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IT Pro Podcast

The IT Pro Podcast: Looking back on 2021

With another eventful year in tech behind us, we look back as some of the major trends

The IT Pro Podcast: Looking back on 2021

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

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