Posey's Tips & Tricks
Revisiting My 2021 Tech Predictions
Let's take a look back and see how I did with my tech predictions made 12 months ago.
Each year, I like to wrap things up by making a few tech industry predictions for the upcoming year. I’ve always done this for purely for fun, and sometimes my tech predictions tend to be a little bit audacious. Even so, I always think that it’s fun to take a look back at the predictions that I made the previous year to see how I did. So with that said, let’s take a look at my predictions for 2021.
1. Work From Home Will Continue to Be an Option
The first tech prediction that I made for 2021 was that working from home would continue to be an option. This prediction definitely came true. Although there are still a lot of businesses that are operating 100 percent remotely, I know of quite a few who have resumed in person operations. Those businesses that have allowed employees to come back to the office, have largely given their employees a choice of either working at the office or continuing to work remotely.
2. We Will See a Renewed Interest in VR
The second tech prediction that I made for 2021 was that we would soon see a renewed interest in virtual reality or VR. This one absolutely came true. Facebook changed its company name to Meta as a reflection of its newfound focus on the metaverse. Likewise, Microsoft spent a considerable amount of time in its Ignite keynote discussing the metaverse and how it’s Mesh technology would allow people to collaborate with one another in 3D VR spaces.
Even though we have not yet seen widespread public adoption of metaverse-related technologies, the simple fact that huge companies like Facebook and Microsoft are investing tremendous resources in these technologies shows that there is indeed a renewed interest in VR.
3. Tech Conferences Will Only Make a Partial Comeback
My third 2021 prediction was that tech conferences would only make a partial comeback. Admittedly, at the time that I made this prediction I thought that the pandemic would be over by now, but that there would be some tech companies that would continue to hold off on hosting in person events for a little while longer just to make sure that everything was good.
Interestingly, there was a point during the summer where it seemed like the pandemic was mostly over. During that time there were a few live (nonvirtual) tech conferences that took place. Of course the majority of tech conferences continue to be virtual.
Even though my logic behind making this particular prediction ended up being flawed, the prediction more or less came true. I’ll count this one as a win.
4. Work From Home Security is Going to Be a Huge Area of Focus
My fourth prediction for 2021 was that work from home security was going to become a huge area of focus. This was one of those predictions that has proven to be difficult to quantify. Even so, I know of quite a few different organizations that have made a significant investment in protecting their IT resources against users who are working from highly insecure, personally owned devices.
5. We Are Going to See Some Big Product Announcements
My fifth and final prediction for 2021 was that we were going to see some big, and completely unexpected product announcements. Admittedly, I was beginning to think that this prediction wasn’t going to come true, but then on October 5, 2021 Microsoft announced Windows 11. I think that that announcement absolutely qualifies as a big, but unexpected product announcement.
So How Did I Do?
As has been the case in past years, the accuracy of my predictions is open to interpretation. In my opinion though, I scored five out of five for my 2021 predictions, which is a lot better than the accuracy of some of the predictions that I have made in prior years. The real question is, can I do the same thing next year? I have already written my column with predictions for 2022, so we’ll see how I do.
About the Author
Brien Posey is a 22-time Microsoft MVP with decades of IT experience. As a freelance writer, Posey has written thousands of articles and contributed to several dozen books on a wide variety of IT topics. Prior to going freelance, Posey was a CIO for a national chain of hospitals and health care facilities. He has also served as a network administrator for some of the country's largest insurance companies and for the Department of Defense at Fort Knox. In addition to his continued work in IT, Posey has spent the last several years actively training as a commercial scientist-astronaut candidate in preparation to fly on a mission to study polar mesospheric clouds from space. You can follow his spaceflight training on his Web site.