Why “café-like branches” are the latest buzz among CIOs

In the fast-paced world of technology, it’s rare for an idea to capture the attention of CIOs and IT leaders universally—but the concept of the “café-like branch” has done just that. This new approach to branch office design and connectivity is rapidly becoming a top priority for organizations that want to balance security, connectivity, and the evolving expectations of their workforce.

So, why are so many IT leaders talking about transforming branch offices into environments that resemble coffee shops? To answer this, we need to look at the major shifts reshaping the workplace and the network architectures that support it.

The Evolution of the Workplace

Since the global pandemic, the workplace has been anything but traditional. Employees experienced the freedom of remote work, logging in from kitchens, living rooms, or even their favorite coffee shops. The flexibility and autonomy of this model became a major driver of employee satisfaction. When the push to return to the office began, many employees were reluctant. Why? Because traditional office environments no longer aligned with their expectations for productive and enjoyable workspaces.

This shift in employee sentiment has presented a challenge for CIOs. How do you fuse the security and productivity of traditional corporate offices with the autonomy and accessibility of a coffee shop environment? Café-like branches are the solution. These environments offer the best of both worlds: the flexibility of a workspace that feels familiar and dynamic, combined with robust security that ensures critical business processes remain protected.

The Foundation of the Café-Like Branch: Zero-Trust Architecture

At the heart of the café-like branch is a technological evolution that’s been years in the making—zero-trust security architecture. Unlike legacy systems that rely on implicit trust to connect employees and devices to the network, zero trust ensures that no device or user is trusted by default, regardless of whether they’re in the office, at home, or working from a remote satellite office. It’s like putting users on a guest network.

During the pandemic, companies that leveraged zero trust not only transitioned to remote work more efficiently but also laid the groundwork for new connective models. By decoupling physical locations from traditional office networks—such as those reliant on firewalls or virtual private networks (VPNs)—organizations gained an opportunity to adopt more agile configurations like café-like branches.

However, companies still on legacy systems like VPNs faced significant roadblocks. VPNs inherently expose more of the network than necessary and struggle to scale effectively for remote access. Zero trust eliminates these issues, allowing every branch or employee to serve as an independent entity while enabling secure access only to the specific resources each person or device requires.

From MPLS Networks to the Cloud-First Era

Beyond security, the café-like branch also addresses another critical challenge: legacy connectivity models. For years, organizations relied on Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) to connect branch locations to data centers. While this approach worked well when applications and data were centralized, it became increasingly inefficient as workloads shifted to the cloud. Backhauling traffic from remote locations to a central hub only to redirect it to the cloud made no sense in terms of cost or performance.

SD-WAN emerged as a solution to this inefficiency, enabling direct connections from branch offices to the cloud without the high costs of MPLS. But SD-WAN created a new problem: security. Implicit trust within these networks opened doors for cyberattacks and lateral threat movements, leaving organizations scrambling to retrofit security measures. This is where zero trust—integrated into the café-like branch—shines. By shifting trust models from network-based to identity-based access, businesses can enjoy the same direct cloud connectivity without compromising their defenses.

What is a “Café-Like Branch”?

The café-like branch takes this a step further. Instead of treating branch offices, factories, and warehouses as extensions of the corporate network, why not make them more like independent coffee shops or islands? With the café-like model:

• Branch offices connect directly to zero-trust exchanges using any Wi-Fi, broadband, or 5G connection. This eliminates the need to extend the corporate network to every remote site.
• The attack surface is minimized. Branch locations essentially become invisible to bad actors, reducing susceptibility to ransomware and other threats.
• Lateral threat movement is mitigated, preventing malicious access from propagating between sites.

The result is a network that’s not only seamless but inherently more resilient.

Securing IoT in the Café-Like Branch

But zero trust doesn’t stop at standard employee devices like laptops and smartphones. Today’s offices host millions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, from smart thermostats to connected printers. Unfortunately, these devices often lack enterprise-grade security and were never designed with sophisticated threat landscapes in mind.

Using zero-trust device segmentation, businesses can now classify and isolate IoT devices into their own “network of one,” significantly reducing the risk of an IoT breach compromising crucial assets or customer data. Traditional micro-segmentation strategies have been costly and time-consuming, but modern zero-trust technologies offer a scalable, agentless approach that secures all endpoints without the downtime or complexity of older models.

CIOs Are Embracing the Future

In today’s landscape of constant threats and evolving work expectations, the importance of the café-like branch cannot be overstated. It provides the perfect framework for CIOs to deliver what their organizations demand: flexibility, security, and high performance. By adopting this model, companies are not just keeping pace with change—they’re leading it.

As the café-like branch continues gaining traction, it’s clear that this model is redefining what it means to work securely and remotely. CIOs who invest in this approach will do more than modernize their networks. They’ll provide their companies with a strategic advantage—and create workplaces where employees choose to thrive. Welcome to the future of work.

The Zero Trust Branch helps eliminate all the challenges that legacy architecture leaves behind. Find out how Zscaler does just that in this video.