Despite its developing economy, Malaysia is still prone to instability and disruption, both natural and man-made.

The ongoing pandemic has shown us that, but it has also raised another concern – how do businesses continue to manage and maintain operations when staff are unable to physically access the workplace or technical facilities, and yet are still required to be ‘present’ and productive by their employers?

In the long term, the solution will require a change in mindset, organisational behaviour, and a new way of doing business. However, in the short term, technology can help.

Technology steps up in time of need

As millions of workers remain isolated, the pivotal role of technology and how it helps keep the country’s economic engine running has been pushed into the spotlight.

Over the past few turbulent months, a range of software, solutions and applications have ensured that prescient businesses continue operating while navigating the recent unpredictability and uncertainty.

Without a doubt, cloud technology has helped. The adoption of public, private and hybrid cloud services provided access to, and availability of, critical data.

At the same time, the transition from hardware-based to software-defined infrastructure has meant that physical access to offices, tech facilities or datacentres is no longer required and central operations can be handled remotely or by a skeleton staff. Thus, the heart of many organisations has continued pumping.

A truly mobile workforce

VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) and DaaS (Desktop as a Service) are perfect examples of how technology is keeping businesses across Malaysia and Asia running. VDI is a cloud-hosted desktop normally located in an on-site datacentre and operated and maintained by in-house IT personnel.

The advantages of VDI is that it provides the ability to customise and control the on-site hardware and environment – ideal for companies with highly sensitive data. The flexible infrastructure can also be easily expanded incrementally. This is an optimal solution in the face of unforeseen demand surges we have all experienced recently.

That said, the true benefit for the enterprise is that it provides mobility and flexibility for personnel without compromising business security, productivity or performance. VDI allows employees to work from anywhere, on any device with secure and complete access to their work desktop, files and network.

At the height of the Hong Kong unrest, the city’s financial giants used VDI to maximise the safety of their staff, avoiding unpredictable and hazardous commutes, and allowing them to operate safely and securely at peak capacity.

DaaS on the hand is a fully outsourced solution providing a virtual desktop. It neither relies on, nor consumes, any internal hardware. It provides the same flexibility, safety, security and access as VDI – but it is fully handled by a third-party cloud provider and hosted on their cloud.

A software-based future

Together, VDI and DaaS provide Malaysia’s businesses with a simple and accessible option for ensuring their staff remain productive and efficient no matter where they are physically located. The two models are set to become central pillars of the nation’s business survivability strategy as companies seek to mitigate future risk and disruption.

For those businesses caught with an isolated workforce, there is affordable, accessible and immediate relief at hand. 

As VDI and DaaS are cloud-based solutions, virtual workspaces for teams, customers, or partners can usually be up and running in under an hour. Isolated staff can then have safe and secure access to any application simply from their home web browser, with no software download or upgrade required. It is almost as simple as point and click.

For Malaysia’s intelligent businesses, their prudent approach in a volatile region is already paying dividends.  For the rest of the country’s companies, the sooner we all embrace the modern tools we require to keep our staff safe, mobile and productive, our business resilient to disruption, and our economies growing in turbulent times, the sooner we will secure our future. It is up to all of us to ensure Malaysia continues to play a leading role in ASEAN’s future success.