It’s been a crazy week. I know the curse is “May you live in interesting times,” but I’m more than ready for things to be less interesting for a while. It’s going to take some time to adjust to things. From a networking perspective, I have a few things that have sprung up.

• Video conferencing is now a big thing. Strangely, Cisco couldn’t make video the new phone. But when people are stuck at home now we need to do video again? I get that people have a need to see each other face-to-face. But having worked from home for almost seven years at this point I can tell you video isn’t a necessity. It’s a nice option, but you can get a lot accomplished with video calls and regular emails.
• Along side this is the fact that the push to put more video out there is causing applications to reach their breaking points. Zoom, which is fairing the best out of all of them so far, had some issues on Thursday morning. Tripling the amount of traffic that’s going out and making it very sensitive to delay and jitter is going expose a lot of flaws in the system.
• I applaud all of the companies in the last week that have chosen to step out and offer resources to help people work better from home. I also hope that employees and managers use them after this is over to help enable more remote work. Just remember that flexibility has a cost axis as well. Those VPNs and security services and CASBs aren’t going to be free forever. If it makes sense, use it. Otherwise, find something that does.
• Remember that this is a stressful time for everyone. I work from home all the time. And this week I have been totally exhausted. Try to find a way to keep your sanity. Step outside for air. Take a short break. Look for ways to keep yourself healthy. It’s going to take time for people to adjust to this. It’s going to take time even if you know how to work remotely too.

Tom’s Take

I’m not sure where this is all headed. We’re all still figuring it out. Things won’t look the same six months from now no matter what. But keep working where you can and improving what you do. The value in this shift comes from empowering us to do what we can. If that means cutting back on Netflix during working hours or spending some extra time learning a new skill make it happen and grow as much as you can. We’re going to need that.