A dominant staple of No Jitter since its early days has been its ability to blend different perspectives and areas of expertise. Contributors range from technology consultants who work directly with enterprises to address communication and collaboration needs to analysts researching the industry's future. They provide critical insight to our enterprise IT communications and collaboration professionals' audience. And both groups of No Jitter contributors ended 2021 with a bang, sharing their thoughts on the year that was and what we can expect from 2022.
Over the last two weeks, many No Jitter contributors shared their perspectives on some of the biggest enterprise IT communications and collaboration stories and issues of 2021 in our end-of-the-year editorial series. In addition, we re-shared some of the top No Jitter content from the last year. Below, I recap 10 of these articles and highlight the key topics and themes discussed in each.
1. In 2022, the UCaaS Market Will Belong to the Chimps
Author: Phil Edholm
Looks at: UCaaS adoption
Insight recap: COVID-19 created and accelerated UCaaS adoption by three to five years. As seen in successive waves of change, a market transformation like this has often resulted in a new market gorilla. But when it comes to UCaaS, don’t count on that happening just yet. Edholm lists his four UCaaS market leaders — Cisco, Microsoft, RingCentral, and Zoom — and explains why each has come out of this UCaaS adoption tornado positioned for “Main Street success.”
2. Metaverse Collaboration: A View from the Enterprise
Author: Tom Nolle
Looks at: Communications and collaboration apps
Insight recap: One topic that was on the mind of many technology vendors this year was the idea of the metaverse becoming the hub of work-life and collaboration. Microsoft and Meta both shared their vision of this future. But what happens when these metaverse visions collide (or converge)? Nolle looks at the idea of converging metaverses and examines the collaboration benefit of VR and avatars.
3. The Top 10 Enterprise Communications Acquisitions in 2021
Author: Dave Michels
Looks at: UC industry acquisitions
Insight recap: Continuing his tradition of recapping important acquisitions of the year, Michels lists ten significant deals in enterprise communications announced in 2022 and what they will mean for each company.
4. 9 Business and Technology Trends From the Trenches of 2021
Author: Scott Murphy
Looks at: UC industry trends
Insight recap: Sharing insight from his past year of technology consulting, Murphy outlines several key industry trends that emerged from working with various companies. Trends he observed included: work from anywhere, hybrid cloud, consolidation, an increased appetite for change, the expansion of Microsoft Teams, and more.
5. Evaluating Your Network Security for 2022
Author: Terry Slattery
Looks at: Network security
Insight recap: At this point, everyone and every organization is a target for cybersecurity attacks — from large enterprises to small school systems. Slattery outlines six foundational cybersecurity practices necessary to prevent the most common causes of network compromise. He explains why these practices are relevant and may help your organization prepare for 2022.
6. The Show Must Go On: A Project Team Migrates Through Supply Chain Issues
Author: Melissa Swartz
Looks at: Device shortage
Insight recap: With the abrupt shift to remote work in 2020, many enterprises tried to equip their at-home employees with the best headsets, webcams, and other devices, only to be met with device shortages due to increased demand. As equipment shortages resolved, the chip shortage reared its head. Swartz describes a project she’s working on where 10,000 users to are migrating to a new cloud voice solution and how she worked around device sourcing obstacles.
7. 2021: The Year Voice Innovation Expanded
Author: Jon Arnold
Looks at: Voice communications
Insight recap: For a long time, the only workplace voice channel came the way of the PBX. Now, with recent developments in voice technology from 2021 and earlier, voice has pushed into new areas, not only providing a means of communication but creating new forms of value for businesses. Arnold provides a few examples of how new voice technologies have expanded the communications pie and summarizes why these innovations have improved collaboration.
8. 2021 Was the Year the Feds Got Serious About Cybersecurity
Author: Martha Buyer
Looks at: Cybersecurity
Insight recap: This year, we saw several legislative moves from the U.S. geared at addressing current and future cybersecurity issues. Buyer gives us a breakdown of some of the key legislation and explains how this might impact and what enterprises need to know about them.
9. Apple Makes 5G Work on iPhones: What You Need to Know
Author: Michael Finneran
Looks at: 5G/mobile experience
Insight recap: This year, many iPhone users got a gift in their Christmas stocking, with Apple announcing that iOS 15 will intelligently switch to 5G when Wi-Fi connectivity is poor, Finneran shared in his article. Finneran fleshes out what this announcement means for enterprise iPhone users and what it tells us about the future of 5G.
10. No Jitter Roll: Hybrid Work and AI Shape the Year
Author: Lisa Schmeiser
Looks at: 2021 No Jitter Roll trends
Insight recap: In 2021, the No Jitter Roll covered over 200 news stories, and a few patterns emerged to provide a bigger picture of the year in communication and collaboration technologies. In this recap of communications and collaboration news, Schmeiser outlines No Jitter Roll items relating to hybrid work, AI for collaboration and contact center operations, and Microsoft Teams.
We hope that you enjoyed this end-of-the-year content. Now, onward and upward to 2022!
