Traditionally, businesses were centralized operations, where workers came into the office.
Today, there’s a different way to work: virtual offices. Here’s what you need to know about them.
What Is It?
A virtual workspace in the cloud is basically cloud computing extended to an office setting. Instead of going into an office, employees log onto a local area network from an office. Alternatively, employees can log on remotely from anywhere – including their own home.
Work is completed entirely through the company’s network. Computers become a conduit, but nothing is stored on them. Or, if anything is stored on them it is disposable data.
The Mobility Factor
There’s also a mobility factor that cannot be overlooked. Because employees are allowed to work from anywhere in a virtual office setting, transportation and commuting costs can be dramatically reduced. You can also reduce on-site personnel, and possibly reduce the cost of operating an office by reducing on-site staff to what amounts to a “skeleton crew.”
Allowing employees to work from anywhere allows them to be more productive, set their own hours, while still meeting work deadlines.
Work becomes less about controlling employee behavior and more about rewarding results with salary or hourly pay. Bonuses can be stacked on top of this basic pay structure, but not tied to hours worked. In this way, you create a more flexible, merit-driven pay system within your company.
It Gives Employees More Choice and Freedom
Employees are free to work from anywhere, and because of that, they have the ability to set their own schedules, within limits. Expect this to boost employee morale.
It’s Device Agnostic
Employees can log on from anywhere, and with any device. For example, using IBM cloud hosting, employees could log on using either Apple computers or IBM, or Microsoft core products. It doesn’t matter because the server doesn’t care what operating system accesses the network files.
Unlike traditional work environments, where all or most machines need to be the same, your virtual environment consists of product diversity. Some employees will inevitably gravitate or prefer certain types of devices over others.
Employees could even work on their iPads or notebooks. They could conceivably get some work done on mobile phones, if need be.
It’s More Secure
Because employees are no longer using devices at work, and they are not hosting content, files, and other data locally, the environment is inherently more secure than traditional setups. With most businesses, the employees log onto a local network, but files are typically stored locally.
This is a problem if the employee is allowed to take the laptop or workstation home, which many employers allow for various reasons.
With a virtual office, all employees log onto a network, but files are hosted on the network and protected on the server. This creates an added layer of security for the company and minimizes the risk that an outside (or even inside) attacker will gain access to sensitive company data.
Daniel Simpson is a freelance IT consultant and always likes the chance to share his insights with an online audience. You can find his posts on a number of different websites.