January 2021: QuisLex 2021 Predictions

January 05, 2021

January 2021: QuisLex 2021 Predictions

Happy New Year from all of us at QuisLex!

2020 was a challenging year, one to which many of us simply say, “good riddance!”  We are all anxious to move forward, with hope and optimism that treatments and vaccine will help turn the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic sooner rather than later. 

While much talk centers around returning to the way things were, it’s clear that in any number of ways we are embarking on a “new normal.” Our team recently discussed this desire to get ‘back to normal’ and shared some predictions for changes we expect to see in 2021 and beyond that will impact corporate legal departments and the IT teams that support them.

QuisLex 2021 Predictions

Remote Working:

Even when the pandemic recedes, many people will continue working from home for the foreseeable future. People relocated away from major cities and businesses are downsizing their real estate footprint, which will have significant implications on IT and cybersecurity. This is no longer a temporary situation, so IT teams will need to remediate some of the quick and dirty solutions that were deployed to deal with the sudden and massive shift to remote work environments. They will seek better remote support capabilities, collaboration platforms and systems better suited for a highly distributed workforce.

New Technologies:

The remote work trend will further accelerate movement to the cloud in 2021. Companies reluctant to host sensitive data in the cloud will be under increasing pressure to change their approach, and there will be no going back to on premise collaboration tools. Organizations will increasingly move their application development to low-code and no-code platforms that will multiply developer productivity and significantly decrease the time to deploy such applications. Incidentally, low-code platforms are predominantly cloud-based and very well suited for remote collaboration.

Cybersecurity:  

2021 will likely bring an increase in ransomware and other money-making schemes. In addition to encrypting files and selling the decryption key back to the victim, thieves will steal data and threaten to divulge it unless ransom is paid. Increased attacks will continue to surface due to remote work, along with expanded use of AI by malicious actors conducting offensive cyber-AI operations.

As they rapidly and urgently pivot to utilizing cloud-based systems, IT departments will invest heavily in securing and monitoring their cloud-based footprint, exponentially increasing the adoption of zero-trust platforms.

 

Litigation and discovery:

With COVID and the change of administration and regulatory enforcement priorities, large-scale litigations may continue to be on hold for several months – at least until matters move more into focus, as they are an exception and cannot be put off or delayed. those issues are resolved and things are normalized. However, in early 2021 expect to see data breach remediation.

To be clear, nobody has a crystal ball, and the world remains filled with uncertainty and strife – with respect to the ongoing pandemic, political and racial tensions, economic conditions and much more. But our team at QuisLex stands ready to continue supporting clients through it all, as you’ve trusted us to do for many years. Together, we will emerge strong and successful on the other side. 

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