No, we've not changed direction and started to write about fashion. Instead, we thought we'd start the year by talking about the trends we expect to see in the year ahead. This is not quite your traditional January 'predictions' article!

We see three trends being immediately applicable to our customers:

1: Cloud – Your Way

We see very few technology investments going in without reference to the cloud. Some people have a cloud first strategy, others are buying what they consider to be their last on premises infrastructure purchase. Still others are unclouding (the latest industry buzzword) and rebuilding what they had in the cloud on premise, mostly for cost reasons. We recognise that the situation is different for every organisation and we are committed to making sure we help you to find the right way forward – sign up for an envision workshop for more help. We can advise on private, public, hybrid, multi-cloud, I can't believe it's not cloud, crunchy nut cloud, diet cloud... 

Other articles in this series:

• Don't buy cloud - be cloud
• Cloud economic value: Where is it? 
• Optimising for the cloud
• 8 Things We Learned At Cloud Your Way
• Digital operations management: The paradigm shift

2: Mobilising Your People

At Softcat we're massively focused on our people, making sure that their working environment is the best it can be. Technology is a part of that, making sure that we deliver the right applications to the right person at the right time; enabling the flexibility to work from home, client sites and other remote locations as appropriate. We think that getting this right can have a really galvanising effect on your business; it's not just about making things better for your employees but also about serving your customers better.

Other articles in this series:

• 5 reasons not to be afraid of video conferencing
• Safe and secure cloud access with Hybrid Active Directory
• Getting Ready for the Big ISDN Switch Off
• Three steps to building a future-proof WAN

3: Security in a Distributed World

In the olden days, we could just build a big (fire!)wall around our network and only let in those we wanted in. Nowadays, with BYOD, IoT and a host of other valuable but potentially dangerous acronyms, our firewalls have to have more holes in them than Blackburn, Lancashire in the Beatles song. That means we have to take a different approach here and think about security differently. We've got a powerful approach to security involving obfuscation and segmentation which can help resolve the tension between lockdown and access.

Other articles in this series:

• The state of sovereignty: Write data, wrong location
• Print Security: How to protect your organisation
• Cyber security - The elephant in the room?
• 30 years of encryption with Alice, Bob, and Eve
• Why pragmatism is the missing component in your security strategy

Find out more

We'll be delving into these areas in more depth this year, sharing how organisations can address them and how they might be relevant to your organisation over the coming year. In the meantime, if you'd like to discuss one or more of these topics with our technology strategists, please give your Softcat account manager a shout or get in touch by filling out the form below.