This week we explore ways to sustain productivity, note two tech giants as they adjust their thinking and policies around remote work, and examine the return of Virtual Desktops (something first done at scale by Sun Microsystem way back in the 1980s, and is having a renaissance of sorts). We also share an article exploring the unexpected “scatter” of data across systems, which presents many security and other complexities and risks. We found a helpful Wall Street Journal article about how to get noticed – and promoted – while working remotely, and a great brief on factors influencing the future of flexible working.
Our bonus pick of the week; how drive-in movies are making a comeback as a safe and fun night out (and the sound is fantastic!).
1. Sustaining productivity in a virtual world
Maintaining productivity levels among remote employees is an enduring challenge. Here are five ways to help people and businesses thrive in the post-pandemic world of work from Nele Van Buggenhout, Soraya Murat, and Tom de Sousa.
2. Google and Apple executives see hybrid and flexible work in new light
Bloomberg Technology’s Mark Gurman shares that Google will try ‘hybrid’ work-from-home models, including rearranging its offices, as most employees want to return to the office at some point, but not every day, according to a recent survey the company did.
Apple CEO, Tim Cook, said he doesn’t believe Apple will “return to the way we were because we’ve found that there are some things that actually work really well virtually.”
3. Pandemic gives VDI a new lease on life
This year’s coronavirus-driven shift to remote work has renewed interest in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and its cloud offshoot, Desktop-as-a-Service, by Andy Patrizio in Computerworld.
4. Remote Work Exacerbating Data Sprawl
More than three-quarters of IT executives worry that data sprawl puts their data at risk, especially with employees working from insecure home networks, survey finds y Nele Van Buggenhout, Soraya Murat, and Tom de Sousa for DARKreading.
5. Virtual Working Is Here: Stop Worrying, Start Adapting
So we all agree that remote work is going to be with us for the foreseeable future. Now what? Ashley Cooksley shares three factors that will influence the future of flexible working.
Bonus: How the American drive-in staged a comeback
Designed for the suburbs of 1950s America, the drive-in theater found a new role in the summer of 2020, as a COVID-safe site for collective entertainment, by Elissaveta M. Brandon for Bloomberg. And out in Half Moon Bay California: Drive-Ins on the Ocean.