Riverbed and Aternity today unveiled the Riverbed | Aternity Hybrid Work Global Survey 2021which reveals that 84% of UAE business and IT decision makers believe that at least a quarter of their workforce will remain hybrid post-pandemic; with38% saying more than half their workforce will be hybrid. Accelerated by the global COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid work environments provide numerous benefits with 66% of UAE respondents agreeing hybrid work helps significantly with recruiting talent and competitiveness, and 84% of global respondents believing hybrid work will have a lasting and positive impact on society and the world.

With all indicators signaling hybrid work environments are the future, UAE organizations are better prepared than their global counterparts to deliver a seamless hybrid work experience. Nearly half (47%) of UAE businesses believe they are completely prepared to support the shift to hybrid work, compared to the global average of just 32%;and while globally, 88% of organizations are concerned about digital disparity between in-office and remote employees, this figure is considerably lower (52%) in the UAE.

With a staggering 98% of UAE businesses planning to invest in technology in the next 12-18 months to support their hybrid workforce – compared to 89% worldwide – the country looks on track to successfully transform into a global hub for remote working as envisioned and supported by the country’s leadership.

“We’ve reached that critical point in time when a high-performing hybrid workplace is required for organizations to push to the next level of employee and customer satisfaction and sustainable financial success,” said Dan Smoot, President and CEO of Riverbed | Aternity. “What’s very clear is to gain the maximum benefits from hybrid work, organizations must invest in technologies to modernize their IT environments and underinvesting can have severe consequences. With the solutions from Riverbed | Aternity, organizations can maximize their visibility and performance across networks, applications, devices and the end-user experience so they can fully capitalize on their digital and hybrid workplace investments.”

Looking ahead, the UAE’s business decision makers reveal that their top areas of technology investments over the next 12-18 months are:

• Better visibility of network and application performance (61%)
• Investing in end-user experience and digital experience monitoring solutions (53%)
• Investing in cybersecurity technology and software (47%)
• Investing in application or network acceleration solutions (46%)
• Updating company-wide hybrid workplace strategies and policies (44%)
• Increasing the use of cloud services and software as a service apps (31%)

With visibility being the key focus of technology investments, Jonaki Egenolf, Chief Marketing Officer of Riverbed | Aternitysaid, “End-to-end visibility and the rich, broad set of data it provides is more important than ever in a high-performing hybrid workplace to ensure productivity, end-user experience, high-quality digital experiences and security. However, the treasure trove of data is more valuable when analyzed in context to deliver actionable insights to the multitude of stakeholders that are driving the organizational goals — transforming IT operators into technology leaders who connect insights into business outcomes. At Riverbed | Aternity, we’re focused on delivering actionable insights that extend from the technology infrastructure through the network all the way to the customer to protect and extract the value behind every click.”

Download the full Riverbed | Aternity Hybrid Work Global Survey 2021 report here and view the infographic here.