COVID-19: In Uncertain Times, IT Can Help Foster a Collaborative Response

C. Drake

Summary Bullets:

• As China’s IT industry returns to work, new geopolitical tensions compound economic uncertainties which, if not addressed, could threaten public health and economic recovery.
• Global IT companies can help to find collaborative solutions that encourage a change of attitude and which emphasize international cooperation and resource sharing.

In recent days, the world has watched optimistically as travel and other restrictions in China’s Hubei province, where the global COVID-19 pandemic started, have been slowly relaxed and as manufacturing in China progressively returns to normal. This optimism also extends to China’s IT manufacturing sector, with Inspur, Lenovo, Huawei, and other IT vendors all reporting a return to normal production.

COVID-19: Hyperscalers Ramp Up, Clamp Down to Meet Soaring Demand

 

Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

• Hyperscale cloud providers report a surge in demand for both their on-demand infrastructure services and productivity and collaboration services

• Past experience is so far helping guide capacity planning but there are still some limitations that are impacting performance as some users and applications involved in critical healthcare and emergency services get priority

The COVID-19 pandemic is driving businesses in virtually every field to deploy a remote workforce model overnight. This shift comes with immediate need for cloud-based productivity and collaboration applications. Organizations are also looking to virtualize other elements of their infrastructures, and thus requiring more cloud capacity to support these changes.

COVID-19: Impact on Cybersecurity

Summary Bullets:

R. Muru

• Vendors are prioritizing portfolio and marketing effort on the most common types of COVID-19 related cyber events, covering phishing and identity attacks.

• Cybersecurity vendors are reconfiguring their service and support functions encompassing remote working. Vendors face internal operational challenges in scaling up quickly with the right level of security posture.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a huge impact globally across families and communities. In turn, this is having a massive impact on businesses of all sizes, including global multinationals. Almost all Fortune 100 and 500 companies have experienced major disruptions to their operations and markets, resulting in some economists predicting losses of more than $1.1 trillion worldwide. COVID-19 has created shutdowns and major disruptions in employee working styles and supply chains in all sectors, and in particular across government, finance, manufacturing, IT, and media. As these sectors reconfigure their operations, one of the most critical issues arising are increased cyber-attack threats as organizations become more dependent on technology.

COVID-19: Don’t Miss This Moment – Invest Now in Data Literacy

Ted Cuzzillo,
Principal Analyst – Data Analytics

Summary Bullets:

• The world will find its way through the COVID-19 pandemic with data.
• Data analysts will be among the ordeal’s heroes, and organizations with strong data literacy throughout will recover the fastest. Invest now in data literacy.

Doctors, nurses, and hospitals are the frontline heroes for the acute victims of the COVID-19 virus. But data is everyone’s compass — today as ‘the curve’ signals danger and eventually as the curve signals hope.

It’s a good time to understand data. Many organizations in the western hemisphere now face their greatest peril of our lifetimes. Those that survive will eventually face another daunting task: rebuilding in a new, different economy. Understanding data – knowing how to read it, organize it, prepare it, analyze it, and explain it – will be crucial.