Workspace management and the workplace of the future

The workplace of the future will change. U.S. military leaders would call the modern digital workplace a "VUCA" world: an environment characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). IT managers have to cope with an increasingly complex situation, and they have to do so at an ever-increasing pace and despite ever-new security risks - but with constant staffing levels.

The central conflict: End users demand a digital workplace that is personalized and convenient to use in a consumer manner; at the same time, security officers and data protection officers insist on Security and state of the art privacy protection. Oliver Bendig, CEO of workspace and service management provider Matrix42, explains what this means for IT departments.

Workplace becomes smarter

As a result, IT managers are focusing on three aspects: intelligent automation, security at the device, app and data level, and compliance with licensing regulations and increasingly stringent rules, such as the GDPR. In the medium term, it will not help to cover these three points with more and more tools. Instead, they must be combined into a coherent overall concept. Otherwise, IT will be pulverized between these tasks. The digital workplace will soon - good news for the client management team - adapt automatically to the requirements of the end user: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly migrating into end devices and the Digital Workspace, learning the user's behavior and thus facilitating their everyday work.

This then manifests itself as follows, for example: When the user switches on the end device, it automatically recognizes him or her based on biometric characteristics - be it fingerprint, face, eyes or voice. Thanks to access to the appointment calendar and project management tool, the digital workplace knows which apps the user is likely to need. It can proactively suggest the required documents, such as the app for web conferencing: "Your team conference will start in a minute. Do you want to log in?" In the meeting, the shared folders, appointments and tools are then within direct reach.

Users will be able to take their digital workplace from device to device, called "Follow-me Workplace". This can be done automatically: As soon as the user leaves the desk, i.e. loses the Bluetooth connection between the PC and mobile devices, open files will automatically move to his tablet via WLAN. In addition, users will be able to move files between devices using gestures: With a swipe gesture, they can transfer the customer presentation to their tablet.

UEM in transition

Much of the modern work environment will be voice-controlled: "Alexa, get colleague Hans Maier from Sales into the meeting!" Even the creation of trouble tickets will shift to virtual assistants: "Siri, order new toner for the printer in the conference room!" The AI-supported workspace management system recognizes exactly which toner and printer the user is referring to by accessing the asset database and the facility management room plan, as well as using geolocation data from the smartphone.

For the IT team, this means that many tasks, from inventory and configuration management to patching, will be performed automatically in the future. Alexa, Siri and Co. will intercept a large part of the routine tickets at the help desk as "virtual first-level support". Client and workspace management will be able to - and will have to - focus more and more on the individual requirements of end users instead of devices and apps: Thanks to self-service, AI, and flexibly customizable workflows, the UEM from Unified Endpoint Management on "User Experience Management".

Security via biometrics and AI

From the end-user's perspective, this AI-powered efficiency is a top priority, but from the IT team's perspective, security and compliance are what count. The vexed topic of authentication can, as mentioned, be secured much better thanks to biometrics than through password policies, which only encourage some users to choose passphrases and post-it notes listlessly.

However, biometrics do not protect against hacking attacks by means of phishing and malware. Therefore, device and data encryption as well as automated patch management and endpoint security solutions are required to protect end devices, applications and user accounts and to prevent the leakage of internal data.

These tools include next-generation antivirus solutions as well as machine-learning-based real-time analysis of device and user behavior, and processes and tools for fast, effective handling of detected infections and intruders ("post-infection protection"). This means that workspace, service and security management must grow together as much as possible. The goal must be to create a defensible and resilient workspace environment that can quickly stabilize itself.

Licence Compliance and Data Protection

Security also means legal certainty: The IT organization must always have an up-to-date overview of licenses in use - despite the volatility in software use that modern work entails. This is where IT needs a smart license managementwhich gives early warning when the licensing is about to run into the "red zone".

Also critical from a legal point of view: the aforementioned ML-supported real-time analysis of user behavior, which US providers in particular like to propagate. Here, German data protection officers are rightly pricking up their ears. After all, such behavioral data is collected anonymously or pseudonymously, but ultimately the purpose of such solutions is always to be able to trace an attack or conspicuous behavior back to a specific client and thus end user.

For the IT organization, this is a dilemma: real-time monitoring is already technically possible, but legitimate privacy interests stand in the way. In the future, only two means will help here, namely transparency and the "privacy by design" (product-immanent privacy) demanded by the GDPR: It must always be apparent to the user what data the employer collects about his user behavior. At the same time, IT will have to hand over the scepter of data control to the user - whether via the works council or directly.

In concrete terms, this means that users can opt for a security level guaranteed by an SLA by means of a company agreement or at the click of a mouse when ordering a workspace service in the service catalog. They then have a choice: either their use of the digital workspace is tracked for security purposes and they receive the best possible service, or they choose the opt-out variant for data protection reasons. This means that certain data can only be accessed on the company PC and only on the company premises, that working in the home office is excluded, that a detour via a VPN is necessary instead of convenient apps, or that USB ports on the PC are blocked. Faced with this choice, the majority of end users are likely to opt voluntarily for the more convenient - but at the same time more secure - option.

Building new competencies

Thanks to Automation, AI, virtual assistants and self-service many routine tasks of classic endpoint and workspace management will be eliminated in the near future. In the future, the primary task of the IT organization will no longer be to keep operations running, but to further develop IT in line with corporate goals. IT leaders should therefore invest in modern workspace, service and security management as well as in AI technologies; at the same time, however, they should expand the skills of their IT teams with regard to the more demanding tasks that await them beyond automation.

www.matrix42.com/ch/