Mobile + Cloud: for the new workstation, Microsoft is ecumenical
The digital working environment - or digital workplace according to Microsoft Terminology - combines mobility, BYOD and Cloud, but disturbs the balance between personal and professional life. Advantages and limitations of these trends. Must ?
For better or for worse, the work environment becomes increasingly digital. And various technological trends have accelerated the phenomenon. Thus, the cloud frees employees from the constraints of time and place. For its part, the company becomes more efficient and benefits from improved productivity.
"The concept of digital workplace [Editor's note: digital working environment] based on three axes of change. Mobility promotes flexibility places and working hours. The 'consumerization' of IT, which also contributes to the Cloud , becoming a set of secure services accessible from any device (including staff-BYOD). Finally, the social networking company, which blur the notion of rigid hierarchy, promote sharing and collaboration, "says Julien Lesaicherre , Windows Azure director at Microsoft .
"Work at home" or "work at home"
Access their work environment from any location, including with its own smartphone or tablet personal, some difficulties in managing life balance work / life. Load the company to define rules according to employees and managers, as a minimum of physical presence in the company or a maximum of telework.
"At Microsoft, no meeting (including via video conference) after 17:00, and no e-mail or call the weekend. And even employees to purely administrative positions to use this opportunity to telework, " says a spokesman.
Through smartphone or tablet, employees can access in a few seconds and a few clicks on their agenda, their e-mails at monitoring various information, applications to validate, etc.. "And regardless of the device used and its operating system (Windows 8, Android , iOS, etc..), and even in the case of computer software enterprise or cloud services. Today, CIOs must refrain reflex say no! Indeed, employees wishing to obtain a simple and ergonomic that they use in their personal digital work environment, and with the same end, " added Julien Lesaicherre.
The approach best suited to the company seems to be that of defining a list of laptops, smartphones and tablets allowed , according to the possibilities of support made internally or by a service provider.
"An online solution for managing terminals and work environments often responds to IT management expectations. Just like what Microsoft offers Intune, which can be integrated with other solutions overall supervision, " says Mr. Windows Azure France. "This type of cloud service manages devices that access rights as well, the security environments ... "
Achilles heel: the bandwidth
However, mobility now has a few drawbacks. First, the coverage of mobile networks is very uneven (and still quite well in France). In addition, wireless connections are very expensive abroad. In addition, the WiFi does not always work optimally. Thus, in many hotels, dozens of people share the same access point, thereby limiting the flow. To offset the cuts, " many solutions through public or private cloud today know how to manage the off-line mode and timing , "says Julien Lesaicherre.
Another new benefit of these offers: the cooperation between Cloud or information system making great strides. This greatly simplifies the interaction and consistency of information shared or not.
"It is possible to ensure consistency between users accounts spaces storage Microsoft OneDrive (eg SkyDrive) and Windows Azure. And securely, " Julien illustrates Lesaicherre. "Also offers professional Azure allow the company to choose the location of the data center that stores its information. Today, we have 12 data centers: 4 in the United States, in Europe 2, 2 in China, Australia 2, 1 and 1 in Singapore in Hong Kong. And Microsoft will soon open another in Brazil. "
Towards a professional digital identity
Often evokes the digital identity of the user, which is not without a problem ... "With a better control of its management, professional digital identity has many advantages," yet provides Julien Lesaicherre. "So in Windows Azure Active Directory, a user profile (synchronized with other Microsoft and non-corporate directory) provides a professional identity opening the secure cloud services after several unique identification, beyond Microsoft Access solutions. We have signed more than 400 partnerships on the Web in that with actors manage digital identities such as Google or Salesforce . com. "
The workstation dematerialized
The final step could be the job completely paperless whose image is stored on a server and accessible from any terminal. While technologies exist, bandwidth and mobile networks make real hard use.
Indeed, you either load the entire environment and installed on every boot (too heavy) applications, or run the environment on the remote server and access it via a connection too often uncertain. In addition, this last solution (which exists in some organizations) requires a good level of maturity of the business and investment in servers and network, or cloud delivery of high level.
An emergency appeal for XP?
Approaches that could be used to maintain a Windows XP environment, whereas the latter must retire on April 8 ... "Microsoft proposes instead an application compatibility. Thus, with the App-V and Med-V technologies, application bubble makes running a developed eg in XP application. We also have a technology partnership with Citrix for this type of approach. However, the goal remains to prolong for the application, and no XP " Julien Lesaicherre objects. Recall that Microsoft only push users to abandon XP .
"On Windows XP, the technologies have some life, it is not always possible to align with the latest standards or new business requirements, safety for example. Finally, users are demanding more modern and ergonomic environments. Why should companies today form XP users? According to Forrester, 40% of users complain about their work environment, while 70% are satisfied with what they use at home. " Microsoft already offers migration solutions, but should still announce several measures on April 8 , date of the judgment announced support for Windows XP.