New Survey Reveals Only 37% of Orgs Have a Digital Workspace Strategy; 86% Cite Security Concerns

The Digital Workspace Ecosystem Alliance (DWEA) released the results of its “State of the Digital Workspace 2023” survey, revealing that only 36.9% of organizations have developed a digital workspace strategy while 86.5% of organizations cite escalating digital workspace security concerns. The report also provides a detailed breakdown of the adoption of digital workspace technologies and the benefits & repercussions organizations have experienced when it comes to employee productivity and corporate security. The full report can be downloaded for free here.

“This survey reveals how many organizations have a digital workspace strategy in place, where they stand in executing those strategies, and the pain points/roadblocks they’ve experienced along the way,” said Robb Henshaw, Co-Founder and CMO at Cameyo and the Founder and President of the Digital Workspace Ecosystem Alliance (DWEA). “We also set out to determine if IT pros believe their strategies are paying off, or if they plan to course-correct in the future. The result is a roadmap for IT decision makers providing better insight into what’s working for their peers so they can make more informed decisions as they hone their own digital workspace strategies.”

Report Methodology & Geographic Breakdown

In September 2022, the DWEA introduced its first annual survey to gauge the current state of digital workspace adoption, benefits and challenges. The survey was completed by 2,660 digital workspace professionals globally, making it one of the largest digital workspace technology-focused surveys to date.

Rather than focusing on the location of the individual survey respondents (or the organizations they work for), this survey identified the geographic breakdown of the end-users that each survey respondent manages. This provides a better view of the modern remote & hybrid workforce. That geographic breakdown is as follows:

• 69% of respondents manage end-users in the Americas
• 30.5% of respondents manage end-users in EMEA
• 29.4% of respondents manage end-users in APAC

Key Findings

• Hybrid & remote work are here to stay for a majority (58%) of organizations, and for the 42% that plan to bring people back in the office full-time, the lack of a clear path back to the office highlights the need for a digital workspace strategy that can adapt over time.
• Organizations realize that developing a strong digital workspace strategy is paramount – but only 6% have executed their strategies.
• The biggest roadblocks to digital workspace adoption are 1) concern for the impact on the end-user experience (38.5% of respondents) and 2) complexity (32.3% of respondents).
• Issues caused by legacy technologies – specifically VDI and the need to support legacy apps – are the primary source of both complexity and end-user experience concerns.
• Companies often put end-user experience ahead of cybersecurity concerns, with 87.2% allowing BYOD devices.
• As BYOD skyrockets, so have cost & security concerns. 50.8% of respondents are concerned about the cost of endpoint management, and a staggering 86.5% cite increased security concerns.
• The commitment to long-term hybrid work has accelerated the need to move print management to the cloud, a migration that features heavily in organizations’ overall cloud strategy.

“This report provides some eye-opening stats, like the fact that many organizations are prioritizing convenience & productivity at the expense of security-even as the frequency and cost of data breaches rise. Thankfully, it also shows that orgs are aware of and concerned about these past security compromises, and are adopting the digital workspace technologies needed to optimize security while ensuring a seamless, productive experience for their people,” said Henshaw.

Download the Full Report

The DWEA has made the State of the Digital Workspace 2023 report available for free to all. To download, please visit: https://www.digitalworkspacealliance.com/state-of-the-digital-workspace-2023.