Executive Summary

The state of work changed rapidly and without warning a few years back, and organizations of all sizes and across almost every industry are still dealing with the repercussions.

The pandemic that prompted a great deal of the work force to work from home in recent years has brought a number of challenges to light for individuals and businesses alike, and has done so on a global scale. These challenges include financial and technical hurdles that have led organizations to re-evaluate their information technology strategies to find new efficiencies in data storage, data protection, and global collaboration. This paper proposes Global File System technologies as a potential solution for the challenges IT organizations may face in a post-pandemic world.

Perhaps the most obvious change over the past few years has been an adjustment to people working outside corporate offices. The recent state of work environments has left people more separated than ever with remote work becoming the norm across many industries. Even as workers gradually return to offices at least occasionally, remote work is anticipated to continue at least part of the time. For many, remote work is destined to become a permanent solution as companies and employees realize the benefits and adjust to a more public health-conscious approach.

Data must be available wherever workers are, which can be almost anywhere. With this in mind, IT organizations will need solutions that support data access and collaboration in this new work dynamic for the long term.

Other key challenges brought to light by recent events include the areas of data protection, security, and ransomware recovery. While certainly areas of focus in the pre-pandemic world, their importance has been further magnified recently as bad actors have used the chaos of the pandemic as an opportunity to exploit organizations with inadequate data practices.

Challenging Times – In IT and the World

The challenges faced and lessons learned during the pandemic response will certainly play a role in shaping future strategies. There is now more need for technologies that enable file sharing, security and data tiering and orchestration than ever before. Public and hybrid cloud adoption is also more at the IT forefront.

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