Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Rise of the Video App
By Dr. Cahit Jay Akin, CEO and co-founder of Mushroom Networks
The coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on society, socially, politically, and professionally. Unfortunately, this pandemic is proving very difficult to manage, with over 45 million cases worldwide and well over one million deaths, while in the United States the case count is nearing 10 million with over 250,000 deaths with no end in sight. As a result, 2021 will be another painful year, as the world struggles to stamp out this plague. Coronavirus has transformed many aspects of our lives, and the impact on the workforce has been dramatic. Many businesses have shut down while many others have been forced to adopt new strategies to allow work to continue while keeping people physically distanced. Technology (as always) continues to adapt to this new reality, and video applications in particular have proven to be absolutely critical for business continuity.
In 2021, I believe that video applications will see significant growth as companies leverage this technology to enable a wide variety of use cases. This growth is also a natural response to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic which has forced businesses all over the world to seek out solutions to help them be more productive while significant portions of the workforce are now working from home. Teleconferencing, live webcasting and video streaming, and live video feeds from remote locations all contribute significantly to virtually all businesses, from the very largest to the very smallest.
Web video teleconferencing or virtual meeting applications have really taken off over the last year and will continue to expand their reach in 2021. Many of these are now fully integrated into simple-to-use apps, appropriate for any business with a remote workforce. There are a handful of major players in this space, including Google Meet, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Skype for Business, and WebEx, BlueJeans, Slack and join.me.
Video apps are quickly becoming routine tools for many businesses. While teleconferencing and video meetings have been taken place for quite a few years, there are many aspects of day-to-day business that are now becoming virtual. Client and/or customer services can be done very effectively remotely and some HR functions such as interviewing, onboarding, and training are increasingly virtual. Most businesses will continue to expand their use of video applications, but there are two industries that deserve special mention – healthcare and education.
While I expect high growth for video applications in general in 2021, the healthcare industry figures to be one of the industries with the greatest potential to really expand the use cases for video applications and have a positive impact on society as well. Live videoconferencing (synchronous) between a patient and a care provider, store-and-forward (asynchronous) videoconferencing to share pre-recorded health histories and/or evaluations, remote patient video monitoring, and video apps supporting mobile clinics will become critically important over the next year, as the coronavirus continues to transform the healthcare field.
And perhaps no other field has been impacted as dramatically as the education industry. Remote learning used to mean taking an online class or two, but in the age of Covid-19, all school-aged children and their parents are now dealing with a new reality, and the industry is struggling to keep up. Distance learning requires interactive, live video teleconferencing between the teacher and the class, and with many schools worldwide being completely closed or limiting on-campus personnel and students, video apps are a critical component. And if anyone has observed a Zoom on-line classroom session, with 20 or more students and a frazzled teacher (and parents) struggling with the technology and the common freezes, crashes, and high latencies, it’s clear that the ideal video application for remote learning still needs a lot of work. And with such a critical need, IT and technology vendors should make significant advancements during 2021.
In 2021, video applications should continue to gain significant traction, as enterprises large and small leverage this technology in new and exciting ways.
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About the Author
Dr. Cahit Jay Akin is the CEO and co-founder of Mushroom Networks, https://www.mushroomnetworks.com, a long-time supplier of SD-WAN infrastructure for enterprises and service providers. Prior to Mushroom Networks, Dr. Akin spent many years as a successful venture capitalist. Dr. Akin received his Ph.D. and M.S.E. degree in Electrical Engineering and M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Bilkent University, Turkey. Dr. Akin has worked on technical and research aspects of communications for over 20 years including authoring several patents and many publications. Dr. Akin was a nominee for the Most Admired CEO award by San Diego Business Journal.
