The Rise of the Virtual Workforce in Government

7th February, 2012 - Posted by Doug Krueger - No Comments

There was once an era when working from home was considered a luxury of being a member of the “freelance nation.”  Remote access technologies like VPNs were not fully embraced or completely functional, and working from home, or from the local Starbucks, was merely a dream for many.

Beyond the flexibility that working virtually offers, the reality is that it creates more efficiencies and allows workers to be more productive.  And, the federal government is starting to fully embrace the benefits of allowing employees to from basically anywhere.

As this Federal Computer Week article points out, many agencies – in the wake of the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 – are moving beyond the experimental phase to embracing new innovations for augmenting teleworking.

Originally, agencies merely offered basic tools like a laptop PC, cell phone and printer.  According to the Telework Exchange, a public-private partnership focused on demonstrating the tangible value of telework for the federal government, most agencies will focus on enhancing access to virtual collaboration and a distributed work environment in 2012.

As we have highlighted before, from bandwidth restraints to performance and security issues, teleworking can cause unwanted issues for agencies that don’t have the proper optimization tools in place.  When it comes to embracing new virtualization technologies, government agencies are also turning to WAN optimization for a less costly, less time-consuming, more effective solution.  It frees up bandwidth and accelerates mobile applications by eliminating redundant traffic.

The rise of the virtual workforce in government will certainly usher in a new era where federal employees to be more efficient and productive – even if they are working in their pajamas.