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Rhymer Rigby

Rhymer Rigby is a journalist who writes for the FT, The Times and The Telegraph in the UK as well as magazines including GQ to Management Today. He is the author of two books: 28 Business Thinkers Who Changed The World and The Careerist.

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people missing ink productivity

Why your staff aren’t using your amazing productivity tools

  • Digital transformation
  • min read
    • I deal with many kinds of businesses and organizations in my work. They all use different productivity tools. As I get my head around learning that new software for a new project, I've often found those working in the company have no greater knowledge of their tech tools than I do. Many companies find productivity tools don't deliver. I see that, but I think the problem isn't the tools. Nor is it the people who don't know how to use them. It's something in between. Software is becoming more elaborate Most of us don't use much of the capability of our tools. Software company Pendo says we rarely or never use 80 percent of any software product's features. Cloud software companies spend 30 billion US dollars each year developing these features, "dollars that could have been spent on higher-value features and unrealized customer value." This is perhaps one reason comparatively feature-lite Google Docs is so successful. Non-use of features is only half the story. A recent survey of US workers found 68 percent faced challenges with their workplace software. Common gripes included that software was hard to learn, always changing, and many technologies to learn. Interestingly, four in five high earners (earning over 100,000 US dollars) found software challenging, but lower-income earners coped better, with three in five reporting difficulties. Is software training helping? Kaspersky's research found 38 percent of the workforce want more support from their organization when working remotely. One in two saw work-from-home skills as essential. Yet, employees aren't that happy with their on-the-job training. A Degreed and Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning study found only one in five would recommend their employers' learning and development offer. Nearly one in two are dissatisfied with it. Poor development opportunities might drive your employees into competitors' arms – a survey by communications platform Hibob found 56 percent of staff considered learning and development opportunities more important than salary. Receiving training in using new software is by no means the norm. I asked peers if, when new software arrived, they were trained on it. One said, "When we get a new piece of productivity software, it's very much, "Here's something we bought. Now use it." We're never told why and never given instruction." Another said, "Everyone just assumes if you know how to use (Microsoft) Office, you can use everything else." This 'technology will solve all our problems'-thinking may, ironically, be holding companies back when it comes to digitalization. Consultancy firm Gartner lists factors that hold back digital transformation, including not leading from the top, vague goals and too much focus on technology rather than corporate culture. What do we see here? Staff receive new technology and are told to get on with it. Their only participation in the process is as recipients. The pandemic helped us adopt new tools, not just because we had to Considering this problem, the grand, forced work-from-home experiment in the first half of 2020 may have had positive effects. We all had to start using new technologies, and the reason for it was staring us in the face. Companies made support available, staff wanted to learn, and together, they made big strides. The pandemic work-from-home experience filled me with optimism. You heard moans about 'Zoom fatigue' initially, but most people adapted well, supported by their companies. In September 2020, Enterprise Technology Research surveyed about 1,200 Chief Information Officers around the world. They said they thought, compared with before the pandemic, their permanent remote workforce would double in 2021 to about 34 percent. Nearly 50 percent reported productivity had improved with remote work, with only 29 percent reporting productivity reductions. This echoes what I've heard. A major professional services firm partner told me earlier this year, technological changes that once would've taken years had been pushed through in weeks. They had to be. Knowing why you should use the tech isn't the whole answer. You still need to articulate a vision, train people and make sure it works. But having a ready-made case for change, such as a pandemic forcing remote working, was a big part of the answer. One lesson companies can take from 2020 is to show employees why they're introducing productivity tools. Make a compelling argument for them gets you halfway there.
5 ways to transition to hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud: Five reasons businesses like yours are embracing it

  • Cloud and security
  • min read
    • Hybrid cloud makes it easier to move your company to the cloud and make fast progress once you're there. It has rapidly become a crucial enabler in cloud adoption and, iin Flexera's 2020 State of the Cloud survey of 750 business cloud decision-makers worldwide, 81 percent  said they were already using hybrid cloud solutions. But what's driving this?  Let's take a look at the top five reasons organizations are moving to hybrid cloud and what they need to consider when doing it. 1. Hybrid is the natural choice Many companies use hybrid cloud as a part of their cloud journey. It's virtually impossible for a business of any considerable size to move everything to the cloud in one go and the part public, part private, part on-premises approach is a natural way to tackle this. Once there, many organizations remain hybrid because it "just works" and provides what they need. Research backs this up: Leading tech services firm IDG's 2020 State of IT Modernization whitepaper reported 89 percent of those using hybrid cloud had tried all-private or all-public cloud before seeing the need for change. 2. A flexible and affordable solution So, what exactly does the hybrid cloud offer? It provides great flexibility and agility. Public cloud means that your IT demands are a little bit like electricity or water. You pay for as much as you use: if you need more, you can buy it easily and incrementally. The public cloud is highly scalable. The private cloud is often preferred for more sensitive data. What's more, you can use multiple public and private clouds depending on your needs. 3. Hybrid cloud can help with security concerns Government tech solutions provider DLT's 2020 report on hybrid cloud security found hybrid cloud users' biggest security concerns were wrongly configured set-ups, unauthorized access and malware. Implemented well, a hybrid cloud security strategy can help provide the right level of security for the right data. For instance, more sensitive data can be placed in the private cloud part of the hybrid infrastructure. An ideal hybrid solution will also help to support compliance and will offer a suite of helpful security benefits, for example, system hardening and vulnerability shielding for protected systems. The threat landscape is changing faster than ever before; partnering with the right cloud and security providers is one of the best ways to ensure your data is kept as safe as possible and you have a clear overview of security at all times. 4. Hybrid cloud for the way we work today Hybrid cloud is your stepping stone towards the public cloud. This is aligned with current workplace trends such as flexible working and the gig economy. It means your data is available anytime, from anywhere, using any device. This is particularly important with employees increasingly working from home and other locations and supporting a workforce, which is 'fuzzy' at the edges and may include freelancers or contractors. With a flexible, distributed workforce, it's safer to have data stored in the cloud and not on devices themselves. The move to hybrid cloud means that laptops and mobile phones left in taxis or stolen with personal and corporate data on them should be a thing of the past. Using the public cloud means you'll be using the very latest technology without upfront investment. Cloud providers need to compete for business, so often invest in cutting-edge technologies and security that gives them – and also you – a competitive advantage. Even multinationals find it difficult to keep up with tech trends in infrastructure if they rely solely on in-house provision. Like other forms of expert outsourcing, it can mean lower costs too. Finally, it can be a real boost to small businesses as it offers them access to the kind state-of-the-art tech that was once the preserve of billion-dollar companies. 5. Hybrid cloud: means choosing the technology that's best for you Hybrid cloud combines the best of both worlds: customized on-premises technology when you need it, and flexible public cloud services for the rest. By combining both, the hybrid approach can also minimize risk. Rather than putting all your technology eggs into a single basket with one cloud provider, you can mitigate risk by testing and moving over services when the time is right. This is particularly important if you're using a lesser-known provider than the big global tech giants like Microsoft and AWS. For newly-founded companies like tech start-ups, being "born in the cloud" and using SaaS (software-as-a-service) cloud technologies is the new normal. But for a more established business with more complex IT requirements and legacy systems to integrate, hybrid cloud is a game-changer – allowing them to migrate selected services with minimum risk. Businesses of all sizes are now investing in hybrid cloud because it's the most effective, easy and productive way to go.
future of work for IT

IT workers are in hot demand, but their future looks set to change

  • Talent
  • min read
    • For many people, the future of work can look like a perilous place, with their jobs under threat from a technology-driven combination of artificial intelligence and machine learning, automation or robotics. IT workers are in a slightly different position here than most – often they're introducing these technologies into the workplace. Even so, they'll still be affected. Just because you make the changes, it doesn't mean you're entirely immune to them. Overall the outlook for humans in industry is actually pretty positive. According to The Future of Jobs, a 2020 report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), there are big changes coming in the next three years. But it's not all bad news. The report also says 41 percent of businesses "plan to expand their use of contractors for task-specialized work and 34 plan to expand their workforce due to technology integration." WEF estimates that by 2025, the shift from human to machine labor could displace 85 million jobs while creating around 97 million new roles. That's a net gain of 12 million jobs. The robots will become job creators WEF says this change in the roles people will perform will mean a skills gap. The top skills employers surveyed believed would rise in importance as we approach 2025 include critical thinking and analysis, problem-solving and self-management skills like active learning, resilience and flexibility. Similarly, the demand for cybersecurity professionals is likely to continue to grow. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that employment of information security analysts will grow 31 percent from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all occupations. Of course, some IT roles will decline. For instance, the need for those who still know older programming languages such as COBOL and C is likely to fall steeply as companies migrate legacy systems to the cloud, aided increasingly by automation and machine learning. The cloud is also likely to result in a fall in the need for traditional systems administrators. And there will be more jobs for IT professionals If you're working in IT and reading this, you're probably feeling quite optimistic about the future. Well, hold on: the good news doesn't stop there. According to Deloitte's report The Future of Work In Technology, company tech teams will shift from being essentially internal service providers to "business cocreators" whose worth will lie in the value they deliver to the business rather than in the services they deliver. Experts quoted in the report say: In some ways, this is nothing new. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, we saw machines take over the work of human muscle. In the late 20th century, we saw computers take over routine menial jobs such as basic clerical work and filing. This is just the next iteration of this process. What's more, two centuries of nearly unbroken technological advances have not resulted in mass unemployment in every industry. Rather, they have resulted in new jobs replacing old, and these new jobs tend to be higher up the value chain – more interesting and more creative. Of course, those working in IT will need to learn new skills, and senior IT managers will need to change as their departments become a central part of the business rather than a purely support function. One area that IT really needs to improve on is diversity. Business tech independent review site TrustRadius's 2020 report on women in tech found 72 percent felt gender inequality at their company had stayed the same worsened in the past year, perhaps because women were twice as likely to be unable to work or made redundant because of COVID-19. The pandemic may have made working life better for some women though, with 58 percent those surveyed for Kaspersky's 2020–21 Women in Tech report saying remote working was good for gender equality. When better diversity means increased profits (crucially, Harvard Business Review points out, only if company employees see diversity as normal) and with financial pressures brought about by the pandemic, improving diversity should be a priority. COMPTia's 2021 IT Industry Outlook challenged businesses to go further than training and mentoring initiatives and commit publicly to their diversity goals:
cloud service

Can migrating to the cloud benefit your business?

  • Digital transformation
  • min read
    • It's tempting to imagine the cloud as an actual cloud full of ones and zeros, but it's really a broad range of computing services such as virtualized IT infrastructures, storage, data processing and apps which are offered over a network. A public cloud is one where these services are available to anyone (either free or paid) and accessed over the internet. Most known examples of public clouds are Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. A private cloud differs in that it's designed for the use of only one organization. A hybrid cloud, as its name suggests, combines elements of both. Many businesses also use multi-cloud strategies. This means they employ more than one public cloud platform and may also use a hybrid cloud. What sort of cloud is right for my business? There are advantages and disadvantages to all types of cloud. These tend to center around cost and security, a private cloud being both more expensive and, theoretically, more secure for protecting your business data. A company that wants quick access to its data from anywhere might use a public cloud – the market-leading suppliers of cloud storage have a strong focus on providing the highest level of security. A business which holds large quantities of sensitive data, such as legal and financial, and some tech companies, might choose a private cloud. Increasingly, however, many companies go hybrid – critical data may be stored privately, while less important information and resources such as apps are held in the public cloud. We're all heading for the clouds Cloud adoption is growing strongly. According to research by Kaspersky, 37 percent of small- to medium-sized businesses and 50 percent of all enterprises are either using the cloud or planning to increase their use of the cloud. There are good reasons for this. Maintaining IT infrastructure and the associated expertise in-house is expensive and keeping up to date with new technologies can mean running just to stand still. For these reasons, even large multinationals often buy in their cloud services. One of the other great drivers is changing working habits: increasingly staff is either distributed or working remotely. If everything they do is in the cloud, it can be accessed anywhere and from any device. Even so, Kaspersky also found that the speed of cloud adoption varies considerably by industry sector and geographical location. For small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the arguments in favor of cloud adoption are perhaps the most compelling: the cost of maintaining IT infrastructure in-house is often prohibitive; as a result, many have 'made do' with technology that is far from cutting edge. Now they can buy everything in and have access to the same kind of IT and processing power as large companies. SMBs can use the latest productivity software; they can mine data to gain greater insights. What's more, cloud computing is also highly scalable. If you need more cloud services, you just buy them. It's like buying electricity – you just pay for what you use. Traditionally, SMBs have lacked the specialist skills and capabilities to set up infrastructure-as-a-service (Iaas), so they tend to use instead software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, which are far simpler to implement and remove the need to maintain the underlying software. Security in the cloud Set featured image When the cloud was very new, security was a concern for businesses of all sizes. Much of this was down to the regular news of data breaches and anxiety around the idea that sensitive data might be stored 'off-site'. However, cloud security is generally highly secure; data is encrypted which reduces the chances of a breach, and a private cloud can be used for sensitive data. The cloud also allows you to store data within a certain country, which may be necessary to comply with data protection laws. For companies with distributed workforces who use multiple devices, the cloud can also have significant security benefits. Finally, cloud security offerings are now fully mature and offer a balance of peace of mind and ease of use. Businesses are starting to acknowledge that including cloud usage into their business processes may result in better security than they used to have when running them entirely on their premises. In some ways, what we're seeing with the cloud is the next development of the internet: greater speeds, better connectivity and improved security are making it possible for even more functionality to reside on the network so it can be accessed from anywhere. Some companies such as tech start-ups have jumped right in, but many companies are still getting used to this brave new world of location-independent productivity. However, in five years' time, it will be the norm for everyone. Is now the right time for your business to transition to the cloud?

You need a Security Operations Center – and you can afford it

  • IT infrastructure
  • min read
    • A Security Operations Center (sometimes called an Information Security Operations Center) is exactly what its name suggests – a team of technical experts in a facility dedicated to the organization's cybersecurity. Its job is to work around the clock to minimize risks, stay up-to-date on threats and risks, and respond to attacks on computers and networks. It's essentially the IT equivalent of a normal security center, the difference being that the team is in front of computers, not CCTV. Threats from cybercriminals are constantly evolving: volumes of data are growing exponentially and legislation is changing fast. As technologies such as 5G and the internet of things (IoT) become mainstream, hackers and other digital criminals have even more options when it comes to gaining access to companies' systems and data. Not only are the risks increasing, but so are the associated financial costs. According to research by Kaspersky, in 2020, the costs of cleaning up after a breach reached an average of $1.09m for enterprise. Why do you need to invest in a SOC? So why do only one-third of businesses have a Security Operations Center? In the past, dedicated SOCs have largely been the preserve of big companies. This was because they were expensive and consumed significant resources and expertise. But it's also because small- and medium-sized businesses have not, traditionally, been as data-intensive as their sprawling multinational counterparts. However, this is changing for a variety of reasons, some positive and some negative. Firstly, even the smallest businesses are now data businesses. They can mine data from customer communications for insights, monitor social media and respond intelligently to use customer data for targeted campaigns. This can mean a lot of data. As business processes move towards total automation, the IT and technology functions in the business have to take on more responsibility for managing these increased risks. Now, more attacks are carried out by highly skilled attackers, so professional security operations teams need to work harder to block them. In tandem with this, cybercriminals, such as the writers of ransomware, no longer just go for the big fish. Rather, they target everyone – the difference between the percentage of small businesses and large businesses attacked is now negligible. Indeed, according to a 2019 cyber-readiness study by the multinational insurers Hiscox, the average cyber-breach costs a small- to medium-sized business $77,000. Although far less than the hit on enterprises, it's a sobering and unexpected cost to foot. It's time to fight back. Or, quite literally, SOC it to them. SOCs are now for all business sizes It's not all bad, though. According to Kaspersky's research, security budgets are growing. What's more, it's now easy and cost-effective to buy in much of the complex tech and expertise from specialists. For small- and medium-sized businesses, this reduces the cost and the headache and answers the "Where do I start?" question. You can set up a SOC without looking at developing costly expertise in-house. There's less hassle and costs are predictable. This removes many of the barriers to an organization launching a SOC. For mid-sized businesses, the boot (or rather the SOC) is now on the other foot. According to Kaspersky's Sergey Soldatov, now is the time to seize the opportunity to establish your SOC: Big businesses are looking to improve their SOCs too In fact, even for large businesses, using a bought-in SOC is becoming increasingly attractive. A recent survey by the SANS Institute, which specializes in IT security, found that specialists working in SOCs had limited satisfaction with their performance but did not have a clear view of how to improve it. This is likely to be because the world of cybersecurity has become so complex that big companies are struggling to keep up with the fast-changing landscape and develop sufficient expertise in-house. Here, the cloud offers an instructive comparison. It has revolutionized the way many companies approach their IT needs. It means that medium-sized businesses can afford the sort of sophisticated solutions that were once only available to multinationals. In fact, many global giants have also discovered that it's more cost-effective and efficient to use outside specialists. We are now seeing something similar with security – increasingly, high-end SOCs are now within everyone's reach, regardless of how big (or small) you are.
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About Secure Futures

Secure Futures magazine is your go-to business guide for opinions, trends and insight into the world of technology and cybersecurity. We help your business to bring on the future. Brought to you by Kaspersky, the global cybersecurity experts.

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