The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the business environment. Faced with health risks, companies have been forced to embrace remote working arrangements with little to no preparation. Equipped with their work laptop, a free version of Zoom, and their smartphone microphone and earplugs, employees from all around the world have adapted to the change in pace. Their action has saved many companies from shutting down.
The surge of enhanced digital services and activities is not going away, even though businesses are returning to their premises. It becomes essential for companies to consider the post-COVID risks for their operations. The path to recovery needs to include more than just health and safety measures. Staying open and relevant in a post-lockdown world must consist of cybersecurity investments and smart solutions to keep digital activities secure, reliable, and useful. In the first half of 2019, data breaches alone exposed 4.1 billion records, as per https://www.varonis.com/. In 2020, businesses need to prepare for digital risks and faults caused by the COVID response.
The challenges of high web traffic
Slow load times and timed out connections are some of the most common issues that web visitors face when an online platform is overloaded. Quarantine web traffic volumes show no sign of going back to normal. While more and more people are easing out of lockdown, web visits remain high and consistent. For many businesses, it’s time to improve their online presence and digital services to tackle the volume of visitors. Page and services that are slow to load, for instance, translate into dropped conversions and low revenues. It has become essential to address the issue and optimise digital resources accordingly. Improving the server configuration to make the most of the existing hardware can be sufficient for small companies. An auto-scaling provider that can add resources to tackle peaks during the day can be an effective solution for businesses with high traffic.
Ineffective data management tools
Data management tools play a crucial role in leveraging COVID digital growth. Small and mid-sized companies struggle to handle the new volume of data from new customers, leads, and suppliers. Ultimately, your data solution needs to be upgraded to address the requirements in terms of size and audience segmentation. According to a study by Bloor Research, 38% of data migration projects fail, meaning that businesses could lose, damage, or corrupt data irremediably without effective testing protocols, such as https://www.intelligent-ds.com/. The challenge comes in two parts. Firstly, the failure to upgrade can slow down economic recovery. Secondly, failed data migration will also affect post-COVID survival.
The truth behind video conferencing trends
Zoom has recorded a surge in popularity under lockdown. However, Zoom video conferencing solutions bring security issues to the business. Finding and using alternatives for video collaboration that are secure and reliable can offer a new cooperative dimension to co-workers, customers, and partners during recovery. Indeed, as companies have realised they can effectively run remote meetings and save money, video calls will become a key factor of post-lockdown growth. Keeping those communication paths as hack-free as possible is essential.
In the long-term, we can expect a vaccine to help us tackle the coronavirus threat. However, in the meantime, businesses will need to face several COVID waves. Now is the time to address digital issues and ineffective approaches that have been identified during the first wave.
