, at 43%. That can be a big factor in how strongly your company backs hybrid work, since the study showed that 57% of companies in urban settings own their spaces compared with 74% in suburban locations and 95% in rural communities.

Top Tips for Staying Productive When You Work From Home