As we approach 2021 hopeful that things will change for the better in the coming months, it’s worth taking a look back on what we’ve covered and what’s changed this year.
The year started off with LastPass and other security-focused things on the GG blog; password security will continue to be extremely important and perhaps become even more so going forward, as we develop more and more systems to enable remote working and other remote services such as banking, shopping and socialising, to help us in our day-to-day life.
As some people are working on their own devices or outside of the relative security of an intranet in some cases, it’s essential that credentials are stored securely. For both business and personal users, we would recommend a password manager like LastPass. It enables your passwords and other credentials to be stored and shared – securely – across any devices and platforms necessary.
Professional services such as Microsoft Teams, Trello, Slack, GoToMeeting, Google Workspace and other similar platforms have seen by far the biggest increase in demand since COVID-19 restrictions surfaced.
Video and Voice chat services like Zoom, Skype, Google Meet are also at the top of that list, and not only for business and professional users, but also in educational settings and for individual users. At the beginning of the year, it’s likely that not many members of the general public would know what you were talking about if you had mentioned Zoom – but it’s now become almost a verb for many of us. People talk about “Zooming” as they would previously have talked about calling, texting or messaging. It’s entered our vocabulary in much the same way as “Skyping,” or “Facetiming” – both of which are also synonymous with video calling.
Since we started covering these services back when lockdown began, there have been changes and upgrades to these kinds of services – some of which we’ll be covering in the new year. There have been additions, especially to the Teams platform, that make some tasks easier, or allow you to do things within the app that you previously could not.
It’s great that (for the most part, at least) technology has endured and even in some cases developed further under pressure. Our infrastructure has coped surprisingly well in some cases – despite a few blips at the start for Teams and similar platforms. It’s quite difficult to imagine what this pandemic might have looked like if we didn’t have these tools to help.
At Geek-Guru, we’re still committed to providing our clients with top-notch services. To that end, like many others, we’ve had to adjust how we work too. We’re determined to help our clients meet their changing demands as workplaces and educational organisations adapt to a new normal.
If you’re interested to see what we had to say about these services along with all the other topics we have covered this year on our blog, be sure to check out our blog archives. They’re on the right side if you’re on a desktop or laptop and in the blog menu if you’re on a mobile device. They’re a useful source of information!
