The sloppy ‘digital stampede’ that was 2020, and what it means for 2021

Back in February, data security firm Asigra issued a warning to the IT community and service providers about vulnerabilities that could creep through remote monitoring and management platforms.

In the early days of the epidemic, tech companies tried to introduce new services, announced price cuts, and eventually capitalized on businesses that found themselves in business, only matching the pace of the spread of COVID-19 Were.

Data security vendors were part of the wave that introduced RMM with a tightly integrated backup solution. It was an attractive option for small businesses who suddenly realized how unprepared they were to meet the needs of a remote workforce. But Asigra's executive vice president Eran Farajun wrote on the wall: Customers taking this route were risking disaster.

"While the single-vendor approach and single user interface is appealing, the bad guys will take advantage of it," he said, just days after one of the world's foremost network monitoring solution providers, SolarWinds faulted its security update Announced the removal of malware from. “This slop is rife. It is the same with backup software. It is notoriously safe with MFA. "

The slope was widely spread in 2020. To keep the lights on and for business operations, organizations were forced to make rapid changes to their digital transformation investments, which led to shorter deadlines, higher risk tolerance and acceleration of "Go Digital" projects. There is no end in sight for the demand for remote access, SD branch, SD-WAN, and collaboration devices. IDC Canada says that more than 75% of Canadian organizations will adopt on-demand infrastructure by next year during a "digital getaway", and through 2021 two out of five organizations will have to clear technical debt. This clean job is expected to run until 2022.

At the end of 2018, Accenture reported that only 35 percent of companies achieved their expected results from the cloud. This number has barely risen and today stands at 37 percent. However, businesses that are taking advantage of IT channel partners - which are typically large enterprises according to Accenture - have reported receiving the full benefit of their cloud initiatives (48 percent), which is not (35 percent).

Last year, Accenture invested approximately $ 900 million in training and development for its workers. Over the past three years, it has trained more than 300,000 employees in new technologies - including automation, agile development and intelligent platforms. In Canada, Accenture supports various organizations focused on building digital skills - NPONE and employment among them. Jeffrey Russell, president of Accenture Canada, says that every single sector will be heavily clouded.

Russell said, pointing to Avei's recent acquisition of consulting and technology services provider Ottawa, "We are accelerating our M&A pipeline so that we can better serve both Canada and the global markets." " "They will complement our federal and health care business."

On the front lines, solutions and managed service providers tried their best to overcome the hurdle of new customers to install a remote workforce for the first time or with tools they had never optimized before.

"Microsoft teams have exploded," said Craig McQueen, vice president of innovation at SoftGoise. The Toronto-headquartered MSP is a big piece of the pie when it comes to Microsoft business in Canada. Collaboration tools such as teams (such as Microsoft and Vibex branded products, for that matter) are easy to conduct basic meetings, he explains, but are difficult to master and configure for specific situations.

McQueen says that retailers embroiled in legacy technology also need to pay more attention to e-commerce. Many of them quickly realized that they could not scale their e-commerce services enough to accommodate the tidal wave of online traffic.

As 2020 progresses, SoftChares senior vice president Andrew Caprara observes that IT department executives have no ear, "and said that CIOs are taking longer to better understand the customer experience about their services." .

During a recent Cisco webinar - SoftCover is one of its largest partners - Capra noted that what type of deliberation can also help businesses determine where investment is needed. The answer is not always going to be cloudy.

"Not every application is moving to the cloud," he said. "And we're just scratching the surface of intelligent edge devices, making infrastructure even more important."

Wireless technology has come a long way, but many critical services require low latency. In edge computing, data is minimally processed on a device, by a device, or on a local computer or server, not a data center on the other side of the country.