Since WFH (Work from Home) and remote work impact IT Ops and application performance, APMdigest is following up our list of 2023 Application Performance Management Predictions with predictions from industry experts about how WFH will impact work and application performance in 2023.

REMOTE WORK STAYS THE NORM

I'm biased. I've worked from home since 1990, when it was a rarity — rare enough that there was even an article about me in some statewide business paper. Yes, there are people like Elon Musk who are trying to force everyone back into the office. I don't think they'll succeed, and I don't think there's any reason for them to succeed. O'Reilly is now completely distributed. We don't have any problems keeping our site up. I believe that any site that wants remote work to succeed can make it succeed. Particularly for things like site development and management: it's all in the cloud. What does going to an office mean when all the infrastructure is remote? At the same time, there are lots of companies where management doesn't believe that remote work can succeed. For those companies, that will be self-fulfilling.
Mike Loukides
VP of Emerging Tech Content, O'Reilly Media

THE HYBRID MODEL

The hybrid model is going to be a buzzword in 2023. However, with global economic uncertainty, most companies are looking for a cost-efficient option best delivered with a remote yet productive workforce. Issues pertaining to productivity are subjective, but companies can manage them by investing in a robust workforce productivity model. This model efficiently utilizes the existing workforce's capabilities to achieve maximum productivity. The companies must prepare a detailed roadmap to invest in the infrastructure, tools and workforce productivity technologies that enable hybrid models to deliver the much-needed balance between excellence and strategy.
Bhavin Sankhat
Delivery Manager Collaboration, Synoptek

EMPLOYEES DEMAND WFH

WFH and remote work are now considered the norm among most companies. This hybrid work model can only succeed if applications deliver adequate performance, at minimum. This includes collaboration via unified communications apps like Teams and Zoom. Organizations will offer WFH/remote work as "table stakes" for many of their employees. Otherwise, workers will leave and prospective new hires will choose to work elsewhere. Hence, WFH and remote work will become expected by job seekers and demanded by many existing employees, and organizations will simply have to offer it to stay competitive.
Dan O'Farrell
VP of Product Marketing, IGEL

FOCUS ON REMOTE APPLICATION PERFORMANCE

While the debate between remote and on-premises work environments rages, the fact that application performance remains critical is often lost in the conversation. Where someone works from, while potentially important, is, in reality, less important than how the applications and services that employee uses perform wherever they are working from. Organizations that do not continue to invest in tools to monitor the performance of applications for their remote workers will find themselves struggling in comparison to other organizations that do invest in such technologies. Because employee productivity can be directly tied to the performance of an application, understanding how remote workers are experiencing applications, why they are having those experiences, and developing remediation plans for employees who struggle, will directly impact corporate productivity and by extension the success of the organization.
Josh Chessman
VP, Strategy & Innovation, Netreo

ONLINE HUB IS THE WORKPLACE OF THE FUTURE

Online and hybrid work is here to stay and digital workplace technology must evolve or team productivity, business processes and customer service will suffer. New digital workplace technology platforms that effectively combine project management, data-driven features, content management, chat and discussions can eliminate wasted time switching between multiple apps. The digital workplace of the future will become an essential online hub, replacing the physical office with effective team collaboration. In the new online hub, teams have visibility, can resolve issues, manage and track tasks and processes, and react in a relevant way.
Dean Guida
CEO, Infragistics

APPRECIATING THE HUMAN ELEMENT

With the future of work still in flux, we'll see continued efforts to manage global workloads while appreciating the human element behind our work.
Ryan Worobel
Chief Information Officer, LogicMonitor

BLURRING THE LINE BETWEEN WORK AND PERSONAL COMPUTING

Going into 2023 the changing job market is shifting some power back to employers. Even so, the quest for top talent will endure and companies will continue to invest in flexible work conditions and technology to attract and retain the best talent. The line between work and personal computing will become increasingly blurred in 2023. End users will expect to use their devices for personal matters and corporate work, side by side. This will increase the need for IT to focus on endpoint and remote work security to protect corporate data while enabling the best and most productive remote work experience for users.
Amol Dalvi
VP, Product, Nerdio

COLLABORATION SOLUTIONS

Efficiency will be a priority in the coming year for companies that are looking to solidify their position in this new world of work. Short-term fixes for communication and workflow issues are no longer enough. While many companies pay down years of tech debt, there's an opportunity for all companies to review which solutions are worth the long-term investment or worth terminating due to low ROI. To stay agile in their unique markets, companies will need to prioritize solutions that empower effective collaboration for permanent hybrid workforces — which is where visual collaboration platforms become invaluable in aligning teams.
David Torgerson
VP of Infrastructure and IT, Lucid Software