2021 IT trends your business should be thinking about

For a large majority of companies and consumers alike, 2021 hasn’t been the easiest of years. With working from home hitting hard and fast, the security of VPNs and devices became even more important. As we approach the halfway point of 2021, now is the time to look ahead to what IT trends are fast approaching.

Here are our top IT trends and predictions your business should be thinking about now to prepare for 2021.

Distributed Cloud for remote working

2020 brought with it all sorts of business challenges however, one core technological challenge which became apparent during lockdown is data storage. With a large percentage of the country working from home, the need to access data remotely and by multiple parties became vital.

According to Gartner, the world public cloud services market is forecasted to have grown by 6.3% this year. This is a big trend we are expecting to see continue into 2021 and beyond with more companies becoming more flexible with remote working the demand for data storage is only set to get bigger.

Cyber security – a continuing IT trend

As well as ensuring we have the right technology to enable us to work from home what has become even more important to many companies now is to ensure cyber security and VPNs are as secure as they can be.

This was an issue that became apparent earlier in 2020 when Covid-19 hit meaning most of us were working from home for a significant amount of time. With this brought along more cyber-attacks calling for companies to review their cyber security.

Although we hope to go back to some kind of normality in 2021 and return to the office, the choice of working from home looks like it may now become more of a flexible option for many office placed staff. This will result in cyber security continuing to be a priority for many businesses.

The evolution of AI

Back in the 1950s AI or Artificial Intelligence was just a science fiction concept, we didn’t have the ability or technology to make it a reality. However, through our ever-evolving digital world, AI has become a bigger part of our life, than we could have imagined. It is used in a variety of sectors and products already, from hospitals and schools to household appliances and cars.

We may still be a few years away from building AI smart enough to potentially overthrow us, however, there are other concerns and preparations companies need to think about if they are considering using AI. Fortinet has a great article which discusses these concerns and the reason why this will be a trend in 2021.

Hyper automation – a modern concept for a modern workplace

In these modern, tech lead times we are often quite impatient, we want everything to happen instantly. We have had automation in many of our systems for quite a few years now, but the idea of hyper automation is a reasonably new concept. This is something which is sure to become bigger in 2021 as an IT trend.

The idea of hyper-automation is exactly what you imagine it to be. It is the concept that everything within a company or office could be automated, should it be. In a world where time is precious and often expensive, the ability to automate where and whenever possible not only saves money but it increases speed and efficiency for multiple processes. We look forward to seeing this crop up multiple times in 2021!

So, those are our top 2021 IT trends which businesses need to know about before the new year arrives. Many are continuations from this year but are likely to be more prominent in 2021.

For more information on our 2021 IT trends or advice on how to be prepared for the new year contact us today.

All that is left is to thank all our current and new customers for their custom throughout this year, we appreciate you all. We look forward to continuing to work with you all in 2021 and beyond.