2020: COVID-19 and the year that wasn’t

The year 2020 started much like every other year: software development shops were humming, in-person conferences attracted large crowds, moves to the cloud and for businesses to take on new software delivery initiatives were continuing apace.

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Then we hit March. The explosion of the novel coronavirus would redefine how, when and where we work. The virus forced organizations to close and workers to stay home, requiring businesses to quickly get tools into everyone’s hands, adopt new collaboration software and figure out VPN access to and security of their assets on the fly. With entire organizations working remotely, companies like Zoom and Cisco benefitted from office meetings going digital, while new platform players sprung up to host virtual events that became ubiquitous in 2020.

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Meanwhile, workers struggled to find a balance between working from home and NOT working. Many, in fact, reported that because there were no places to go and not much else to do, they found they were working many more hours than they normally would.

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As we look back at various sectors of the industry, it’s important to note that most of the year’s efforts were aimed at keeping businesses going even as they were turned on their heads.

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It’ll be interesting to see how many of these changes in how we work remain in place once a vaccine has been distributed and things could return to what we used to know as normal.