2020 was one of the most eventful years in recent memory, but while 2021 was a bit less chaotic than its predecessor, it was no less eventful in the world of tech and IT. There has been a slew of major announcements, product updates and policy shifts over the last twelve months, and as things start to wrap up for the holidays, we’re looking back at the most significant changes.
Joining us this week are staff writers Bobby Hellard and Connor Jones, who’ll be sharing their picks for the most important stories and trends of 2021, and discussing the impact they’ve had for businesses over the year.
Highlights
“I think this year has marked a line for ransomware gangs, they've reached the limit of what they can realistically achieve without being put in handcuffs. And so, it's still too lucrative for the business to die off altogether. But I think we may see a shorter shelf life for ransomware companies, and there's an increasing awareness among them that law enforcement are starting to band together a little bit better.”
“The remote working thing has certainly been on the minds of most CIOs and IT departments this year, I think it's fair to say, at the start of the year, there was a lot of debate as to whether or not going back to the office was necessary and what level of return organisations wanted. And all those preparations and refitting offices, because that was another major thing. It wasn't just going back to how it was before. It was a return to the office. But it wasn't a return to any of the working practices that we had pre-pandemic, a lot of organisations were looking at things like hybrid meetings, and using offices much more for collaboration and brainstorming rather than just getting people in and sitting them at desks.”
“So there was a lot of political pressure that came Mark Zuckerberg's way this year, and for good reason.There's privacy concerns, there's health and safety concerns. There's a lot of concerns for Facebook. But 2021 will probably be remembered for the fact that it's no longer Facebook. It's now Meta. And that's to suit its new focus: the metaverse.”
Read the full transcript here.
Footnotes
- The IT Pro Podcast: Looking forward to 2021
- VMware completes $64 billion spin-off from Dell
- Supreme Court denies Oracle appeal over JEDI contract
- What is the Log4Shell vulnerability?
- Log4Shell: New numbers reveal the scale of the critical software exploit
- SMBs rethinking return to office amid Delta surge
- Zoom charts course for ‘hybrid’ office return
- Omicron variant: Should your business go back to working from home?
- Microsoft will put hybrid work into practice with HQ reopening
- TestZone unveils new platform to keep employees socially distanced
- Post-pandemic tech jobs
- Zoom: From pandemic upstart to hybrid work giant
- Zoom to start testing ways of monetising free users
- Zoom update aims to make video calls feel like in-person meetings
- Zoom's new hardware promises the 'ultimate home office' experience
- 'Work is no longer a place' Zoom says after posting 191% year-on-year growth
- Microsoft Teams introduces 'Essentials' tier for small businesses
- Mesh for Teams is Microsoft's pitch for the metaverse
- Microsoft Teams moves beyond the workplace
- Microsoft Teams gets more collaborative in bid to fight Zoom
- A new age of collaboration tools
- The social impact of remote collaboration
- Salesforce expects at least half of employees to continue working remotely
- Salesforce claims the 9-to-5 workday is dead
- REvil ransomware gang members arrested in international operation
- Colonial Pipeline CEO confirms $4.4 million payment to DarkSide hackers
- BlackMatter ransomware victims reclaim data using secret decryptor
- Is this the end of the road for ransomware?
- Ransomware operators in turmoil after Colonial Pipeline backlash
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