Remote Workforces Are Here to Stay

Workforce enablement changed dramatically in 2020. The explosion of a remote workforce is something many organizations will integrate into their new normal, possibly forever. 2021 will see many CIOs re-evaluating workforce enablement tools, including their collaboration stack, SaaS applications in lieu of legacy on-premises applications, and VDI. Yes, VDI. Remote workforce enablement is a use-case that screams for VDI. Companies will find VDI solves many of their enablement issues. They will also find it may not be a fit for all users in all cases. Workforce enablement will require a hybrid approach, matching the right tool for the right problem.

Companies Will Strive to Keep a Fast Pace of Change

The relationship between IT and the rest of the business is stronger than ever before. COVID has created a new way of working. Dubbed “Pandemic Mode” (as opposed to incrementalism), it encompasses faster decision making, more responsiveness from IT, and reduction in the onerous processes. This is a much faster pace than many businesses and IT shops are accustomed to working. This will lead to more companies adopting agile methodologies. This adoption will be driven by the business demands to keep up the “Pandemic Mode” pace of change.

Hiring Will Take an Emphasis on IT Security and Digitization

Security professionals will continue to be high on everyone’s list. Where the shift will come is in the areas of cloud and digital business. Companies will accelerate the migration to the cloud, putting pressure on the job market for experienced cloud architects and engineers. In addition, 2020 and the shelter-in-place orders across the group disrupted supply chains and uncovered manual business processes. Companies will look to further their digitization, creating a demand for digital business architects, robotic process automation engineers, and AI architects.