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IT Has Proven Rapid Digital Transformation is Possible - What's Next?

Paul Davenport
AppNeta

The pandemic effectively "shocked" enterprises into pushing the gas on tech initiatives that, on the one hand, support a more flexible, decentralized workforce, but that were by-and-large already on the roadmap, regardless of whether businesses had been planning to support widespread work-from-home or not.

Retiring legacy, hardware-based applications and workflows that committed workers to sharing an office for more flexible and scalable cloud tools, for instance, was already in progress (though relatively slowly) at many businesses well before the pandemic made cloud migration a top priority. Showing business leaders that accelerated "digital transformations" like these could even be pulled off (let alone successfully) was just one business myth that was dispelled as part of the pandemic.

The second myth (at least among wary enterprise decision makers) was that IT teams couldn't successfully deploy network infrastructures that were fit to support widespread WFH. Not only has this been dispelled (again, many of the required changes to enable WFH go hand-in-hand with long-simmering digital overhauls), but many newly-remote teams are actually performing better in their new environment.

However, just because enterprise IT have proven in many cases that they can support an almost fully remote workforce doesn't mean that this will be the enterprise standard going forward.

A study conducted by workplace chat app Blind found that among the biggest Silicon Valley tech companies, for instance, pandemic-induced WFH is leading to workers feeling 68 percent more burnt out than they did last year. While the feeling is subjective, the increase can't be ignored. That said, workers in other industries like healthcare are seeing tangible benefits in conducting work at a distance.

So while WFH will never be a fit for every worker, now that both IT and knowledge workers have debunked the misconceptions of their most skeptical enterprise leaders, it'll be hard to convince everyone to "go back" to the old way once restrictions are finally lifted.

All of this goes to show that as much as we've learned about the positives of WFH in this global "experiment" in decentralization, it's too soon to fully say goodbye to the office as we knew it before the pandemic. Instead, companies will need to adapt to support a more fluid, "anywhere operations" model for work that will allow employees to enjoy similar experiences with the job wherever they log on.

For network operations teams going forward, the biggest challenge will be keeping up with the accelerated pace of change now that they've proven to skeptical business leaders their efficiency (and efficacy) in successfully transforming the network. This will require teams to put a greater emphasis on leveraging comprehensive visibility into end-user performance wherever users are located now that the footprint for potential errors has expanded with workers at home.

Supporting this "new normal" calls for enterprise IT teams to synchronize visibility across their rapidly evolving network footprint to ensure they can monitor and manage the digital experiences of users leveraging any app, from any location, at any point in time. With users logging onto the network from all over the map and adopting new technologies to stay in sync with their times, enterprise IT teams have to seek out visibility into network environments that they don't inherently have clear insights into or control over to ensure successful deployment.

Paul Davenport is Marketing Communications Manager at AppNeta

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Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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IT Has Proven Rapid Digital Transformation is Possible - What's Next?

Paul Davenport
AppNeta

The pandemic effectively "shocked" enterprises into pushing the gas on tech initiatives that, on the one hand, support a more flexible, decentralized workforce, but that were by-and-large already on the roadmap, regardless of whether businesses had been planning to support widespread work-from-home or not.

Retiring legacy, hardware-based applications and workflows that committed workers to sharing an office for more flexible and scalable cloud tools, for instance, was already in progress (though relatively slowly) at many businesses well before the pandemic made cloud migration a top priority. Showing business leaders that accelerated "digital transformations" like these could even be pulled off (let alone successfully) was just one business myth that was dispelled as part of the pandemic.

The second myth (at least among wary enterprise decision makers) was that IT teams couldn't successfully deploy network infrastructures that were fit to support widespread WFH. Not only has this been dispelled (again, many of the required changes to enable WFH go hand-in-hand with long-simmering digital overhauls), but many newly-remote teams are actually performing better in their new environment.

However, just because enterprise IT have proven in many cases that they can support an almost fully remote workforce doesn't mean that this will be the enterprise standard going forward.

A study conducted by workplace chat app Blind found that among the biggest Silicon Valley tech companies, for instance, pandemic-induced WFH is leading to workers feeling 68 percent more burnt out than they did last year. While the feeling is subjective, the increase can't be ignored. That said, workers in other industries like healthcare are seeing tangible benefits in conducting work at a distance.

So while WFH will never be a fit for every worker, now that both IT and knowledge workers have debunked the misconceptions of their most skeptical enterprise leaders, it'll be hard to convince everyone to "go back" to the old way once restrictions are finally lifted.

All of this goes to show that as much as we've learned about the positives of WFH in this global "experiment" in decentralization, it's too soon to fully say goodbye to the office as we knew it before the pandemic. Instead, companies will need to adapt to support a more fluid, "anywhere operations" model for work that will allow employees to enjoy similar experiences with the job wherever they log on.

For network operations teams going forward, the biggest challenge will be keeping up with the accelerated pace of change now that they've proven to skeptical business leaders their efficiency (and efficacy) in successfully transforming the network. This will require teams to put a greater emphasis on leveraging comprehensive visibility into end-user performance wherever users are located now that the footprint for potential errors has expanded with workers at home.

Supporting this "new normal" calls for enterprise IT teams to synchronize visibility across their rapidly evolving network footprint to ensure they can monitor and manage the digital experiences of users leveraging any app, from any location, at any point in time. With users logging onto the network from all over the map and adopting new technologies to stay in sync with their times, enterprise IT teams have to seek out visibility into network environments that they don't inherently have clear insights into or control over to ensure successful deployment.

Paul Davenport is Marketing Communications Manager at AppNeta

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...