First, I hate the term “soft” skills. I prefer we call them essential or non-technical skills or even essential non-technical skills, as that would be more accurate and not have implications about difficulty. I firmly believe these skills are crucial even in normal times. As the year wears on and there’s no end in sight for a remote workforce, I want to take a few moments to recognize the importance of these non-technical skills in this environment.

Conferences, while a lot of work, are such a fun outlet to connect with other people in the IT community. It’s an opportunity to learn about new technologies, trends, and gain new perspectives around the industry. Some of my favorite memories of past conferences stem from the exhibit hall passport games and morning coffee breaks, mingling with other attendees whose paths you may not typically cross. Those were the days!

Since the launch of ITIL 4, incorporating DevOps into service management strategy has been a hot topic. On the surface, both DevOps and ITIL are frameworks that can help facilitate successful operations surrounding IT services. But that doesn’t mean that IT pros need to choose one or the other. Like most great marriages, it’s how these two methodologies complement each other that makes them an ideal pair when it comes to ITSM.

APM tools have been formerly and primarily siloed in the application development arena, with only the most important and mission-critical applications having their APM instrumentation extended into production use due to complexity and cost. In the modern world of application monitoring, the requirements for Dev and Ops need to be tightly integrated.

The Federal Cloud Computing Strategy (FCCS) makes it clear government agencies have significant responsibilities for protecting cloud-hosted data. The FCCS states the need for agencies to develop their own governance models and create service level agreements to ensure they’ll have continuous access to log data and prompt notification from their cloud service provider if there’s a breach.

Application performance management (APM) involves managing the availability and efficiency of software applications by obtaining and translating IT metrics into business outcomes. Because application performance hiccups are inevitable, it’s crucial to have a robust APM solution in place so IT teams can resolve problems faster and more efficiently, lessening the impact on users and the bottom line. One factor muddling application performance optimization is the speed of change.

Think about your last online order. If you’re a frequent online shopper and have created profiles for sites you visit often (*raises hand*), then you’re probably familiar with customized recommendations. Based on your purchase history, location, and other factors, the website may suggest other items you might be interested in buying. And if you’re on the site long enough, chatbots may appear asking if you have questions or need assistance locating something.

The year 2020 has been a rollercoaster. With nearly every aspect of our daily lives flipped on its head, it’s hard to think of a single thing that went as planned or any of us were prepared for. That is, until it comes to our IT teams. The success of organizations during the reality of an unprecedented global pandemic is due in large part to IT pros’ preparedness and ability to adapt and manage through substantial change.