At the beginning of April, Japanese telecoms experts confirmed that the volume of Internet data used in the country jumped 40% in a month. The reports prompted concerns that the country’s network may become overwhelmed. The influx in data use is the result of an increase in telecommuting and video streaming as more and more employees are being asked to work from home due to the coronavirus.
Closer to home, Kenya has cited a 70% increase in data usage during their own lockdown and Vodacom has reported a double digit increase in data traffic since the start of the South African lockdown. At Nebula, we have seen our clients’ data use per user rise by four times the amount prior to remote working, with overall enterprise data usage increasing from 2.5TB to 9TB, on average. These clients were able to keep this rise in usage under control because they operate in a managed environment, powered by OneView. In an unmanaged environment, the cost increases would likely have been anywhere between 400% and 1000% greater than before.
If anything, these figures showcase that remote work is not without its costs. Supporting remote workers means providing them with the equipment, support and connectivity they need to stay connected for long periods of time – share files, collaborate and receive feedback without any hassle. It also means putting the right processes and policies in place to ensure that your remote teams don’t blow the budget.
We recently compiled an infographic detailing a few tips to help your employees save data while working from home. You can view it here.
And below we’ve put together a few more data saving tips that you can share with your employees to help them keep their data usage in check when they are working at home:
- Reduce the number of tabs you have open in your browser. The more activity, the more data you use.
- If you’re doing some research on YouTube, select a lower quality to reduce the amount of data you use.
- When on a video conference call and video isn’t essential, turn your camera off. Try to use video only when necessary.
- Disable location or GPS related apps – we all should be at home anyway – as they run in the background to determine your whereabouts.
Ultimately, the most effective way to control data usage is via a central management system like OneView, our cloud-based technology lifecycle and expense management platform. Designed to help enterprises access real time insights about their entire technology environment, it’s the solution all businesses need to prevent their data usage from spiralling out of control. To find out more about Nebula and OneView, complete the form below and we’ll get back to you.