What Does Technology Look Like for Your Business in 2021?

By: Kevin Hinterlong

2020 is the perfect example of how it starts isn’t always how it goes. This year started with businesses focused on growth and implementing tech trends but quickly pivoted to shifting business remotely.

The global pandemic challenged IT departments around the globe to enable the ability to work remote seemingly overnight. Businesses quickly created work from home policies, and hardware spends increased to meet the new demand. 64% of businesses worldwide transformed to enable remote workforces, and more than half of all companies plan to continue flexible work policies after the pandemic ends. (Ziff Davis LLC, 2020)

As businesses cut back in certain areas, technology will continue to play a vital role in 2021 budgets. Reliable technology is imperative in maintaining productivity in the new remote world and moving business forward.

What does this mean for IT buyers? Businesses will continue to allocate budget dollars across hardware, software, cloud services, and managed IT services. Historically the largest percentages of budgets have gone to hardware and software. And that will continue to be true in 2021. However, we would anticipate that the percentage of hardware spend will be reduced, while cloud and managed services will increase. The primary focus of hardware budgets will go towards laptops to aid in working remotely and an increase in security appliance purchases.

We expect that most businesses will focus their technology budget dollars on hosted cloud services and managed services. Cloud services are an integral part of successfully operating remotely. An estimated 35% of companies have already migrated or plan to accelerate migration to the cloud in 2021. (Ziff Davis LLC, 2020) Managed IT services take a primary spot in 2021 budgets with the increased security concerns due to employees working remotely.

None of us expected 2020 to be the year that it was. But as we all figure out what the “new normal” is for our business, Eder Casella Technology is here to help. One of our IT specialists would be happy to assess your needs to tailor a solution to fit your business and budget needs.