A Look Back at the Most Popular Content of 2016
December 26, 2016
4 minute read
This April, we launched the BetterCloud Monitor to shine a spotlight on IT professionals and provide the tools they need to play a more strategic role in the SaaS-Powered Workplace.
Since then, we’ve produced lots of content: dozens of longform IT articles, two Cloud IT Live events, original research with fascinating data, and hundreds of Academy videos with tips and tricks to help you work better.
Here’s a look back at our most popular longform content pieces from 2016. These are the best of the best–the ones that resonated the most with you. We hope you enjoy.
This popular article from contributor Gavin Whatrup (a former CIO, Director at ME8 Consulting, and 30-year IT veteran) struck a chord with many of you. HR and IT are partners in waiting, but they need a little marriage guidance. If there isn’t a close partnership, the potential costs can be perilous.
For our Trends in Cloud IT series this year, we surveyed 1,535 people (949 IT professionals) from around the world. In the first part of the series, we shared data around the acceleration of SaaS application adoption, the increasing SaaS management challenge for IT professionals, patterns of SaaS adoption by application category, and much more.
In the second part of our Trends in Cloud IT series, we discovered a fascinating divide within IT.
We found that IT executives often struggle to see many of the critical issues their departments face, whereas non-executive IT staff tend to see a more challenging side of IT (e.g., the control and visiblity of SaaS applications, user lifecycle management, staffing, and budget).
2016 was a watershed year for BetterCloud: We made the most significant announcement in BetterCloud history.
We underwent a two-year, ground-up reconstruction to build a platform that’s purpose-built for IT management in the age of the SaaS-Powered Workplace. And this year, we introduced the first-ever multi-SaaS management platform.
Multi-SaaS management is a centralized way to manage, operationalize, and automate SaaS administration across applications. Earlier this month, we unveiled our new multi-SaaS management platform and integrations with our technology partners: G Suite, Slack, Dropbox, and Zendesk–with more to come in early 2017. Learn more about it here.
If everything is top priority, then nothing is top priority. Between being responsible for critical infrastructures, slogging through tickets, and putting out fires, how can you find more time for important projects with long-term value? How can you manage your workflow more productively?
Use this strategy to prioritize and organize your tasks, plus find time for long-term strategic projects.
Relaying complex IT issues to people with different roles and personalities at your organization can create a number of unique challenges.
For this popular three-part series, we consulted multiple IT experts to compile some helpful tips, strategies, and best practices on how to communicate more effectively with non-IT people in all tiers in an organization.
Check out Part One – Getting Started, Part Two – Senior Leadership and Executives, and Part Three – Best Practices.
In July, we released a new 451 Research report: The Impact of Cloud Applications on the Role of IT. The report, which we commissioned, is an exploration of the benefits and growing challenges IT professionals face because of cloud application adoption. The data in the report was collected from 269 organizations across a wide range of verticals.
Our Modern Workplace Innovator video series highlights IT professionals who have used technology to drive real transformation in the workplace. We select people who crave continuous improvement, rethink business processes, and craft innovative, creative solutions that scale.
And boy, does Brandon Williams fit the bill.
Williams is the Director of Google Operations for the State of Colorado. He used G Suite to redefine emergency communications and recovery efforts during the catastrophic flooding in Colorado in 2013. His unique approach to shadow IT has also helped his team of 3 securely support 30,000 employees. Check out the video to learn how he did it.
Phishing attacks continue to rise. So how can you prepare? As the saying goes, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
Yes, we’re recommending that you deploy a phishing campaign against your own employees.
While details and the level of sophistication may vary across organizations, the steps of the process should remain the same. Here’s how we did it.
Deprovisioning is often time-consuming and tedious, and it’s all too easy to overlook a critical step here or there. Miss a step, and you might find yourself staring down the barrel of data loss, business interruption, and/or security vulnerabilities.
This G Suite deprovisioning checklist contains best practices to help mitigate risk, avoid critical errors, and ensure a smooth, hiccup-free transition.
In our 2-day Cloud IT Live online event, we featured 10 sessions from leading cloud IT experts from around the world. Our sessions included topics like “Choosing the Best Cloud App for Your Business,” “IT Renaissance: The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Creating a Digital Workplace,” “How to Establish Realistic Standards & Policies and Calculate Cost Avoidance,” “How the Cloud Can Transform the Way IT Works in SMBs,” and more.
Here you will find nearly 10 hours of training material. Enjoy!
