The majority of IT leaders in the US and UK don’t believe their company’s infrastructure is fit for the future, according to a survey by IBM. 

The company’s ‘The State of IT Transformation’ study found that 60% of CIOs and CTOs in America and the UK felt their company’s modernisation programme wasn’t ready yet. 

The survey questioned 380 IT decision-makers, with almost a quarter (24%) admitting that their company had only just started its migration programmes. 

CIOs and CTOs around the world have been under significant pressure to maintain or modernise their IT systems amid the coronavirus outbreak. Cloud migrations have been at the forefront of most business plans throughout the pandemic and this has ramped up demand for skilled professionals and greater security controls. 

60% of respondents suggested they expected this increased demand for cloud infrastructure to be permanent, and nearly all (95%) said they were looking for public, hybrid or private cloud strategies. Most of those also said they were doing so ‘aggressively’, according to IBM. 

However, the study highlighted a stark difference in attitude between IT leaders in the US and the UK. Approximately 56% of American respondents said they were ‘aggressively’ moving their IT infrastructure to hybrid cloud models, while British respondents appeared to be less active in the market, with only 38% describing their approach as ‘aggressive’. 

There were also contrasting answers when it came to changes brought about by COVID-19. Around 56% of US CIOs and CTOs said their infrastructures were ‘completely prepared’ for the challenges of lockdowns and remote working, but only 23% of those based in the UK could say the same.

A shortage of skilled workers seems to be a large part of the issue, with 40% of the respondents revealing that they didn’t feel their teams had the right skillsets to meet their company’s IT ambitions. As a result, more than 75% said they will be relying more on trusted partners to provide managed infrastructure services.

Around 67% of CIOs and CTOs also cited a need for increased ‘infrastructure flexibility’ in the digital transformation plans. This was followed by the need for a competitive advantage (61%), meeting client demands (45%) and general cost savings (58%). 

Adobe has officially killed off Flash Player, the browser plugin that helped define the early internet.

The iconic plug-in was discontinued on 1 January, almost 25 years after it was first launched. Adobe will not be rolling out any further security updates and the company is set to block all Flash content from 12 January.

Despite the sunset date being scheduled for 2020, the majority of browsers had already jumped ship. As of 2018, less than 5% of worldwide websites used Flash, with most favouring Javascript for running multimedia features. Other, more secure alternatives also included HTML5, WebAssembly and WebGL.

The decision to sunset the plug-in was first announced in July 2017 due to dwindling demand, as browser makers opted to integrate the software’s capabilities within their own offerings.

Flash was also plagued by various security concerns. In 2015, for example, security firm Recorded Future discovered that Flash Player comprised eight out of 10 top vulnerabilities leveraged by exploit kits, with more than 100 exploit kits and vulnerabilities affecting the technology. There were also reports of Flash being exploited by North Korean hackers, who used it to access Microsoft Office documents, web pages, and spam emails.

Nevertheless, Flash Player managed to write itself into internet history. The software’s unprecedented capabilities shaped the way users interact with multimedia content offered by an array of industries, such as gaming, education, and video.

The final nail in the coffin for Flash came in October 2020, when Microsoft rolled out an optional update for Windows 10 that permanently removed Adobe Flash from the operating system and prevented it from being re-installed. The company released the removal tool prior to 1 January 2021 in order to help customers test and validate their environments for any impact that might occur by the removal of the software.

Starting later in 2021, all APIs, group policies and user interfaces that govern the behaviour of Adobe Flash Player are expected to be removed from the legacy Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11.