IT Leaders admit they face an uncertain future

Computing speaks to some of the UK’s leading technology figures to find out their biggest challenges for the future

The Coronavirus pandemic has turned 2020 into one of the toughest year for businesses across the world. It has also forced every organisation to rely on technology more than ever.

Computing 's upcoming IT Leaders Festival (20th - 22nd October), will bring together over 1,000 IT professionals, 40 industry leading speakers over 29 sessions across three streams over three days.

Delegates are free to stick to a single stream or hope between them, building out their schedules however they wish.

Computing asked the steering committee for the IT Leaders Festival for their view of the greatest challenge ahead. The overwhelming response was simple ‘uncertainty'.

"None of us knows what the next year or two is going to look like for our industry or the economy," said Ian Johns, chief architect of King's College London. "Suppliers are changing direction rapidly and it's a full time job tracking where things might be going so that our supply chains stay resilient. Example: can you confidently predict what your video conferencing platform is going to be in 2022? What features will it have?" he added.

Baij Patel, former IT director at 20th Century Fox continued the point on video conferencing, citing "Continued remote working and better supporting our employees at home" as the big challenge.

The theme was echoed by Alan Shields, chief architect at LGSS. "After the Covid-19 lockdown started, it is fair to say, all IT leaders faced one of the biggest challenges of their careers, when sudden all their users were dispersed to the four corners of the earth. Often VPNs and remote gateways that were used by a small number of staff, started to strain at the seams with loads they were never designed to cope with. Procedures reliant on face-to-face contact had to be revised and the whole IT support model was thrown up into the air.

"Now it is fair to say that these challenges were not exactly new, as flexible working and remote computing have been requirements for some time now. The scale required, was the unique element. Therefore, the challenge for the future will be to embed this scaled up flexibility into everything we now design and implement."

Alison Davies, CIO of the Natural History Musem gave a raft of challenges.

"I don't think that there is one single big challenge. For many organisations, funding is going to be the biggest issue for a continuing Covid/ post-Covid environment and their IT leaders will need to ensure that they are supporting those organisations to transform themselves and innovate in ways that are cost-effective.

"However, other organisations - for example, those involved in Covid testing or supply of PPE - have very different pressures which will create different challenges for their IT leaders. One common challenge for all of us is what the post-Covid world is going to look like for our organisations and staff in terms of the balance of home and remote working and how we manage this effectively. For example, virtual meetings are easier with everyone at home, than when there is a 'hybrid' mix of people in the office and remote."

These issues, and many more, will be discussed in depth at the IT Leaders Festival.