With hopes and expectations set high that 2021 will be a year of recovery and recuperation in a world devastated by COVID-19, now is the time to start thinking about what a post-pandemic world will look like. For businesses in industries that have been hit particularly badly, this means the focus is shifting from mere survival to long-term adaptation and growth.

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has upended the way organizations operate. Employees were ordered to work from home, while IT departments were forced to refocus their strategy toward protecting not just office IT systems but also a distributed workforce’s computers and networks.

After the unprecedented events of 2020 and with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic expected to continue throughout much of 2021, it is certainly a difficult time to be in business. Despite widespread economic uncertainty, however, new opportunities have also opened up for organizations across industries.

A couple of decades ago, business computing infrastructures were relatively simple. Most only consisted of an internal network and a preapproved selection of programs. Today, the situation is very different, with the typical business having hundreds of off-the-shelf and custom-made apps in use across a wide range of devices and operating systems.

Given that it was enshrined in law 24 years ago, HIPAA lacks clarity on precisely which measures you need to take to secure electronic protected health information (ePHI). After all, today’s IT environments look very different to how they did in 1996. HIPAA applies to what it defines as covered entities and business associates.

In the world of technology, the only constant is change. Businesses face ongoing pressure to keep ahead of the curve by regularly upgrading their systems and continuously improving their efficiency. But this need is also fueling the rapid rise of electronic waste, or e-waste, which is now one of the largest sources of waste in the developed world.

Migrating to a cloud-based Microsoft 365 deployment brings many business benefits, such as better remote working conditions, centralized management, and streamlined updates. But as with any cloud migration, it also introduces a host of new security challenges.

With education institutions facing enormous pressure to support remote and hybrid learning, it has never been more important to take advantage of technological solutions.

Whether it’s lesson planning software, home learning resources, or even virtual classroom solutions, the education technology (EdTech) market is booming.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has placed enormous pressure on the educational sector to adopt flexible learning environments that ensure students continue to receive high standards of education regardless of their circumstances.

In the hybrid classroom environment, instructors continue to hold in-person classes, while also live streaming them to remote students who must remain at home due to self-isolation and other reasons.

It’s an exciting but also uncertain time for the education sector. As schools and universities continue to grapple with the restrictions introduced to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, there’s a growing need to innovate quickly.

What is easy to forget is that this need was already here to begin with.