By Chris McDuffie, VP of Cloud Architecture -- In a bold proactive move to quash prolonged uncertainty over “return to work” scenarios, many high-profile tech companies are allowing employees to work from home for months, a year, or even indefinitely. For most enterprises with less advanced tech, offering the same distributed workforce option is a daunting challenge. Many organizations still rely on legacy applications and processes that cannot easily move to the cloud. Chat, video conferencing, and even VPNs have been quick solutions to keep people working. But what about the apps that don’t perform well over a network? And how secure is your solution? Are you allowing unmanaged devices to connect directly to your network? If that doesn’t keep you up at night, it should. I have been immersed in remote work consulting and solutions for more than a decade. I’ve seen a lot of use cases for remote apps and desktops over the years, and a lot of misunderstandings and mistakes. In my experience, there are five key principles to consider when establishing a successful, long-term remote work architecture. Those principles are explained below. But, first, where and how to start? I start every conversation with applications, data and users.…