Remote work has left many organizations lagging in productivity and revenue due to remote access solutions. Nearly one-fifth (19%) of IT leaders surveyed said they often or always experience network performance and latency issues when using legacy remote access solutions, with an additional 43% saying they sometimes do. Those issues have resulted in a loss of productivity for 68% of respondents and a loss of revenue for 43%. This is one of the findings in the 2020 State of Network Security Report from Perimeter 81.

According to the report, organizations securely connect to internal networks in a variety of ways when working remotely. Some 66% reported using VPNs, 58% said they use a cloud service through a web browser, 48% rely on a remote access solution, and 34% use a firewall. The many organizations still using legacy solutions like VPNs and firewalls will struggle to scale, face bottlenecks, and lack network visibility.

Security, too, is an issue. A third of respondents (33%) said a password is the only way they authenticate themselves to gain access to systems. And while more than half of IT managers (62%) said they are using cloud-based security solutions to secure remote access, 49% said they’re still using a firewall, and 41% a hardware VPN.

But there are signs of progress, as organizations increasingly favor modern cloud-based solutions over outdated legacy solutions. Following the pandemic, 72% of respondents said they’re very or completely likely to increase adoption of cloud-based security solutions, 38% higher than before the pandemic.

“With today’s increasingly distributed and mobile workforce, the traditional and perimeter-based network model no longer makes sense,” said Perimeter 81 CEO and Co-Founder Amit Bareket. “It’s no surprise that companies are increasingly moving to cloud-based cyber and network security platforms. As corporations of all sizes rely on the cloud to run their businesses, they need new ways of consuming security to effectively prevent cyberattacks regardless of their location or network environment.”

Other key findings include:

• 74% of respondents are adopting cloud-based security solutions over hardware due to security concerns. 44% are doing so due to scalability concerns, and 43% cited time-saving considerations.
• 61% of organizations believe that having to protect new devices is the greatest security concern in light of remote work, while 56% said their greatest concern was lack of visibility into remote user activity.
• 39% of respondents reported that scalability is their greatest challenge in securing the remote workforce, while 38% said budget allocation was their greatest challenge.

To see all of the findings, download Perimeter 81’s 2020 State of the Network Report.