Report: Enterprises expect remote work to take permanent hold

According to a new report by Aryaka, two-thirds of the enterprises surveyed expect at least 25% of their employees to be permanently remote post-pandemic, and a quarter of enterprises expect up to 75% of their employees to be permanently remote post-pandemic.

The report looks at SD-WAN and secure access service edge (SASE) plans for the coming year and is designed as a resource for enterprise architects and C-levels to use as a companion resource for their planning efforts, supplementing traditional analyst research reports. It delves into four major areas of IT interest, including the hybrid workplace; software-as-a-service (SaaS) application consumption and performance concerns; managing complexity with the adoption of managed services; and the convergence of network, security, and the cloud leading to adoption of a SASE architecture.

Key observations in each of these areas include the permanence of the hybrid workplace, with a full quarter expecting half to 75% of their employees to remain hybrid, and another 43% expecting a quarter to a half to do so.

On the application front, Microsoft Teams was identified by 58% as deployed, speaking to the nature of the Microsoft suite in many enterprises. 

Respondents were also keen to adopt managed SD-WAN and SASE, with over two-thirds signaling their intention to do so but looking at an “all-in-one” offer that integrates connectivity, security, optimization, multi-cloud access, and observability. 

Finally, diving into SASE, almost two-thirds of enterprises state that they are currently deploying or plan to deploy over the next year what they consider to be SASE, but they identify challenges that include complexity, developing a migration strategy, and market confusion regarding single or multivendor approaches. One eye-opening takeaway is the bullishness on budgets across both networking and security, with a quarter of the respondents expecting growth of 25% or more, and a full three-quarters projecting greater than 10% growth. 

The report polled over 1600 enterprises across the globe in October 2021, with responses representing a mix of roles that include CIOs, CISOs, as well as network, security, and cloud practitioners. Enterprises span all verticals including technology, software services, manufacturing, finance, and retail.

Read the full report by Aryaka.