Modern IT - and the Acceleration of the Work from Anywhere Model

As we all continue to adapt to new working styles and environments, around the world and on a global scale, the challenges of managing IT environments have changed. 

Many organizations are considering and adopting Modern IT for the first time.

According to my colleague Matt Kohut, Lenovo’s head of Worldwide Services New Offer Development, those that are now interested are trying to compress what usually takes two years into two months, as they rush to implement modern IT infrastructures to support remote workforces. He actually reminded me that back in January, on a priority scale of 1-5, Modern IT was probably at number 2 or 3 in the industry. Now it's at number 1. 

Modern IT is a concept I find really important because of the benefits it can provide businesses, especially in this climate. However, despite the recent surge in interest, there’s still a lot of skepticism and apprehension surrounding it. 

So, as part of this new series I’m doing, I thought it was the perfect topic to discuss with Matt. 

Introducing Modern IT

When it comes to creating new IT service offers, they have to revolve around responding to preferences, pain points and opportunities, but it’s also about coming up with new services that perhaps customers have not thought of yet. 

Either way, services have to respond to customers' needs. 

Every customer is different, although they may share the same outcomes. For some, it's straightforward, for example, changing device warranty periods for schools so that they align with the school year. For other organizations, it's about changing every aspect of how they support their user, as is the case right now with COVID-19.

This is where Modern IT comes in.

As Matt explains, Modern IT as an idea started about five years ago, but everyone has a different definition. The industry has settled on the idea that Modern IT is about making your PC look and act as much as possible like a mobile phone. When you buy a new smartphone, you take just a few moments to enter your credentials and login details, and you are live, connected, and doing useful work. 

This is very different from what traditional IT looks like when users receive a new PC. Historically, when a business provides an employee with a new PC, corporate IT woud get involved. An administrator would install standard and corporate software environments such as Windows, Office, and firewalls, and then data was moved over. 

This is a time-consuming process and isn't scalable.

Lenovo defines Modern IT as allowing organizations to be more hands-off so that their IT resources can be redeployed where the value really is in the business. In this definition, Modern IT sees a user take the PC off the shelf and have it ready to use in a matter of minutes without involving the company’s IT helpdesk. For this to happen, a number of things are needed, as outlined by Matt:

• a robust, cloud-aware operating system such as Windows 10 or Chrome
• a set of corporate policies that can be provisioned to the system remotely to maintain corporate control and security standards
• the ability to connect the PC to local resources and to the cloud equally well, which allows the PC to be configured quickly to a particular end-user's needs

Ideally, a Modern IT infrastructure means that no administrator would ever need to touch a PC. This reality is already here today, and the technology and services can be deployed to help users and organizations transform this aspect of their operations.

The challenges of Modern IT

Matt makes the point that one of the challenges of Modern IT is that Internet bandwidth differs around the world - which can cause problems.

Another challenge is that it's very inefficient to push the same corporate operating systems, VPN and security firewall down the cloud via the Internet to perhaps tens of thousands of corporate IT devices in a corporation. You are duplicating what is in fact standard to every device.

One solution (one that Lenovo offers) is Microsoft’s Autopilot, which solves the issue of getting a machine onto a corporate domain - something that usually requires a human touch. Autopilot allows us, with the customer's approval, to pre-join a machine to a domain at the factory, so that when the devices is delivered to the user, they can log on straight out of the box, be recognized, and have all of their authorizations, log-ins, access and data transferred at that moment, without any more intervention from support teams. 

Once the PC is on the domain, other authorizations can be granted under corporate control - but this alone is not what enables the end user to be productive from anywhere. There are other more detailed aspects that must be addressed as well. Many company’s applications are not fully ready for modern operating systems or cloud enablement and must be remediated for use. In fact, at Lenovo we spend a lot of time whiteboarding end-to-end flows with businesses, focusing on the end-state and goals. There are a variety of tools and processes that can be incorporated to make the plan as seamless as possible, like freezing operating system/BIOS versions to ensure standardization and providing cloud deployment servers and recovery servers.  

Every business is different though, and each requires a tailored approach, plan and set of tools, which is why those seeking to implement a Modern IT infrastructure, should seek a provider that has a vast toolbox. 

The value of Modern IT to companies

The value of Modern IT is that it reduces downtime for the end user, allowing them to get started faster when they receive a new PC. It also allows corporations to retain control of their IT environments as the number of devices continues to grow, which is particularly important when it comes to making those devices secure.

IT budgets for most companies are not getting any bigger, but more continues to be asked of CIOs from the devices they provide, support and manage, and of the employees who use these devices. At the same time, the number of devices and the apps running on them also continue to increase. 

As indicated, security also presents problems when more of us are working away from our offices. As Matt explained, “if I'm inside the corporate firewall, my PC can be controlled, maintained and updated to the company's standards. With Modern IT, when I'm in the cloud, which nowadays is most of the time, the company can still control and maintain devices, even if I’m no longer connected to a VPN.” 

If you add all of these things together, Modern IT allows the organization to be more hands-off, so that those resources can be redeployed where the value really is in the business, delays and costs go down, and user satisfaction and effectiveness go up.

One positive from the changes being forced on many organizations by COVID-19 is that it’s forcing them to reflect on the changes they should now consider, and they can also plan what they want their future IT infrastructure to be. For companies now planning their move to a Modern IT future, or having to because of COVID-19, here’s a checklist of the steps that can be considered:

• Have a plan with the end goal in mind. If you’re not sure what that plan looks like, your services provider can help you. A consultation is the first and most important step to design a Modern IT infrastructure, to ensure that the needs of the business are met.
• During this planning process, figure out the biggest problems you have today that you want to fix tomorrow, whether it's security, end-user deployment, or something else.
• Plan your deployment against the budget you have. Unless your budget is unlimited, you won't be able to do everything all at once.
• Consider how you can speed up deployment of devices to your end users. Some questions to consider would be: How would you deliver the device to them? How would you optimize the desktop and image deployment for employees in different locations with different connectivity bandwidth?
• Think about what happens after your employees receive their devices. How do you plan to manage the devices from day two on? What technologies should you consider, whether it's Microsoft Autopilot or something else, that can accommodate your mixed operating system environment? And when you’re making these decisions, plan for the next three years, not just the next 24 hours.

These can be difficult questions to face, especially now when the move to Modern IT is being accelerated, but partnering with Modern IT providers such as Lenovo can ease the transition and make for more efficient planning. 

In the real world, corporations have specialized and unique software, hardware, and other reasons to retain older operating environments. Modern IT gives customers what they actually need in a way that can be managed, replicated, and performed with single or no-touch. 

Special thanks to Matt Kohut for his time and the discussion.