VMware’s new report, ‘Building a Resilient Future: technology and the COVID-19 economic recovery’, ‘authored by WPI, has been published today. The report focuses on how an expanded definition of digital infrastructure, to include services such as the cloud and digital workspace, could directly benefit the Government’s policy priorities, including civil service relocation and levelling up. This expanded digital infrastructure should be termed ‘virtual infrastructure’, and would include technology which allows UK workers to access any app, on any device, anywhere.

To seize this opportunity, the Government should engage in an active strategy of embracing and facilitating this shift towards remote working, with benefits including higher productivity, allowing the movement of highly skilled workers to rural areas and towns, as well as having a positive impact on health and wellbeing and the environment.

The report included two major new findings:

• Polling conducted by Opinium for WPI found that almost 20% of those furloughed believe this happened because their employer lacked the IT infrastructure to support remote working. The report estimates that HM Treasury could have paid up to £6bn in furlough payments to staff who were unable to work as a result of poor IT infrastructure.

• The annual cost of cyber-attacks for a medium sized business could go up by as much as £5,700 based on the increased rate of attacks seen during the peak of the first lockdown.

The report recommends:

1. The Government should take the lead in significantly upgrading its own ‘virtual infrastructure’.
    

   1. The report recommends that the Government invests in departments and agencies to ensure that ultimately all desk-based public sector workers can securely and remotely access their data and applications at any time, from any device, anywhere.

1. The Government should actively support the strengthening of ‘virtual infrastructure’ in the private sector.
    

   1. The report recommends that the Government update the National Infrastructure Commission’s remit to recognise this new conception of digital infrastructure as a priority area which must be addressed by policy and with Government investment.

   2. The report recommends that a voucher – along the lines of the Cyber Essentials grant – be provided to all, or a subset, of businesses to fund vital upgrades to the ‘virtual infrastructure’ of the business population.

Read the report here