Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/4636
ILTA White Paper Infrastructure Technologies 36 O rganizations of every type, and in particular the legal industry, rely heavily on widely distributed networks of employees. While the main office continues to be utilized as the primary place of work, more and more professionals are spending at least part of their working week outside of that main office. With the pervasiveness of better connectivity, professionals are finding new places to work. Whether it is the home office, the airport lounge, the coffee shop or the car, employees are demanding the same level of access and performance that used to be reserved for just the main office environment. Just a few months ago, I was at a baseball game in St. Louis with a partner from a Midwest law firm when he was forced to call the firm's IT department. The reason for the call was that he couldn't access a file residing on a server via his BlackBerry. A client wanted to confirm immediately a detail in a document, and e-mail access was not strong enough to complete the job remotely. This demonstrates not just the level of access that the end user demands in today's corporate environment, but the demands being put on the IT department and the network infrastructure. Spreading out the workforce will only succeed in the long term if there is a good enough underlying communications infrastructure. Organizations are very likely to become more and more distributed in the future, and those that embrace this reality will be the ones that thrive. To succeed as a highly distributed andrew s. rubin cymtec systems, inc. Pump Up the Bandwith on a Distributed Workforce