JUNE 2021CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM8MARC ASHWORTH CISSP, CISM, CRISC, SENIOR VP ­ CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER, FIRST BANKConsider adoption of the cloud as part of your remote work strategyhe past year has taught us that even the most rigid businesses can be flexible. A pandemic like Covid-19 can do that to a company. Much of the office staff, IT, engineering and executives all working remotely has shown that efficiencies can take place in a remote working environment. As the pandemic begins to subside and vaccinations increase, companies are evaluating their return to work strategies. A long-term remote strategy is in consideration for many companies.Part of the strategy is the need for office space and dedicated space for servers and storage. Many systems are another year older now; therefore this may be a good time to evaluate moving to the cloud. Rather than investing in new hardware that you may no longer have physical location for due to reduced office space. Times of hardware replacements are the best times to determine strategic shifts. Whether it is for the cloud, virtual desktops, SASE, or even software defined networking may have a reasonable ROI when the timing is right. Other factors such as a reduced need for office space and difficulty in finding technical personnel to support the equipment may be another factor to shift to the cloud.As long-term remote work strategies become more realistic the adoption of cloud technologies from AWS, Azure and GCS will increase. Likewise, I would expect an increase in shared data center spaces to take place. The shift to the cloud will have its challenges in TIN MY ViewMarc Ashworth
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