The pace of change in the world is accelerating and, as the world becomes more digital, IT professionals know that cyberthreats are evolving even faster. Everyone needs to protect their organizations and clients from the financial and reputational damage that cyberattacks cause, while maintaining employee productivity, revenue growth, and client satisfaction. With that backdrop in mind, let’s consider these 10 predictions for 2020.

There were several developments in the world of cybersecurity and data protection during the past 12 months that will have long-term effects on efforts to safeguard data, applications, and systems. As 2019 comes to a close, we’re taking a look back at a few highlights to see how quickly things are changing.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) goes into effect later this Wednesday, January 1, 2020, and if you have any customers that reside in California, you need to take steps now to protect the privacy of any sensitive information you collect on them. Fail to do so, and your business faces potential fines as well as embarrassing and costly consumer lawsuits. The good news is that if you’ve already stepped up your data privacy game for GDPR, you’re already on the path to achieving CCPA compliance, although some terminology and requirements differ.

One of the highlights of Gartner’s recent Infrastructure and Operations Conference 2019 was the opening keynote. If I had to sum up what Gartner’s three expert presenters covered in three words they would be: “Innovate or die.” Frankly, this is no big shock. Gartner (as well as IDC and Forrester) have been preaching about digital transformation for years – decades even. However, it is the accelerating pace of change that had everyone at IOCS 2019 really beating this “war drum” even louder and harder.