IT Predictions 2021- Africa Edition

One lesson we will all take away from 2020: predicting the future is unpredictable. Luckily, the tech world surprisingly thrives in unpredictability, as it is unpredictable. Those who can adapt easily are often better off than those who can predict the most accurately.

Many organisations had to shift their plans in 2020, and now in 2021 too. “2020 surprised us with turbulence, forcing for digital hypergrowth. What should we look out for in the IT space in 2021?” deliberated Vishal Chopra, ROW Marketing at Freshworks.”The pandemic has triggered unprecedented disruptions in work, school, social connections and many industries from healthcare to entertainment. IT prioritisation changed.” he said.

As a wide array of companies re-examine the functionality of the workplace and recalibrate to varying levels of a work-from-home or work-from-anywhere, we’ll start to see more traditional office workspaces become periodic collaboration hubs, employers will need to equip their full workforce with the right tech tools, deployment, and IT support to maximize productivity and collaboration – for both working from home and in the workplace. 

The conversation steamrolled into a panel discussion, joining Vishal was Michael Michie from Tripple Ok Law, and Martin Mirero, who recently joined Ajua. “Hybrid office environments will become common, so will distributed workforces,” said Mirero, before Michie chimed in and explained how secure data and systems remains on top as the most important IT function objective for 2021.

Mirero further went on to deliver insights on how data mapping is important, “How much of our customers do we know?” he asked. From the panel discussions, three key trends emerged: Smart Automation, Data Related and infrastructure technology.

Ultimately, organisations will need to commit to a more agile, business-centric approach to security that doesn’t replace their existing security models but rather places security within the context of the organizational strategy. And with the increasingly blurred lines between personal and work devices, a heightened sense of privacy protection will continue to grow amongst consumers and employees working from their home environments.