Splunk has made available a Remote Work Insights dashboard designed to help IT administrators track and identify the most relevant IT metrics for a workforce that is working from home to help combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Company CTO Tim Tully said the dashboard is initially configured to track virtual private network (VPN) traffic as well as access to cloud applications being made via an instance of an identity management platform from Okta.
In addition, the dashboard tracks the level of usage of Zoom video conferencing services to help determine to what degree employees are continuing to collaborate during the pandemic.
The level of productivity being achieved in most corporate environments is tied directly to the amount of network bandwidth being made available via a VPN, which can be deployed inconsistently on various client devices. Cloud application experiences, meanwhile, can vary widely based on the geographic region an end user is located.
The dashboard helps IT teams to determine where there are issues they can address and where there are issues that may need to be addressed by a third-party service provider.
Built on top of the Splunk Mobile applications, the dashboard provides a way for IT administrators to employ a tablet or smartphone to continuously monitor key remote connectivity metrics, Tully said, noting that capability means IT administrators don’t have to stay tethered to PC all day to monitor their environments.
Over time, Splunk plans to add support for additional metrics to make it simpler for IT teams to monitor remote workforces, he added.
Beyond simply monitoring metrics, the Remote Insights Dashboard also makes it possible to send rich notifications based on thresholds defined by the IT team. That approach allows Splunk Mobile to reduce the number of alerts being generated by the various IT platforms being monitored, said Tully. Those notifications then provide the relevant actionable intelligence IT administrators need to share with other IT professionals to remediate an issue.
It’s not clear to what degree IT teams will work from home after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. Many organizations may decide it’s less expensive to have IT teams work remotely at a time when many of them will be looking to, for example, reduce the amount of office space they require to reduce costs. Many organizations are about to discover that IT staffs, much like customer support personnel, don’t necessarily need to be in an office to be effective.
Regardless of where they are located, many IT professionals are about to discover how productive they can be working remotely. That may create some boundary issues between the home and office. However, it should also go a long way toward eliminating the occasional need to go to the office at odd hours of the night, only to determine the source of a problem can only be fixed by a third-party service provider the IT professional could have contacted from home in the first place.
