Harness the power of the Cloud to best support your remote workforce during these challenging times.

With unprecedented numbers of employees now transitioned to working from home in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies everywhere are looking for technological solutions that make remote work possible and productive. The Cloud can solve many of the challenges they are facing. They just need to know how to take advantage of the Cloud’s many benefits.

How the Cloud Supports Remote Work

If you too are looking for ways to support remote work for your business, the Cloud has the answers. Here are some of the ways companies are using cloud services to improve the work-from-home experience and promote their business continuity:

Easy Access to Applications

One of the challenges of full-time remote work is providing access to your systems and applications. When all that infrastructure is on your office computers, you need a way for employees to use it when they switch to working from home.

Moving vital applications and data to the Cloud is an easy way to make everything available to employees no matter where they are working from. They can work from their makeshift home office, the kitchen table while supervising homeschooling, or in the park when they need a little fresh air. This kind of flexibility is vital for keeping employees productive in real-time even in new work surroundings.

Stop Phishing Attacks

The COVID-19 crisis has created new opportunities for malicious cyberattacks against businesses and individuals. Many employees are working on devices that lack adequate security software. When they access your network and data, they put your business at risk of being hacked.

Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the remote workforce through phishing and malware. In one week this past April alone, Google saw more than 18 million malware and phishing emails, all related to COVID-19. As users clicked the fraudulent links, they immediately exposed their devices, and potentially their entire organization to cyberattacks.

You can instruct your employees to never trust emails that appear to have been sent directly from a specific sender, for example. Also, remind them to never click on a link from any source they don’t know.

Another way to curb the spread of malware is by leveraging the Cloud. When you store sensitive data and applications in the Cloud you gain the benefit of added security. Defenses like firewalls, data encryption, multifactor authentication, and more all can operate from the Cloud and protect your company’s information.

You also will enjoy automatic updates of those solutions as better versions become available. It would be almost impossible for your IT team to keep everyone’s antivirus software updated while working from home.

With people working outside the office, the possibility of an unauthorized person permeating an employee’s device increases. With everything stored securely in the Cloud, there is less chance of prying eyes seeing sensitive company information or information accidentally being deleted.

Protect Endpoints from Malware

What is an endpoint? Endpoints are devices, like phones and laptops, that your employees have carried home with them. They’re also gateways for dangerous malware. When employees click on malicious links, the links install malware on the device, and their data becomes compromised.

You can protect these endpoints with proactive, cloud-supported malware detection solutions. When you protect your endpoints, your systems aren’t just waiting around for a security breach. They actively search for signs of a malware attack and initiate necessary security investigations, heading off cyberattacks at their outset.

Protection No Matter the Device

At work, you have control over how secure your employees’ devices are since they’re using company equipment. Working from home presents unique security risks. Home computers and personal devices tend to have outdated malware protection that often isn’t adequate to protect sensitive information. This means that your system is only as strong as the most outdated antivirus software installed on a single employee’s device.

With cloud-based computing though, you can provide security solutions for complete protection. This makes business safe for PCs, Macs, Linux, and even mobile devices, so your employees can work remotely and securely.

Prevent Malware from Transferring to Your VPN

Chief security officers (CSOs) will tell you that using personal devices for work purposes can sometimes be a logistical security nightmare. The more personal activities we perform on our home computers, the more likely it is that they will encounter malware. Once that device connects to your company’s virtual private network (VPN), that malware gains full access to your company’s entire system.

Firewalls and other lines of defense can help, but to be truly safe, your employees can share information via the Cloud, instead of your VPN, to maintain the integrity of your network and prevent harmful malware from spreading.

Easier Collaboration and Sharing

One of the biggest benefits of cloud services is unlimited storage. Your company can put anything and everything you want in the Cloud and never run out of space.
This is good news for employees who need to share data and files and may not have access to previous sharing and storage methods used in the office. Virtually all communication programs are available as applications through the Cloud in case employees don’t have those programs on their work-from-home devices.

Increased Scalability

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 crisis has hurt many businesses financially, forcing them to furlough or lay off employees. Conversely, some essential industries have seen the need to increase their workforce. With so much flux in employment, the need for scalability has increased.

Once again, the flexibility of cloud solutions offers convenience to companies navigating these challenges. Your IT team no longer needs to install software on new computers for incoming employees or wipe data from a former employee’s hard drive. With everything in the Cloud, you simply need to assign or cancel login information to manage who has access to what. In this way, the Cloud offers unmatched scalability capabilities.

As businesses face uncertain futures, the need for scalability and other solutions will increase. You’ll be prepared for whatever comes next when you use the Cloud to manage the many challenges of remote work.

And if you’re having trouble finding the right cloud solutions, your remote managed service provider is well equipped to offer the advice and services you need.

ATSG is here to help your remote workforce and business continuity efforts during these challenging times. Learn more about our offerings:

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Recognized by industry leaders and industry-leading publications, ATSG has 25 years of operating history delivering exceptional client experiences that directly result in competitive advantage, cost-savings, growth, and improved operational efficiencies.

Visit www.atsg.net, email [email protected], call (914) 517-2919, or visit one of our five tri-state locations today for more information.