Thoughts on 2021: Positive Outlook for Tech & Bandwidth Networks

If you’re like me, you’re hoping for a positive change to normal in 2021. Relieved to leave the challenges of 2020 behind, I see a refreshed and renewed spirit to what this year holds. And while predictions in this still-tumultuous time seem elusive, there are a few things I know for sure as we collectively turn the page to a new and more promising time.

As much as we’d love to wave the proverbial magic wand and make the previous year disappear, the effects of COVID, shutdowns and economic repercussions will take many months, if not years, to fully quantify and overcome. This means ongoing uncertainty and continued shifting sands for our lives, business and the economy. No quick fix. No instant recovery, unfortunately. 

But despite this fuzzy picture of tomorrow, we need to look at the future differently, gathering energy from the knowledge that uncertainty doesn’t have to cause indecision. In fact, it’s often that very instability and tenuous feeling that makes way for resilience and growth. A prolonged state of living outside our comfort zone forces us to innovate, adapt and grow, bringing about more than we would have achieved without it. Just as the widespread growth of electricity and automobiles paved the way for a renaissance after the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, today’s advancements—specifically network technology and connectivity with one another—will follow suit. It’s from this optimistic perspective that I share my expectations of how technology and bandwidth will evolve in 2021.

Progress, Growth and Rebuilding Inevitable

The beauty of the human spirit lies in the always-on pursuit of building and improving. We often see our biggest advancements and our greatest achievements emerge during or immediately after challenging times. Technology--and those who support it--will be no different as we emerge from 2020 and begin to build our stories of recovery and resilience. Technology has always been relevant and vital, but it will take center stage as we emerge from the economic fog of last year. I believe that tech, particularly technologies that increase connections or enhance our ability to network and interact with each other, will continue to be the foundation that stabilizes us.

Demand for Bandwidth Will Continue to Accelerate at a Rapid Pace

In the throes of 2020 COVID shutdowns, workplaces closed and students and staff alike dispersed to home offices and remote work locations. In an unprecedented strain on our networks, bandwidth demand not only increased, but surged into something entirely different than anything we’d seen before. This bandwidth demand will steadily continue to grow well into the foreseeable future. Bandwidth-aggressive activities and pastimes will increase, as we continue our work-from-home, school-from-home lives, combined with the endless addition of new, network-enabled devices to the network and punctuated by downtime activities such as streaming entertainment and online gaming. 

As architects of this delivery system, we must provide a path to unlimited network capabilities to allow for ever-evolving bandwidth-aggressive product and application designs. The reality is our technologies, and the networks that support them, aren’t going anywhere but up. Those companies and professionals that support this will be at the forefront of tomorrow’s growth and innovation.

 Data Centers in the Limelight

The near-overnight transition to remote work in 2020 emphasized the need for flexible, scalable, cloud-accessible environments, even for those people who previously had been cloud-resistant. Those who previously relied upon on-premise cloud configurations quickly realized the inherent shortcomings of that choice during a pandemic: IT workers weren’t allowed on premises, unmanned offices became risks and troubleshooting became difficult or impossible.

Hybrid cloud, and the data centers required to support it, is now enjoying newfound interest and adoption, especially as risk-abatement concerns remain top of mind for IT professionals. As more storage and computing resources move closer to the edge of the network, this new model will further build the case for data center proliferation. I recently read that the current 10,000 data centers that comprise the centralized cloud will require tens of thousands more in just the next five years. These scaled-down yet vital data centers at the edge of the network are critical to emerging technologies and ideals like IoT and will present opportunities to think differently about the role of network connectivity. To peer even further into my crystal ball, the footprint and make up of data centers will change dramatically as edge computing takes hold. Expect to see this in the form of empty retail properties (vacant due to the economic challenges of the pandemic) being converted into edge computing facilities that push content closer to the end-user...and each of us deeper into the cloud.

Edge Gets a Boost

And while we’re on the edge topic, I’m especially excited that this trend is a promising one. The move to virtualized edge will finally shift from a wish-list item to a priority for many in 2021. If last year taught us anything, it is that an increasingly remote workforce and the emergence of a new generation of cloud-native applications will drive a need for a more dynamic cloud model. Resources for computing and storage must move closer to where the content is consumed and created. Those who are able to meet the expectations of consumers and developers will prosper, and those who cannot will be left behind. I couldn’t be more thrilled that Ciena continues to create an ecosystem that facilitates and enables this growth and demand for flexibility. Watch this blog for more on this topic next month.

Employee Engagement (Finally) Gets Its Due

To ensure remote employees remain productive and efficient, work-from-home arrangements necessitate flawless technology performance. Technology will be used to support workers in a seamless fashion, allow them to connect securely and reliably, and support efficient and optimal work regardless of location. While we know that technology has become vital to accomplishing our daily tasks, I believe that 2020 set the stage for employee connectivity to move further from enabling us to “do our jobs” to being an indispensable lifeline for creating emotional connections between colleagues, staff and clients. 

We are witnessing a real-time shift towards technology-enabled employee engagement, and it is this bridge that allows workers to perform tasks in any location AND stay connected to business-relevant contacts, too. Those who can evolve and even improve our ability to deliver this connection will be at the forefront of facilitating growth and emotional well-being for our nation’s workers.

The Key to Positive 2021 Change? Mindset.

Just like its predecessor, 2021 will undoubtedly have speed bumps and difficulties (albeit fewer, we hope). But with every challenge we will face in 2021, we can find opportunities. The question I pose to you is this: Will we meet new challenges with a growth mindset, or will we remain reactionary and relegate ourselves to the status quo? In my life I’ve found the best results don’t come from times when things are “going fine.” Instead, I would encourage us all to search for opportunity in adversity and explore ways to grow from the circumstances in which we find ourselves at any particular moment. 

None of us has a crystal ball. We’re not sure what will happen with COVID. No one knows if the economy will enjoy a quick shot-in-the-arm rebound (pun intended), or if it will be a slow march to pre-COVID times. But one thing is certain: remaining optimistic about the possibilities will keep our eyes on the horizon, carry us further and deliver more opportunities than a glass-half-empty approach.

Finding Opportunity in Uncertainty

Though I appreciate that uncertainty can evoke negative feelings for many, it’s also important to remember that times of unrest bring about their own possibilities. Whether we create net-new technologies, innovate new products or adapt existing ones, each of us can craft wins and successes we would have otherwise never enjoyed. At a time where much in our world is seemingly out of control, let us focus on the things we do have power over, and let us use this very unpredictability as a catalyst for positive change. Uncertainty in the world today has indeed brought to our doorsteps an unbelievable amount of opportunity. Let us embrace the uncertainty and allow it to fuel the growth we all long for, this year and into the future.