In the past you did not need to ask this question. The old network was unsupported, and the capacity was constraining the business. There were different questions of course; which vendor? where is capacity needed? Layer 2 or Layer 3? and wide area connectivity? In the last year this has changed.

We are awash with predictions for 2022 from analysts, vendors and the channel. Some of these reflect the global market situation, some reflect new technologies looking to be adopted and some simply leave you scratching your head. Not to be outdone, I’ve also created a list of 5 predictions for 2022. It’s deliberately short but reflects discussions with customers around key challenges, as well as newer technologies on the mainstream horizon. This could easily have been a top 10 list but whittling that down to 5 focuses the mind on what will have the most significant impact and resonate with the widest audience. So here goes…

To be able to extract the best value from employees and technology, remote working strategies need to be carefully considered and designed. Existing remote work strategies were mostly implemented as a response to work from home orders and are unlikely to be able to support a hybrid workforce in the long term. Whilst the temporary measures did well to sustain businesses, they lack the flexible, adaptable infrastructure required to sustain hybrid working practices.

In one sense, our cloud journey has reached its destination. There’s little doubt that cloud is now mainstream technology and has been for some time, especially when you consider it’s over 10 years since the NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture was published – and cloud had already been around for a while even then.

Back in November 2020 I wrote an article about the rise of ‘Good Enough IT’ (The Rise of ‘Good Enough’ IT) which looked at the effects the pandemic had taken on spending and planned architecture refreshes and the risks associated with doing nothing. 12 months on and what a year we have had! We all know about the pandemic, so I will just leave that there (but if anyone has a crystal ball to predict the future, please let me know!).

The first report from Logicalis’ 2021 Global CIO Survey, The Changing Role of the CIO: Agents of Change, revealed there has been a notable shift in the role of the CIO, as respondents highlighted customer experience, innovation and operational efficiency as their top priorities. To improve these areas, CIOs increasingly rely on data to understand changing behaviours and adjust their strategy accordingly.

As we emerge from a period of global socioeconomic volatility, we have an opportunity to capitalise on the ‘forced experiments’ of the last year and consider their learnings from such a challenging period.

While 78% of businesses realise the value of digital transformation, only a quarter are using data to drive business strategy

Work used to be a fixed place you go to, but it has evolved into something you do. Top and emerging talent is conscious of this transition and expects more flexibility from employers when it comes to the workplace. Research suggests 77% of Gen X employees would prefer to work for a company that gives them the flexibility to work from anywhere rather than at an expensive office.