Some days it feels quaint to look back at how we worked five short years ago. Video calls were not common. Hybrid working was a niche concept. Most of our days in the office were spent plugged into a desk. Most of our days were AT the office.
One thing that recently struck me is how much the invisible infrastructure supporting our physical offices has changed in the last three years. Everything has been enhanced or rebuilt including:
- VPNs (everyone, all the time)
- Cybersecurity (working from home opens up new attack vectors)
- Office Bandwidth (fewer people are there, but the demand for bandwidth has still increased)
- AV equipment (if there is no video, it is not going to be used)
- WiFi expansion and additional bandwidth (cameras on means wandering to find a place with a decent background)
- Personal equipment (there is more of it than ever before, needing to achieve more)
- Cloud/data center updates to support all the above (data doesn’t just happen)
Our relationship with technology anymore is simply “it should work without thinking about it.” When technology visibly intrudes into our lives it either comes by invitation (e.g., Apple stuff) or with extreme annoyance (e.g., modems, routers, logins). There is not much that lands in between.
This makes for a difficult mission for corporate IT teams. They need to quickly build new, resilient, easy-to-use networks and capabilities without introducing challenges. It is like magic when it works. It hurts when it does not. Users do not give much leeway or credit to the technology teams that work tirelessly to keep the company and them securely online. It is a tough road.
Which is what makes the rapidity of the change so incredible. It is easy to see how much the physical space has changed; we literally see it anytime we walk into a new office. It is harder to grasp how much the invisible infrastructure has changed with it. It is not as easy as just plugging in a bunch of cameras and monitors.