SpiceWorld 2021: Steve Wozniak On Evolving Developer Roles, Data Transparency & More

Apple co-founder Steve WozniakOpens a new window spotlighted the evolving role of developers and why they play a critical role in architectural design in his keynote address at SpiceWorld Virtual 2021 Opens a new window tech conference. Check out the key highlights from Day 2, including insights from Wozniak in conversation with Richard Jalichandra, EVP and GM, SWZD.

On Day 2 of SpiceWorld Virtual 2021, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak highlighted the importance of elegant simplicity and suggested that developers shouldn’t lose sight of it while building apps.

Wozniak explained, “Elegant simplicity means that a product looks good to the eye. Even smaller things like getting the corners right, really does look kind of attractive. So attractiveness and simplicity is important. As I said before, form follows function is a key to architectural design. So developers should be somewhat the architects as well. If a developer spreads out and knows building components and the architecture, you can wind up with a great product without having to hire a whole ton of skill sets.”

In a conversation with Richard JalichandraOpens a new window , EVP and global general manager, Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD), Wozniak rued that not many companies have the luxury to go back and think about it that way. “Maybe they need a department of simplification and thinkers or disruption thinkers,” he added.

Wozniak also talked about the lack of transparency in handling user data and pressed upon the importance of data regulation. “I do not like the fact that a lot of modern tech companies have a lack of transparency regarding their rules on what is mine and what is yours. What can be done and what can happen if something does go wrong and you get hacked. Due to lack of transparency one can’t see what is going on inside the companies. I would really hope for a change there, I wish we had some kind of regulation here,” he added.

Wozniak’s keynote was watched by over 6,000 IT professionals, informed Jalichandra during the session.

Most sessions on the second dayOpens a new window of the SpiceWorld Virtual 2021 revolved around IT security, communication and infrastructure modernization. Emerging technologies such as Edge Computing and 5G were also covered during the day. 

During his keynote, Wozniak also commented on the important role of AI and IoT and warned about their risks. Dubbing IoT as “very attractive,” he pointed out that it’s more practical to have a locally-built solution and work locally even if the cloud solution doesn’t. However, he also cautioned about their security risks.

“Everything you do is being recorded somewhere because it’s going out through the cloud, so it’s not really totally secure and private to yourself,” he added.

He also indicated that AI is still a work in progress. In many of its current implementations, relying on them completely is not practical and risky.

In addition to the tech sessions, SWZD also released the highly awaited State of IT Report 2022. For an in-depth look into the report with analysis by Peter TsaiOpens a new window , head of technology insights, SWZD click hereOpens a new window .

“Going into 2022, there’s a lot of great news for everybody including IT pros and tech marketers. Businesses are optimistic — 61% of companies represented said they think their revenues are going to increase. Additionally IT budgets are expected to grow in most companies YoY. We see the shift to remote work as a huge catalyst for change and a driving force that’s going to influence the state of it going forward. Additionally, spending on emerging technology is going to be strong next year,” said Tsai. 

However, Tsai noted that everything is not going to be rosy. “We’re still dealing with a lot of challenges especially in the supply chain. There’s a chip shortage going on, price increases for various reasons, certain products are hard to get hold of. So, about 40% of respondents said that they’re going to expect those problems in the next year.”

Check out four key sessions from Day 2 of SpiceWorld Virtual 2021:

See More: SpiceWorld Virtual 2021 – 4 Key Highlights from Day 1 

 Is Your IT Team Ready To Support Hybrid Work?

Supporting remote work has been a big challenge for IT teams. Now they face another complex task of supporting workers in a hybrid work environment. According to a Future Forum studyOpens a new window , 63% of knowledge workers prefer a hybrid work model.

Marie RuzzoOpens a new window , director, product marketing, LogMeIn held a session on “Is Your IT Help Desk Ready to Support Hybrid Work?” She delved into the challenges faced by IT teams and how they can address those.

Ruzzo believes, where you work is not as crucial as how you work, as that is far more complex.

LogMeIn carried out a survey and asked IT decision-makers about their primary challenges for IT support. They found that the complexity of technology sprawl and all of the work associated with onboarding new employees make it hard for IT to deliver great experiences. 

Ruzzo pointed out that for workspaces, the IT helpdesk is responsible for providing a standardized hardware setup within the office walls and when they are working remotely. This makes it even more challenging to troubleshoot issues on non-corporate devices and home networks.

IT teams also have to ensure that employees have the connectivity to get work done and access information over VPN or secure networks. This increases complexity for IT as in the face of the growing attacks; they have to ensure that access to applications and data remains secure across home networks and corporate or personal devices.

Ruzzo suggested a four-pronged approach that IT teams can take to support a hybrid work model: secure everything, connect quickly, collaborate, and automate tasks.

You can find more about the four-pronged approach here.Opens a new window

How To Implement A Truly Effective Security Awareness Program

Humans are considered the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain. However, this can be addressed with security awareness training.

John TrestOpens a new window , chief learning officer at Inspired eLearning, in his session on “The Vital Components of an Effective Security Awareness Program” explored ways in which organizations can motivate employees to pay more attention to security awareness programs.  

Trest points out that a common pain point for any training program is the retention of the training content by workers. “Studies show that information learned is quickly lost over time. You can lose approximately 50% of what you’re taught in a course within three weeks, and 90% in two months, and studies suggest that these numbers can be even worse than that,” he adds. 

So how does a trainer counter this? 

“What you should not do is take a one and done approach to your training, such as a single annual course on security awareness. Retention takes regular reinforcement. Studies show that steady reinforcement of the material will counter this forgetting curve. This is commonly referred to as a Spacing Effect. And studies show that remembering the material becomes easier to do over time with repeat sessions,” he adds. 

Another problem with awareness programs is a lack of motivation. 

Trest believes, quality of the training content matters. Mandatory and compliance-based training can get routine. PowerPoint presentations with a lot of text and little to no voice-over or multimedia will not cut the ice anymore. 

“It’s important that they see imagery and scenarios that are relevant to their day to day experience. Mixing engaging and immersive content such as gamification, new technologies such as virtual reality can help. Use creative experiences such as tabletop exercises or role playing a data breach in your organization, so that people get familiar with the causes of a breach, and the actions they should follow in such an incident,” added Trest. 

Trest feels, besides internal motivation, rewards or recognition are also good drivers for users to buy into the training. 

To learn more about making security training programs more effective click hereOpens a new window .

Enabling Work From Anywhere

During an insightful sessionOpens a new window on ‘Modernizing IT Management to Enable Work From Anywhere,’ Peter Bretton, Director of Product Marketing at NinjaRMM, spoke about adapting to remote and hybrid work models and the technology to support such a work environment.

Bretton observed that about 66% of U.S. workers are looking for jobs with a hybrid work model post-pandemic, and about 58% are willing to search for a new job if the working conditions are not flexible. “Just as telecommuting sounds antiquated to many of us, work from home is becoming less relevant too. Thus, people want to operate or access data from anywhere,” he said.

The main barrier to the adoption of a ‘work from anywhere’ culture is the widespread use of slow SaaS-based IT management applications. While productivity infrastructure tools that impact end-users are already cloud-based, tools like patch management, endpoint management, and identity management are mostly available on-premises.

Businesses are still using on-premise domain controllers, self-hosted patching tools, appliance-based backup solutions, network-centric server monitoring tools, or network-specific security tools that form the core of  IT management. SaaS-based solutions exist and allow remote working even for IT teams.

In order to enable teams to work remotely, centralize IT operations, enhance productivity among technicians and end-users, and reduce costs, businesses need to implement a suite of cloud-based tools. “There are already tons of solutions out there that allow you to replace solutions you have on-premise one by one with SaaS based solutions,” he added.

Leveraging IoT for Better Business Growth

In a sessionOpens a new window on ‘IoT Solutions: Unlock Your Business Growth, Simply’, T-Mobile’s senior sales IoT manager Jimmy Huff highlighted the complexities businesses face as they look to design and implement an IoT solution. He also talked about the industries that are hugely benefitting by adopting smart IoT solutions.

Huff, while sharing insights on IoT, explained two leading indicators driving the path for IoT adoption. “A successful IoT deployment brings a lot of cost reduction that operationally improves process efficiency, energy consumption, and regulatory compliance. The second indicator is business growth. Businesses providing IoT solutions are spotting new revenue opportunities and product enhancement.”

However, a raft of challenges hamstring IoT implementation and lead to sub-optimal business outcomes. These include undefined business objectives, complex technology challenges, and a lack of organizational resources. “IoT is not just a technology but a strategic business initiative. The technology implementation is not complicated but putting it all together is not a simple task,” he added.

Would you like to know more insights from industry leaders at SpiceWorld Virtual 2021? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you.