This survey was conducted in early July of 2021. Responses to a similar survey conducted in October 2020 indicated that network architectures and security have evolved to meet the challenge of a work-from-home (WFH) world during the pandemic. This survey was conducted to gain insights into how organizations were planning for a post-COVID world.
Post-COVID, the trend to pull back on geographic footprints continues with 42% reducing the size and number of offices while others explore changing to smaller localized hubs.
IT spending is expected to increase across the board for 63% of organizations and stay about the same at 11% of organizations. 26% expect lower IT budgets, probably reflecting the increased spending in 2020 thanks to the move to WFH.
Security architects are in high demand as organizations continue to revamp both cloud strategies and their access controls.
Speaking of cloud, every respondent reported plans for new investments in cloud: either public, private, or hybrid.