The IT Transformation predictions that WILL NOT be taking place in 2021

It would take a smart AI algorithm to predict what 2021 will have in store. As for me, I can already tell you with a human point-of-view what this new year WILL NOT be bringing us!

Who could have seen it coming? The end of every year brings all sorts of predictions on the transformations and emerging trends that will mark the following year. Of course, quite a few people got burnt by this little game in 2019.

 In the 2020 predictions, there’s obviously no trace of the resurgence of VDI infrastructures, the mass use of VPNs, the surge in videoconference applications or the increase in PC demand. No crystal ball could have given us a glimpse of this pandemic and the transformations it has brought about.

In this ever-unstable health and economic context, I’m therefore not going to risk any traditional predictions. I can, however, attempt to find a few certainties as to what WILL NOT be taking place in 2021.

100% teleworking

2020 brought a powerful increase in teleworking. According to estimates published by the European Commission, 40% of EU workers switched to teleworking full time due to the pandemic. Before the crisis only 15% of them had ever done this. Nevertheless, in 2021, teleworking will not remain the only model. Aside from purely technical issues, teleworking poses human and cultural problems.

While most professionals appreciate the comfort, lots of them want to keep up a regular presence at the office in order to not feel too isolated from company life. 2021 will not be the year of 100% teleworking, but it could be the year of hybrid working, in which the home becomes the ideal place of productivity, thanks to suitable equipment, while the office becomes a collaborative space where we go to converse with our colleagues.

Total migration to the cloud

In 2020, companies stepped up their migration to the cloud. And while organisations are looking to increase the agility and resilience of all their business processes, this migration is now also affecting critical applications such as ERP. Despite all that, 2021 will not be the year of the full cloud and information systems will be more distributed than ever. Because you can’t say it enough: the cloud is not an end but a means to respond to a business need. And these needs are increasingly diversified, whether in terms of performance, security, scalability, availability or even savings.

The cloud cannot be the only response, rather it should be part of a global environment including public cloud services, private cloud infrastructure, the traditional data centre and peripheral resources. The challenge of 2021 will be to manage this multitude of environments in a cohesive way. And in this context, the developments within Project APEX will be an undeniable highlight of the year to come.

The end of ransomware

The 2020 crisis has not slowed ransomware down. On the contrary, cybercriminals have taken advantage of the situation to conduct new phishing campaigns and encourage their targets to open infected files or web pages by promising them information on vaccines or masks, government financial aid or even free videoconference applications. Hackers have also freely targeted hospitals specifically, which were already under strain, in order to get their ransoms paid.

It isn’t too risky to say that 2021 will not see the end of ransomware, for two reasons. The first is that the ransomware business is flourishing: a quarter of the victims actually pay the ransom, the average amount of which is currently over one million dollars. The second is that launching an attack using ransomware is becoming increasingly easy. As discussed at the most recent Black Hat Europe conference attackers are becoming more professional and are even offering ransomware-as-a-service platforms. 2021 may be a good time to reconsider your data protection strategy.

Man’s replacement by AI

In 2020, 24% of companies stepped up their investment in artificial intelligence and 42% maintained their existing budgets, despite being confronted with a more than uncertain economic situation. At the start of the year, I mentioned the discrepancy between what was expected of AI in 2020 and what we have really seen emerge.

As in 2020, progress will of course be made in 2021. Once again, I’m not taking any major risks with this prediction. That said, this progress in artificial intelligence still won’t mean the replacement of human intelligence and skills. The Covid-19 crisis has illustrated this once again.

As pointed out by the OECD, AI has an important role to play for healthcare stakeholders in speeding up the search for new treatments, improving diagnosis or even slowing the spread of the virus. But the fight against coronavirus has been waged above all due to the total commitment of doctors and healthcare personnel around the world.

AI allows us to automate, accelerate and optimise many processes, thereby allowing humans to focus on their key mission. In 2021, the human-machine partnership will have the greatest value.