What We’ve Learned About IT from Two Years of Remote Work

Love it or hate it, remote work is here to stay. I reflected on what the last two years have taught us about remote work in an article for the CT Mirror.

Two years ago, IT workers scrambled to make remote work not only feasible but productive. It's been a crucial aspect in keeping America working ever since.

Most organizations were unprepared for what was about to happen in early 2020.

One-off situations where a single employee had to work from home for a day were no big deal. But an entire workforce operating from kitchen counters and living room couches and, for the lucky ones, home offices? No one was anticipating that.

Many organizations quickly found out they didn't have the infrastructure to handle the new normal. And changing over network infrastructure takes time. Rather than technology being a thing organizations own, it became a service they use.

The ability to flip a switch and go fully remote is great, but you need rock-solid systems in place. The way those systems are built looks a lot different now than it did in March 2020.

I was also interviewed by a reporter about this topic for a segment on the FOX 61 news. Check out the video here, or read the transcript below.

FOX 61: Two years ago, the commute to work got a lot shorter as people ditched the office and set up shop in their homes.

Tim: As a technology professional, we've worked with remote workers forever. I've been doing this for 15-plus years, but never to this scale.

FOX 61: Tim Colby is with Kelser Corporation, a Glastonbury-based IT managed service provider. While typically not on the front lines of the Covid fight, IT staff played a critical role in helping companies make the shift to remote-work setups and keeping them going.

Tim: For some of our customers, they didn't ever work remote, and we had to help them navigate that, whether that was buying equipment, licensing, just coming up with a policy for remote work; how did they do it.

FOX 61: Two years later, remote work is still a reality.

Tim: It's definitely going to be a permanent fixture, whether that's the hybrid models we're seeing a lot of companies go to or whether that's full-time remote work.

FOX 61: Colby says that companies or towns that can flip a switch and have their entire staff work remotely are now at an advantage in the case of another surge. But getting to that point takes a lot of work.

Tim: Making sure that your IT infrastructure is prepared. Making sure that you have the right number of licenses for your VPN network. Making sure that you moved as many resources as possible to cloud platforms that are not reliant on infrastructure back at your office.

FOX 61: And as we look beyond two years, Colby says the pandemic has shifted IT from being a thing companies and towns buy to a service they use.

Colby: IT is more than just a line item on a budget.

FOX 61: Expect to see recurring IT charges on company and municipal budgets instead of one-off purchases.

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