Branch and Remote Office Trends

Branch offices, collectively, represent a huge piece of the IT staff’s responsibility, but individually, no single branch rises to the level of importance of a headquarters or data center (well, except the CEO’s home office). However, IT staffs are trying to develop policies and consistency around the branch infrastructure. The growth in the average number of employees in a branch is modest, since the majority of organizations plan to keep that figure flat in 2012. Those that are increasing the number of employees in the branch plan to do so by a healthy 29%. Most organizations deliver services and applications differently to the branch, though. More than 25% of companies have no plan for branch backup in the event of an outage—an issue with a net gain (albeit modest) in the number of employees working in a branch. As IT staffs try to determine how to equip a branch, they are becoming more granular, placing a higher emphasis on the work function taking place at the branch rather than just the number of people there. Finally, IT staffs are more commonly taking a centralized approach to managing branch security.