There is a growing trend toward allowing workers to work from home. In a Gallup Business Journal study it is reported that “In 2012, Gallup data showed that 39% of employees worked remotely in some capacity, meaning they spent at least some of their time working in a location different from that of their coworkers. In 2016, that number grew by four percentage points to 43%.” The percentage of people who work remotely 100% of the time has increased by 7% in the same period. The age of convenience fuels this growing trend. Some opinions argue that workers are more engaged and even more productive when working remotely. An IDC report from 2015 aggressively forecasted that up to 75% of the workforce would be mobile. While we likely won’t realize those lofty numbers, it is undeniable that the logistics of the modern workforce will be a very different beast than what we are accustomed to.
The reality of a growing, remote, workforce brings technical hurdles for IT and Security teams. With a traditional perimeter-based approach to network security organizations are finding an increased vulnerability within their networks – remote access. Companies are looking for an alternative.
Brilliance Security Magazine spoke with Amit Bareket, CEO and Co-founder of Perimeter 81, to gain some insight into how his company is helping businesses around the world deal with the challenges of our modern workforce. Perimeter 81 is a fully cloud-based network as a service (NaaS) platform that offers a patent-pending software-defined perimeter architecture and intuitive management platform. The Perimeter 81 system is designed to make remote connectivity simple and straightforward while providing a secure connection anywhere in the world.
Employees using the Perimeter 81 client application can work securely and effectively from any device anywhere in the world. The Perimeter 81 network building capabilities allow the user to automatically create fully customizable networks and connect via highly secure, multi-regional, support gateways allowing employees to connect to the nearest gateway for optimal service. They can deploy split tunneling to manage network traffic or specific subnets as well and opt-in to use custom DNS servers or local domain names. Users can choose to either obtain a DNS server address automatically or select a primary and secondary DNS address manually for increased flexibility.
Perimeter 81’s software provides secure policy-based access from any hardware to any source. All traffic is encrypted and wifi is automatically secured upon startup with an encrypted connection that activates the moment your employees connect to an unsecured network. The software-defined perimeter is designed to completely hide critical resources from threats and grant access based on multiple layers of user permissions.
The way we work is evolving. Modern solutions are helping to free humans from the traditional brick and mortar plant and allowing them to work remotely. The modern workforce model is allowing salespeople to be where the customer is and to match the growing request for convenience by the consumer with flexibility for the producer. Managers can work from multiple offices or the comfort of their own home. Long commutes are being eliminated and employee comfort is being maximized. And now, with solutions like Software-Defined Perimeter network architecture from Perimeter 81, employees can work securely and effectively from any device anywhere in the world.
Cody Bowcut is a Contributing Editor for Brilliance Security Magazine